There has been plenty of good news for the beef industry in 2015, and the news keeps on coming. In October, the USDA estimate for the amount of beef produced in the year was adjusted up to 245 million pounds. However, that’s not the only good news that came out of this recent WASDE report.
It is also estimated that beef production will continue to rise as we head into 2016. In fact, there should be an almost 5% increase in the amount of beef produced next year when compared to the already higher estimates for 2015.
On the other hand, prices of beef are down slightly. In 2016, current predictions estimate that the fed cattle prices could average anywhere from $2-13/cwt lower than what they are right now. The report also took a look at imports and exports and compared them to last year. As recently as this August imports were up almost 28% compared to last year, while exports were down by more than 23%.
Another piece of good news is that demand has been consistently up for beef in the U.S. for 19 months in a row. The most recent numbers show that demand increased again in August by .4%. It will be interesting to see whether or not this number continues to rise throughout the end of the year and into 2016.
This is just a small snapshot of the past few months of the beef industry and a look ahead at what 2016 could be like. We’ll be sure to bring you more news about the industry in the coming months.
