The Choice boxed beef price dropped to $200.47 per hundredweight on July 17, the lowest Choice boxed beef price since December 2017. Both supply and demand factors are at work pushing wholesale beef prices lower.

No segment of the cattle industry has been spared from the uncertainty and turmoil driven by COVID-19. However, the dynamics for the slaughter cow market have been a little different than those for the live cattle coming from feedlots that have garnered the most discussion due to plant disruptions.

In first-quarter 2020, beef production reached record levels on the largest number of cattle slaughtered for the quarter since 2002 and the heaviest dressed weights since 2016.

Economic growth projections for the U.S. and the world have been revised downward due to the impacts of COVID-19, with many global growth projections having contractions of nearly 3%.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) ordered the country’s four largest meat-packing companies to provide information as part of an ongoing probe of possible antitrust violations, according to a report from Bloomberg.

Barring a major setback, it appears that beef markets are moving past the worst of the disruptions that have caused upheaval is recent weeks.

The spread of COVID-19 has caused shifts in the beef demand structure; coupled with global economic uncertainty, it is affecting the entire beef supply chain.

A large area of low-level drought is building in the West from western Kansas to northern California and the Pacific Northwest. Some of the worst drought areas are in Colorado and surrounding regions and in Oregon.

COVID-19 began impacting workers at beef packing plants in early April. In the last five weeks, cattle slaughter decreased by an average of 27%. This compares to the previous five weeks in March, when cattle slaughter averaged 5.5% higher than year-ago levels.

President Donald Trump announced on May 6 he is urging the Department of Justice to probe further into packing companies and concerns about prices paid for beef and pork during the novel coronavirus outbreak.