The July WASDE upped the projections for red meat production and trimmed the broiler forecast by 85 million pounds. 

The beef forecast is up on heavier weights. To benchmark, the average slaughter weight last week at 1,383 pounds was up 39 pounds per head compared to a year ago. Much of that is due to lower cow slaughter – both dairy and beef cows – and a higher percent of the slaughter coming from fed steers and heifers. WPI has commented on this previously.   Slaughter last week was 50.9 percent steers, 30.8 percent heifers, and 16.5 percent cows. For the same week last year, cows were 20.1 percent of total slaughter. Based on slaughter of 633,000, last year’s cow slaughter would have been about 127,20...