Total red meat supplies in US refrigerated warehouses on Oct. 31 were up 1% from the previous month but down 1% from last year, said the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service in the monthly Cold Storage report Friday.
Total pounds of beef in freezers were down 1% from the previous month and down 10% from last year.
Frozen pork supplies were up 3% from the previous month and up 8% from last year.
Stocks of pork bellies were up 13% from last month and up 72% from last year.
Total frozen poultry supplies on Oct. 31 were down 7% from the previous month and down 3% from a year ago.
Total stocks of chicken were up 4% from the previous month and up 1% from last year.
Total pounds of turkey in freezers were down 25% from last month and down 11% from Oct. 31.
BEEF STOCKS DECLINE
The amount of beef in the nation’s freezers at the end of October came to 466.219 million pounds, down 2.762 million, or 0.59%, from 468.981 million a month earlier and down 49.355 million, or 9.57%, from 515.574 million a year earlier.
Of that total, there were 429.941 million pounds of boneless beef in cold storage on Oct. 31, down 4.250 million, or 0.98%, from 434.191 million at the end of September and down 38.483 million, or 8.22%, from 468.424 million at the end of October 2018.
NASS listed the volume of beef cuts on ice at 36.278 million pounds, up 1.488 million, or 4.28%, from 34.790 million a month earlier but down 10.872 million, or 23.1%, from 47.150 million a year earlier.
PORK INVENTORY RISES
The total amount of pork reported in US freezers on Oct. 31 came to 614.508 million pounds, up 15.758 million, or 2.63%, from 598.750 million a month earlier and up 43.591 million, or 7.64%, from 570.917 million a year earlier.
The volume of the heavily watched pork bellies on ice came to 45.920 million pounds, up 5.377 million, or 13.3%, from 40.543 million in September and up 19.230 million, or 72.05%, from 26.690 million in October 2018.
NASS pegged the total volume of hams in cold storage at 173.760 million pounds, down 27.498 million, or 13.7%, from 201.258 million a month earlier and down 2.349 million, or 1.33%, from 176.109 million a year earlier.
The total volume of pork loins in US freezers Oct. 31 was 41.986 million pounds, up 2.291 million, or 5.77%, from 39.695 million on Sep. 30, and up 7.770 million, or 22.7%, from 34.216 million on Oct. 31, 2018.
CHICKEN STOCKS RISE
Frozen chicken supplies came to 953.265 million pounds, up 38.909 million, or 4.26%, from 914.356 million a month earlier and up 12.969 million, or 1.38%, from 940.296 million a year earlier.
Of that, frozen whole birds amounted to 23.398 million pounds, up 134,000, or 0.58%, from 23.264 million a month earlier and up 6.325 million, or 37.0%, from 17.073 million a year earlier.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
Cash cattle trading last week took place at $115 to $117 per cwt, steady to up $1 from the previous week, and at $180 to $184 on a dressed basis, down $2 to up $1.50.
The USDA choice cutout Friday was down $2.29 per cwt at $232.57, while select was off $2.54 at $211.32. The choice/select spread widened to $21.25 from $21.00 with 76 loads of fabricated product sold into the spot market.
The CME Feeder Cattle index for the seven days ended Thursday was $145.48 per cwt, down $0.38 from the previous day. This compares with Friday’s Nov contract settlement of $139.27, down $3.32.