Little Movement in the Cutout

Oct 15, 2026

By David Anderson

While cattle prices have declined sharply in a break that began in July, there has been little action in the boxed beef cutout. The cutout value represents the value of the seven primal beef cuts in the proper proportion of the carcass. It is often thought of as a good, representative wholesale value of the beef carcass.

The Choice cutout declined from $397 per cwt the week before the July 4^th holiday to $363 per cwt by the first week of August. Declining cutout values in the weeks following Independence Day are the normal seasonal price pattern. Cutout values tend to increase leading up to Labor Day, and they did this year, climbing back to a weekly average of $388 by late August. The Choice cutout has since remained in a range between $374 and $379. While the cutout remains at historically high levels, it has been below last year’s Labor Day surge. So, comparing to last year’s price levels is a bit misleading in that last September’s $413 per cwt price peak was a record high, except for two weeks in May 2020 when COVID shut packing plants.

Among the primal cut values that make up the cutout, the primal rib is the only one climbing in value and hitting new highs for the year. The Choice primal rib value hit $667 for the week of October 2^nd. The rib normally increases seasonally up to the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Most of the rest of the primal cuts, round, brisket, plate, and flank, have been declining in value as they often do seasonally. The decline in the primal flank value has been especially striking, down 27 percent compared to a year ago and 36 percent lower than its peak in June.

Where to From Here?

The Choice beef cutout tends to decline slightly in the Fall. Beef production normally increases and changing consumer purchases often result in lower prices. This Fall, continued tight beef supplies should keep the overall cutout value historically high even if we do see some seasonal declines. Given the normal seasonal pattern, it is difficult to see sharply higher cutout values boosting cattle prices.

Click here to see more...

Video: We Let Dad Drive a 50,000 Pound Dump Truck

There's old hog barns under that field now. The old hog barn site on the farm has been sitting there for decades, and this is the week it finally came out: concrete pad, burn pile, charred lumber, all of it loaded into a CAT 725C rock truck and buried in a pit we dug back in the timber.

Tork's been waiting his whole life to drive one of these, so he gets the keys to a 50,000 pound rock truck and I ride shotgun. The excavator loads, the dozer clears the timber, the drone shows the whole site from above, and by sundown there's nothing left of the old place but a smooth patch of dirt. It's a weird feeling erasing something that was here before either of us, but the farm has to keep moving.