Ag Speak: By Kristin Murdock  Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) have released their mid-year cattle industry projections and their forecast for the growth of the Australian beef herd has been moderated downward. The reason being higher slaughter estimates now bite into the ability for the herd to increase. In 2023 the herd is expected to reach 28.7 million head, a revision down of 0.4 per cent from the January 2023 projections. MLA have also revised the 2024 and 2025 herd projections downward by 1.3 per cent and 1.2 per cent, respectively. In 2024 the herd is expected to hit 28.9 million head and reach toward 29.2 million head in 2025. Underpinning the slower herd growth over the next few years has been upward revisions to annual cattle slaughter volumes. In 2023 MLA now project slaughter to hit 6.95 million head, an increase of 4.9 per cent on the January 2023 […]