Daily Livestock Report for 5/11/20: Weekly production and wholesale/retail price situation

Supply rationing at the grocery store level is the topic of the day in news reports across the country, but the situation varies greatly species by species and even subprimal by subprimal. There is no question that output is down across the board. But the biggest declines have come in the beef complex, which helps explain some of the record prices currently getting paid for product. Last week beef production was estimated at 367.7 million pounds. Resumption of production at some previously closed plants helped increase production by about 21 million pounds compared to the previous week, but supplies were still 165 million pounds or 31% lower than the previous year.