I have no figures to back me up but from our experience and what I hear from our countryside friends prices have been so low (I can vouch for that although the prices in the shop don't reflect this) landowners are giving up rearing cattle and going into cereal production instead. One easy way of doing it is to rent the land to a cereal grower who does all the work for you. You get paid on the average price of the soya, corn or whatever based over the week the rent is due. A lot less stressful given they take most of the risk.
Last years drought did cause problems with poor natural grass growth so more hay had to be bought in to supplement their feed. Of course now the rains have come all is hunky-dory on that front but all a bit too late for some.
Other downsides of cattle farming exist as well. We lost one of our cattle a few weeks ago when it was butchered in the field so no profit to be made on that one.
Rather more worryingly is that intensive cattle farming is on the increase - I see that being more of a threat to the quality of the product than anything else. I suspect tighter profit margins has forced this change of direction.