UGA Meat Judging Top Honors and COVID Impact on Pork Processing
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update.
**The UGA Meat Judging Team garnered a team championship and several individual awards at the National Western Stock Show in Denver last month.
The UGA team was named the Reserve Grand Champion Division A team and took top honors in the Lamb Judging, Beef Judging, and Questions categories.
The UGA Meat Judging Team gives students hands-on experience evaluating carcasses and cuts of beef, pork and lamb for yield, quality AND establishing value.
www.newswire.caes.uga.edu/story/8852/meat-dawgs.html
**Pork prices increased because of demand, higher input costs and labor shortages throughout the supply chain, not concentration in the meatpacking industry, according to a new report from Iowa State University, North Carolina State University and the National Pork Producers Council.
The report also says pork prices in the U.S. are still lower than in many other countries.
NPPC President Jen Sorenson says, this report shows the concentration level in the pork packing industry is not significantly higher than it was 15 years ago.
**USDA’s Economic Research Service says the impact of COVID-19 on processing rates was short-lived in the largest pork-producing region.
Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska process more than 40% of all U.S. hogs.
In the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic, March-May 2020, the region experienced a 40% decline in hog slaughter compared with rates during the same period in 2019.
