Source:  Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 5/2/11

Livestock analysts voiced grave concerns about a note USDA issued last week advising it is currently unable to provide weekly livestock slaughter data.

A USDA statement advised that “the slaughter data for this report (Actual Slaughter under Federal Inspection) is currently unavailable, and it is not known when the issue will be resolved. This report will be released again after the data is available. We apologize for the inconvenience,” according the CME Group’s Daily Livestock Report.

“It is one of the most critical pieces of information that allows trade to properly assess meat supplies and prices for livestock and meat prices,” wrote DLR publishers Steve Meyer and Len Steiner.
Meyer went on to say the lapse in statistics may be linked to a new computer system installation at USDA.

Derrell Peel, Oklahoma Sate University’s extension livestock marketing specialist, also voiced concerns about the missing data.

“First, the weekly flow of estimated values, followed by actual slaughter values, represents the only near real-time information on meat production relative to currently observed market prices for cattle and beef,” Peel explained in his weekly Cow/Calf Corner newsletter. “Secondly, slaughter data are direct data, and as such, are among the more reliable data available to the industry.”

Meyer and Steiner urged meat industry participants to speak up about the need for this information to be quickly reinstated.

“The trade also needs to let USDA know that these are critically important data that cannot be sacrificed,” they wrote. “We urge you to contact FSIS and the Secretary of Agriculture and voice your concern about this issue. It is simply too important to just hope that it will fix itself.”

A USDA spokesman was not immediately able to respond to a request for more information about why the data has been suspended or when it might return.

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