Reply #2: The 2% is just *dairy* cows, which are about 1/10th of the US cattle

[muriel_volestrangler]

The US cattle herd continues to decline, with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reporting a 1.2 million head fall for the year to 1 July 2010, at 100.8 million head. This is the smallest July US cattle inventory since records commenced in 1973
...
Contrary to the beef herd, the US dairy herd looks likely to stabilize over the coming year, with heifers for dairy cow replacement jumping 3%, to 4.05 million head. Dairy cow herd numbers declined 1% for the past year, to 9.1 million head, as liquidation continued toward the end of 2009. Dairy cow slaughter though has eased so far this year (January to June), with volumes down 5% on the same time last year, to 1.4 million head.

http://www.meattradenewsdaily.co.uk/news/030810/usa___c...

That 9.1 million number may be cows only, so the number for the dairy herd in total (ie including breeding males, or short-lived males) may be a bit more. But it certainly shows that the dairy herd is a minority of the US cattle herd. The 2% is the amount of GHGs for the milk drinkers, not the meat eaters.