The United States im­­ported more than 3 billion pounds of beef products in 2016. While that might sound like a lot, livestock market analyst Steve Meyer says it was offset by the amount of beef that the United States exported last year.

"Keep in mind that U.S. consumers bought, in one form or another, 25.8 billion pounds of beef last year. Imports were 11.7 percent of the beef consumed in the U.S. in 2016," Meyer wrote in the Daily Livestock Report last week.

U.S. beef exports last year were 2.55 billion pounds, he said.

Even more telling, he said, is the value of the products exported versus those imported.

"U.S....