USDA’s annual slaughter summary report was released yesterday afternoon, providing finalized data for meat production in 2025. In addition to the regular monthly reports, the annual provides insight on where meat production is concentrated as well as the number of plants operating as of January 1, 2026.
Red meat production was down 2% from 2024 to 53.8 billion pounds. Beef production came in at 26.1 billion pounds, down 4% from 2024, while pork production was up 1% to 27.6 billion pounds. The numbers were little changed from the preliminary end of year estimates released in late January that showed 53.74 billion pounds of red meat production for 2025.
The report showed 49.4% of commercial U.S. red meat production was focused in four states: Iowa (16.6%), Nebraska (14.4%) , Kansas (10.4%), and Texas (8.0%).
The total number of federally inspected plants increased from 1,089 on January 1, 2025 to 1,127 on January 1, 2026. There was a slight decrease in non-federally inspected plants from 1,827 to 1,796. In total, the number of plants increased by 7 to 2,923 in the U.S. Notably, Texas lead states with the most new plants under federal inspections, adding 9 operations for 78 total in the state.
