Cattle slaughter 1 million head short in six weeks

America’s beef packers are slowly improving weekly harvest rates after the COVID-19 pandemic disruption to the supply chain. Last week USDA reported estimated slaughter at 499,000 head, which was about 14% higher than two weeks ago. Expectations are for harvest to total about 530,000 this week. Still, last week’s slaughter was 25% lower than the same week a year ago, and slaughter since the second week of April has totaled 2.875 million head, or 1 million head lower (-27%) than the same period a year ago. Read more at Drovers…