Charting the Seasonal Market for Meat Animals

Excerpts from the report Preface: Part of the variability in prices farmers receive for meat animals is a seasonal fluctuation that repeats itself with much regularity year after year. Seasonal movements in prices grow out of a natural seasonal pattern in births, grazing, and marketing. To the producer who must ever plan production today for sale in the future, knowledge of normal seasonal price trends can be a helpful guide to management. This Handbook describes the most common seasonal patterns in production, marketing, and prices for both meat animals and meat. They are discussed in a way to be understandable and useful to producers, marketers, and consumers. The last section, especially, considers how to apply information on seasonality. This Handbook adds to the general outlook information on meat animals made available by the Extension Service of the various States and by the United States Department of Agriculture.