U.S. Red Meat Production Fell in 2025

An extension economist with Texas A&M University says total U.S. meat production surged in December.

David Anderson says it was a sharp contrast to the rest of the year, which saw less beef and pork produced than in 2024.

“Well, it is pretty seasonal, particularly on the red meat side of beef and pork.”  He says, “Really, in the fall production tends to increase, and we’ve seen that this year.  Beef production in December was up about half a percent over a year ago. On the pork side, we were up almost 4%.”

He told Brownfield Ag News that he doesn’t expect this to continue.  “I expect beef production to be down again for the year.”  He says, “We were down a little over 3% for the year in terms of beef production. The pork side we were about even with a year ago. So, in 2026, I expect less beef production and about even on pork production.”

Anderson says the decline in red meat production was balanced out by increased poultry production.  He says 3.5 percent more broiler meat was produced in 2025 than in 2024, leading to an increase in total meat production of about 800 million pounds.

Editor’s Take:

As reported many times throughout 2025, livestock producers are doing very well compared to crop producers. A big reason for their success is the imbalance between supply and demand. This article helps to quantify that gap. The outlook for 2026 is mixed, but hopeful. It is much easier and takes much less time to increase pork or poultry production compared to beef. Unless the government pushes to allow beef from other countries to flow into the U.S. more freely, beef prices are likely to remain strong.

Targeting livestock and dairy producers in your area makes a lot of sense with the current situation in agriculture. They have, and will likely continue to have, very strong financial success in 2026. They are the most likely candidates to purchase those new trucks and AGwagons from your inventory.