HARRISONBURG -- Leaders with the Virginia Department of Agriculture said Virginia has 8-percent more cattle than it did last year.
Jim Koogler, a local cattle farmer, said due to the drought in the west, many of those cattle are moving east to places like Virginia that had a good crop to use for feed.
He said what that means for grocery store customers.
"Well it looks like the meat prices should be higher than they are right now," said Koogler, "But the packers are showing a lot of resistance to paying for these fat cattle."
Nationally, all cattle and calves as of January 1st are down 2 percent. That is the lowest report on January 1st since 1952.
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