U.S. Meat Sector Recovery Faces ‘Headwinds’ in Q4

The COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the U.S. meat industry, disrupting processing capacity and causing rippling market effects from which it’s still slowly responding. Though processing capacity is operating near 2019 levels, carcass weights for beef cattle, for example, are still running well higher than the previous year, a sign there’s still a holdup affecting the supply/demand table for some products. There’s growing angst about the return to some of COVID’s challenges if case numbers continue to climb; while major disruptions aren’t as likely as earlier in the year, livestock market-watchers say they’re not ruling it out as the industry continues to bounce back from the COVID black swan. See more of the latest data.