Wichita ? Faced with prolonged drought and low prices, Kansas livestock producers have reduced the numbers of cattle and sheep they are keeping down on the farm.

In its annual livestock inventory, Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service reported that the 6.6 million head of all cattle and calves on Kansas farms and ranches on Jan. 1 was down 1 percent from a year ago.

The beef cow inventory was estimated at 1.48 million, down 3 percent from last year. Milk cows, at 95,000 head, were down 1 percent from a year ago.

Don Hineman, a cow-calf operator in Dighton and past president of the Kansas Livestock Assn., attributed much of the downturn to the cyclical ebb and flow of the cattle market. When prices are low, producers liquidate cattle and send more to slaughter than usual, he said Monday.

But the drought in the western United States has been another factor in the falling cattle numbers.

“If we don’t get rain this spring, there will be a lot of cows for sale as farmers liquidate part of their herd,” he said.

One of the numbers Hineman especially looks at in the annual cattle report is the beef replacement heifers, which gives him a good indication of whether producers are rebuilding their herds.

In Kansas, beef replacement heifers, at 230,000 head, were down 2 percent from the previous year. And milk replacement heifers, at 40,000 head, were down 43 percent from last year, KASS reported.

“People expected by now we would be rebuilding herds, but we haven’t yet and again it is due to low market prices and drought conditions in the western half of the country,” he said.

Nationwide, the number of all cattle and calves totaled 96.7 million head, down 1 percent from last year. Both beef and milk cows were down 1 percent.

Kansas had 35,000 cattle farms 29,000 beef and 1,200 milk cow farms last year.

“I would like to expand my numbers, but I am going to have to find more grass to rent to be able to do that,” Hineman said. “I think it is a good time to expand numbers. I think we are going to have profitable times ahead of us in the next few years.”

The sheep and lamb inventory totaled 100,000 head, down 9 percent from last year.