The recent World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates Report shows livestock production and milk production are expected to increase in 2017.
Red meat is up 3.3 percent, and poultry is up 2.5 percent.
The increase of beef is due to better grazing from recent rains, although cattle prices are dwindling. With such a large 2016 calf crop, feedlots are expected to have higher placements than recent years. USDA expects cattle ranchers will turn in more than 25.8 billion pounds of beef in 2017.
Dairy products are expected to increase over 1.5 percent due to 2017’s leap day. It’s expected that global demand for America’s dairy products is to grow in 2017 due to domestic and foreign prices being similar.
Higher litter rates are anticipated to drive up hog populations in the U.S. to nearly 26 billion pounds. Pork exports are also expected to rise almost 2 percent above this year’s numbers.