Lean-Beef Quotas Make Ground-Beef Planning a Separate Procurement Task

USDA’s September report again portrays a U.S. beef market in which cattle scarcity, availability of lean material for grinding, and foreign trade need to be read together. The agency cut its 2026 beef-production forecast to 24.877 billion pounds, 90 million pounds below the previous month. The main reason is a slower-than-expected pace of fed-cattle and cow slaughter, together with adjustments to expected dressed weights.