Total red meat production for the United States totaled 50.5 billion pounds in 2016, 4 percent higher than the previous year. Red meat includes beef, veal, pork, and lamb and mutton. Red meat production in commercial plants totaled 50.4 billion pounds. On-farm slaughter totaled 93.2 million pounds.

Beef production totaled 25.3 billion pounds, up 6 percent from the previous year. Veal production totaled 81.0 million pounds, down 8 percent from last year. Pork production, at 25.0 billion pounds, was 2 percent above the previous year. Lamb and mutton production totaled 155.4 million pounds, down slightly from 2015.

Commercial cattle slaughter during 2016 totaled 30.6 million head, up 6 percent from 2015, with federal inspection comprising 98.5 percent of the total. The average live weight was 1,363 pounds, up 3 pounds from a year ago.

Steers comprised 54.8 percent of the total federally inspected cattle slaughter, heifers 25.6 percent, dairy cows 9.6 percent, other cows 8.4 percent, and bulls 1.6 percent.

Commercial calf slaughter totaled 487,700 head, 8 percent higher than a year ago with 98.4 percent under federal inspection. The average live weight was 266 pounds, down 44 pounds from a year earlier.

Commercial hog slaughter totaled 118.2 million head, 2 percent higher than 2015 with 99.3 percent of the hogs slaughtered under federal inspection. The average live weight was down 1 pound from last year, at 282 pounds. Barrows and gilts comprised 97.3 percent of the total federally inspected hog slaughter.

Commercial sheep and lamb slaughter, at 2.24 million head, was up 1 percent from the previous year with 89.8 percent by federal inspection. The average live weight was down 2 pounds from 2015 at 134 pounds. Lambs and yearlings comprised 94.6 percent of the total federally inspected sheep slaughter.

There were 814 plants slaughtering under federal inspection on January 1, 2017 compared with 808 last year. Of these, 650 plants slaughtered at least one head of cattle during 2016 with the 13 largest plants slaughtering 58 percent of the total cattle killed. Hogs were slaughtered at 621 plants, with the 13 largest plants accounting for 60 percent of the total. For calves, 3 of the 200 plants accounted for 46 percent of the total and 3 of the 531 plants that slaughtered sheep or lambs in 2016 comprised 54 percent of the total head.

Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Texas accounted for 49 percent of the United States commercial red meat production in 2016, unchanged from 2015.