Livestock Marketing Information Center
In The Cattle Markets
Updated: 8/5/2024
Cull Cows & Beef Production
According to the USDA July Livestock Slaughter report, cattle slaughter totaled 2.4 million head in June. This is a 12% decrease year-over-year and a 7% decrease since last month. Total cattle slaughter for the first 6 months of 2024 is 4% below the total for the first 6 months of 2023. Beef cow slaughter for the first half of the year is 15% lower than 2023 and has declined by almost 20% since January. As a result of a decrease in cow slaughter due to limited cattle supplies, beef production is consequently expected to decrease in 2024 and by even more in 2025.
Livestock Monitor
Updated: 8/2/2024
FROZEN MEAT INVENTORIES AT MID-YEAR
Mid-year frozen meat inventories are not burdensome as the second half of the year gets underway. The only exception to this is hen turkeys—the bird usually associated with Thanksgiving and Christmas events since it is smaller than tom turkeys that usually go into further processed meats. Hen turkey inventories on June 30 were up +16% from a year earlier. The frozen hen turkey inventory on June 30 was 101 million pounds, the largest June 30 inventory since 2020. The structure of the whole-bird turkey market is evolving dramatically as the average June 30 inventory of frozen turkey from 2016 to 2020 was 137 million pounds with a peak of 161 million pounds in 2017.
CHICKEN MARKET UPDATE
Young chicken production during the first half of 2024 was unchanged from a year ago; winter quarter output was down one percent and spring quarter output was up one percent. Consumer demand for chicken was generally a positive surprise, highlighted by sustained interest in wings at wholesale prices that were more than double the values of the depressed market of a year ago. Leg parts pricing was higher than a year ago by +10%-20%, even though chicken exports were down about -10% from the first half of 2023 (June data is not available yet). Breast product demand this spring has been much better than the disappointment of a year ago. Wholesale breast meat price increases have been restrained, considering the reduced inventories in cold storage but were still +30% higher than a year ago during the spring quarter.
DAIRY FARMERS HESITATING ON HERD EXPANSION
USDA-National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) made quarterly revisions to milk production estimates recently, revising the trend in the milk cow herd from slight increases from February to May to slight declines from March through June. Milk production in the April-June quarter was down one percent from a year earlier.
Livestock Monitor pdf