News

Record red meat, pork production in December

The USDA says pork and red meat production hit record monthly levels during December 2019. Pork totaled 2.443 billion pounds, a jump of 9% from December 2018, with the slaughter also 9% higher at 11.394 million head and the average live weight gaining two pounds to 288 pounds. Beef came out at 2.265 billion pounds, up 7% on the year, with a 7% increase in the slaughter to 2.751 million head and five-pound gain for the average live weight at 1,373 pounds. Red meat production was 4.727 billion pounds, 8% above the prior year, and unofficially, red meat production for 2019 was 54.535 billion pounds, 3% more than in 2018. The USDA’s official 2019 red meat production totals are out in April.

The USDA says December’s dairy cow slaughter was 265,400 head, an increase of 9.3 million head from November and 4.2 million from December 2018. The unofficial total for 2019 was 3.224 million head, 71,000 above the 2018 total.