The wholesale beef market enjoyed an extraordinary first quarter this year. The comprehensive boxed beef cutout (averaging wholesale prices for Choice, Select, Branded and other categories of beef) gained a little more than 18 percent between the first of the year and the end of March.

Recently, the USDA released the annual Cattle report — its estimate of the Jan. 1 inventory of various classes of cattle. The headline numbers in the report include a couple of rather striking points. First, the All Cattle and Calves inventory, at 87.7 million head, is the lowest since 1951. Second, the All Cows and Heifers that have calved inventory, at 38.3 million head, is the lowest since 1941.

Last week, the USDA Economic Research Service released its estimates of monthly average retail meat prices for November. According to this data, beef prices continue to edge higher. Both average choice and all-fresh retail beef prices rose by about 1 percent compared with October.