The USDA says red meat and poultry in cold storage at the end of October were below year ago levels. That’s due to a combination of solid demand and generally tighter market ready supplies.

The red meat total of 948.361 million pounds was down 3% on the year, with beef at 477.063 million pounds, 5% lower, and pork at 439.622 million pounds, a decrease of 2%.

Poultry came out at 1.063 billion pounds, an 18% year to year drop, with chicken falling 17% to 756.297 million pounds, and turkey dropping 19% to 303.525 million pounds.

…