An ag economist says strong global demand will be critical to the profitability picture for US beef, pork, and poultry producers in the coming months.  In their latest supply and demand report, the USDA raised its production estimates for beef, pork, and poultry for 2020.

University of

Missouri ag economist Scott Brown says that creates even more price volatility for

those industries. “Here’s a situation where expected production is growing from

many folks, that’s a negative, a domestic economy that’s maybe struggling a

little more – that’s a negative,” he says. 

“You’ve got to have something on the other hand.  So the economist in me has some higher

exports as a reason to be optimistic.”

He tells Brownfield there is a lot of downside risk potential for producers later in the year as some of the animals that were held back because of processing slowdowns start to come to market. 

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