Drought makes cattle slaughter data a regional planning task

France’s 2026 drought is forcing the beef chain to distinguish between two issues that are often conflated: pressure on farms and the immediate availability of animals for slaughter. INTERBEV reports that high temperatures and low rainfall curtailed grass growth, brought forward the use of forage reserves and required supplementary feeding for animals still at pasture. That is a genuine operating burden, but it does not in itself prove that cattle outflows have already risen uniformly.