Meat Production Expected To Be Up Year-Over-Year

The USDA anticipates that, for the most part, U.S. Meat production and meat prices should remain up year-over-year.  Yet, World Agricultural Outlook Board Chair Seth Meyer noted changes from December, particularly in production.

"We did trim production from our earlier expectations for broilers. While we do have growth year-over-year in beef production, we trimmed that growth a little bit. We also think we've got lighter carcass weights coming in. On the hog side, we trimmed production a little bit. The hog and pig report suggested that we had lower farrowings and farrowing-intentions for the last quarter of 2018, and for quarters one and two for 2019, and trimming a little bit on pigs per litter."

There were report-to-report price adjustments for steer, broilers and turkey, based on demand.  Broiler prices are, however, still forecasted to be down under one cent per pound for 2019.​

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