News

Beef, cheese in cold storage at record highs

The USDA says there are record high amounts of beef and cheese in cold storage.

At the end of January, beef supplies were reported at 537.542 million pounds, up 1% on the year, with high slaughter rates cancelling out generally good demand.

Pork stocks backed off from the record high set last year, down 16% at 526.669 million pounds. That includes a 77% drop in pork bellies, to a new record monthly low of 14.014 million.

Poultry supplies were slightly lower than last year at 1.119 billion pounds with chicken down 6% to 774.921 million and turkey up 17% at 339.340 million pounds.

Cheese stocks were up 5%, hitting a new all-time monthly high at 1.233 billion pounds on high production levels and slow export demand. American type cheese was 6% higher, Swiss was down 1%, and other types were up 5%.

Butter in cold storage jumped 34% to 233.069 million pounds, also on high production levels and slow export demand.

The next set of cold storage numbers is out March 22nd.