Beef production over the last few weeks has been remarkably large. Weekly federally inspected beef production has exceeded the prior year’s level by at least three percent in every week since the beginning of April. Larger production has mostly been due to big year-over-year increases in weekly cattle slaughter—more specifically, in weekly steer slaughter. Figure 1 shows weekly steer slaughter for 2016 compared with the prior year and with the 2012-14 average.

Figure 1. Weekly Federally Inspected Steer Slaughter

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