Livestock and Meat International Trade Data

Nov 07, 2024

The Livestock and Meat International Trade Data product includes monthly and annual data for imports and exports of live cattle, hogs, sheep, goats, beef and veal, pork, lamb and mutton, chicken meat, turkey meat, eggs and egg products. This product does not include any Dairy Data. Using official trade statistics reported by the U.S. Census, this data product provides data aggregated by commodity and converted to the same units used in the USDA’s World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE). These units are carcass-weight-equivalent (CWE) pounds for meat products and dozen equivalents for eggs and egg products. Live animal numbers are not converted. With breakdowns by partner country and historical data back to 1989, these data can be used to analyze trends in livestock, meat and poultry shipments alongside domestic production data and WASDE estimates. Timely analysis and discussion can be found in the monthly Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook report.

The data are provided in two formats. Sixteen formatted Excel tables provide data grouped by commodity and broken down by partner country. The tables covering all meat and livestock trade contain only recent data, while commodity-specific tables include data back to 1989. In addition to the Excel tables, a ZIP file contains two comma separated values (CSV) files: one with export data and one with import data. These files include all of the same monthly data as the excel tables, as well as disaggregated, unconverted data. These files are machine readable, providing a convenient format for R users and other programmers.

The file “Year-to-date imports under the World Trade Organization” is a table covering beef imports from countries with whom the United States has tariff rate quota agreements. It provides the cumulative imports in metric tons and calculates the share of each country’s yearly quota which is filled. The data source for this table is the Commodity Status Report from U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Source : usda.gov

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.