US '08 red meat production up 3 percent

Total red meat production for the US totalled 50.4 billion pounds in 2008, 3 percent higher than the previous year.

 

Red meat production in commercial plants totalled 50.2 billion pounds, while on-farm production totalled 137 million pounds.

 

Beef production totalled 26.7 billion pounds, up 1 percent from the previous year, while pork production totalled 23.4 billion pounds, up 6 percent from the previous year.

 

Commercial cattle slaughter during 2008 totalled 34.4 million head, up slightly from 2007, with federal inspection comprising 98.4 percent of the total.

 

The average live weight was 1,282 pounds, up 9 pounds from a year ago, and steers comprised 50.1 percent of the total federally inspected cattle slaughter, heifers 29.9 percent, dairy cows 7.7 percent, other cows 10.6 percent, and bulls 1.8 percent.

 

Commercial calf slaughter totalled 956,600 head, 26 percent higher than a year ago with 98.5 percent under federal inspection, and the average live weight was 257 pounds, down 48 pounds from a year earlier.

 

Commercial hog slaughter totalled 116.5 million head, 7 percent higher than 2007 with 99.1 percent of the hogs slaughtered under federal inspection, and the average live weight was down 1 pound from last year, at 268 pounds.

 

Barrows and gilts comprised 96.6 percent of the total federally inspected hog slaughter.

 

There were 818 plants slaughtering under federal inspection on January 1, 2009 as compared to 807 last year.

 

 

Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Texas accounted for 50 percent of the US commercial red meat production in 2008, similar to 2007.