News
Pork in cold storage near all-time monthly high
The USDA says the amount of pork in cold storage at the end of January was nearly a monthly record. The domestic supply was 625.188 million pounds, up 11% on the year and just short of the all-time high set in January 2016. Pork production has been at or near record levels for more than a year because of the available market ready numbers and demand, especially export demand, hasn’t kept pace with the speed of production. Beef stocks were 489.136 million pounds, down 4% from the year before. The red meat total was 1.158 billion pounds and up 3% on the year.
A record amount of chicken in cold storage at the end of January pushed the poultry total to a monthly high. Chicken was reported at 957.492 million pounds, up 12% on the year, with demand not meeting production, replacing the previous monthly record set in 2006. The chicken total included monthly highs for breasts & breast meat, drumsticks, and thigh meat. Turkey stocks came out 301.782 million pounds, a drop of 23%. The total for poultry was 1.262 billion pounds, slightly more than the previous record set in January 2018.
The USDA’s official 2019 cold storage totals are out on the 28th.
Isn’t the motto of the big ag groups that support CAFOs “we need to feed the world”. If that is actually true then why is there 625 million lbs of pork in cold storage not being consumed. Why is there 957. 5 million lbs of poultry not being consumed? Seems to me there is way to much supply for the demand which by the way drove the market so low that you see almost zero family owned pork producers in Missouri. With JBS, Cargill, Smithfield, Pipestone, ect controlling most of the livestock production. Also controlling the market as meat packers then it’s a matter of time before the independent cattle farmers won’t have a market to sell their stock to at a fair price.