Market Insights and Resources to Help Producers Celebrate National Beef Month

By Taylor Cox

To be competitive in today’s marketplace, U.S. cattle producers and everyone in the supply chain need reliable data to make informed decisions. USDA provides in-depth market data through the Livestock Mandatory Reporting (LMR) program, which delivers critical market intelligence on price trends, as well as supply and demand conditions.

To mark National Beef Month this May, USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is introducing new resources to help producers understand and get the most benefit from the wealth of LMR data available.

AMS will host three webinars on LMR as part of the ongoing industry outreach conducted by the USDA Cattle and Carcass Training Centers. In this series – June 8 through June 10 – AMS, Colorado State University and several beef industry professionals will introduce LMR reports, explain key components and explore how to use them to facilitate marketing decisions and mitigate risk. For details and to register, visit the USDA Cattle and Carcass Training Centers.

AMS also has developed a short video about the LMR program and how market reporters collect data for LMR cattle reports, and published an LMR Cattle Price Report User’s Guide (PDF, 516 KB) to explain how to use the LMR cattle reports. A second user’s guide, this one for LMR boxed beef reports (PDF, 276 KB) will be available soon. Also coming soon is a new USDA Grading Dashboard, which will provide current and historical quality grade and volume information for beef, lamb and veal. The visual and interactive format of the dashboard will be a valuable tool for making business, marketing and production decisions.

These resources help support the industry’s understanding of the marketplace and the roles that producers, feeders, processors and USDA play in bringing high quality American beef to market.