meat price spreads
Most ERS food price spreads are affected by changes in both food prices and the amount and kind of services that consumers buy with their foods. Food price spreads can increase even if food prices do not, if consumers shift their purchases from less to more processed foods.

Meat price spreads are different in that they are calculated using a set of fixed retail products. ERS's goal in calculating the retail meat values is to have a measure that reflects only price changes.

ERS starts with a standard animal in calculating beef and pork price spreads. This standard animal is cut up in a fixed way at the packing plant, and its wholesale cuts are in turn cut up in a standard way at the retail level. The total value of the animal at the farm could be compared with the total value of the animal at wholesale and retail.

However, ERS calculates its price spreads on a per-pound-of-retail product basis. It takes 2.40 pounds of the standard steer to produce a pound of retail beef and 1.14 pounds of wholesale beef to produce a pound of retail beef. For hogs, the conversion factors are 1.869 pounds of hog per pound of retail cuts and 1.04 pounds of wholesale cuts per pound of retail cuts. The gross-farm values in the price spread tables are the farm price of live animals multiplied by the farm-to-retail conversion factor, and the wholesale values are the average price of the animal's wholesale meat cuts times the wholesale-retail conversion factor.

In addition to their meat, cattle and hogs also produce a number of byproducts when they are slaughtered: organs, bones, hides/skins, etc. ERS does not calculate retail values for these parts, but the price-spread tables do include estimated byproduct values at the wholesale level. The wholesale values and retail values are directly comparable. The byproduct value is subtracted from the gross farm value to produce the net farm value. The net farm value is meant to measure the farm value of an animal's meat.

For more detail on how beef and pork price spreads are calculated and how price spread changes affect livestock prices, see Beef and Pork Values and Prices Spreads Explained.

The main difference between broiler spreads and those for beef and pork is that there is no farm price. The vast majority of broilers are produced under contracts, where the integrator (poultry slaughter company) usually supplies chicks and feed and pays growers a per-unit fee for the birds they produce.

Beef values and price spreads [html]  [Excel]
Pork values and price spreads [html]  [Excel]
Retail prices for beef, pork, and poultry cuts, eggs, and dairy products [html]  [Excel]

Historical monthly price spread data for beef, pork, broilers, turkeys, and eggs [Excel]

Data updated October 19, 2004; next update November 17, 2004.

for more information, contact: William F. Hahn
web administration: webadmin@ers.usda.gov
page updated: October 19, 2004