Red meat and pork production set new records in December, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in its report released last week.

Commercial red meat production, including veal, pork, beef and lamb, for the United States totaled 4.40 billion pounds in December, up 3 percent from the 4.27 billion pounds produced in December 2015, according to the USDA report released last week.

Beef production, at 2.17 billion pounds, was 6 percent above the previous year. Cattle slaughter totaled 2.61 million head, up 7 percent from December 2015. The average live weight was down 7 pounds from the previous year, at ...