Developments emerge in cattle industry

While lower slaughter numbers are not surprising, there are some interesting things happening in the cattle industry.

Will Secor, Extension ag economist with the University of Georgia, says two things are emerging.

“First, the distribution of the cattle being processed is shifting. And second, beef production is a bit higher than last year despite this smaller slaughter figure,” he says in his “In the Cattle Market” column. “Through March 8, the USDA estimated that 5.75 million head of cattle were slaughtered. This is about 3% below the same time frame last year.”

In the column from the Livestock Marketing Information Center, Secor says steers have increased the share of slaughter to around 49.5% of total slaughter (an increase of about 2 percentage points compared to 2024). He says steer slaughter is roughly the same as a year ago, coming in at 2.28 million head.

Additionally, cow slaughter share has dropped by around 2% to 17.6% of total cattle slaughtered.