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June pork production hits record monthly high
Commercial pork production during June was a record monthly high. That followed a couple of months of dramatically lower production as several major plants either closed or reduced hours to fight COVID-19 infections.
The USDA says pork production during June 2020 was 2.400 billion pounds, up 14% from June 2019 with a 12% jump in the slaughter to 11.177 million head and a three pound gain in the average live weight at 288 pounds.
Commercial beef production was 2.374 billion pounds, 7% above the year before with a 2% increase in the slaughter to 2.876 million head and a 52 pound gain in the average live weight at 1,365 pounds.
Iowa had the overall lead in red meat production for the month at 762.6 million pounds, 66.4 million ahead of second place Nebraska.
The dairy cow slaughter was 227,000 head, down 6,300 on the month and 4,200 head on the year. The year to date slaughter is 1.592 million head, 46,000 less than this time last year.
The monthly red meat production total of 4.792 billion pounds was 10% more than the previous year, with the year to date total now at 26.824 billion pounds, slightly ahead of last year’s record pace.
