The cow cutout dropped $12 yesterday. The biggest product from cows, ninety percernt trimmings, dropped $23. According to Ed Czerwien, USDA Market News, this indicates they are having problems moving ground beef items and may have had to dump some products. This might point towards longer term issues.

The Cow Cutout down 12 dollars and those Ninety percent trimmings which are the largest product from the cows down 23 dollars yesterday afternoon after several weeks of showing weakness. I checked with the reporter that puts out the Cow Cutout report just to double check and make sure there was no mistake. He said he was shocked also and rechecked the data which is why it was a little late getting the report out. The reason that this is so important is that it points to the lack of sales demand for ground beef at current prices compared to last year when the cow meat skyrocketed. It actually helped pull the Choice cutout higher last summer because some of the round and chuck products from finished cattle are ground for the hamburger trade. We will have to watch to see how this impacts the total beef complex.