U.S. Beef Packing Industry Structure

U.S. Beef Packing Industry Structure

Author: The Cattle Business Weekly newspaper May 13, 2026 Duration: 2:51
In 2025, total cattle slaughter was 29.252 million head, down 6.4 percent year over year and down 13.1 percent from the recent cyclical peak in 2022. Cattle slaughter in 2025 was at the lowest level since 2015. Table 1 shows the breakdown of 2025 cattle slaughter by size categories of beef packing plants. This includes both fed and cow slaughter plants. Out of a total of 937 federally inspected packing plants, 94.8 percent (888 plants with capacit...

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Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 61

The Cattle Business Weekly
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