Farmers and ranchers are on track to break records for meat production this year, according to a new report. As Harvest Public Media’s Luke Runyon explains, that could translate to lower prices.
A glut of meat could eventually drop prices at the grocery store. But according to the agricultural lender COBank, consumers will have to wait while the markets balance out and some global issues are resolved.
Most of the record meat production this year is coming from the pork and poultry industries. A bird flu outbreak in the Midwest cut off some foreign trade, keeping chicken supplies overstocked here in the U.S.
In the pork market, farmers are making a comeback after a viral outbreak, which has killed millions of pigs nationwide for the past two years. They’re primed to flood the market with pork.