The USDA says commercial red meat production during May 2021 was 4.296 billion pounds. That’s an increase of 14% from the COVID-19 impacted production total for May 2020 but is down from the May 2019 total of 4.57 billion pounds.
Beef production was 2.211 billion pounds, a jump of 19%, with an 18% gain in the slaughter to 2.699 million head cancelling out a seven-pound loss in the average live weight at 1,360 pounds.
