USDA released its June 2024 Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook that shows the 2024 beef production forecast is virtually unchanged. Heavier cattle weights are expected to partially offset tight cattle supplies. The 2025 beef production forecast is raised with expectations of continued high cattle weights and a shift in marketings from late 2024 into early 2025.
Minor changes to cattle price projections from last month’s forecast reflect changes in recent price data. The beef trade forecasts are unchanged from last month. Milk production forecasts for 2024 and 2025 remain unchanged from the last projection at 227.3 and 229.3 billion pounds, respectively. The all-milk price for 2024 is projected at $21.60 per hundredweight.
Second-quarter pork production was adjusted upward by 40 million pounds to 6.73 billion pounds on expectations of higher average dressed weights and higher-than-expected ready-to-slaughter hogs from the December-February pig crop. Also, projected poultry broiler production in 2024 was increased.
