A review by Len Steiner of the Steiner Consulting Group showed that USDA made some notable adjustments to its forecasts for 2018 beef production. Gone is the expected 10% jump in Q2 beef production that was presented in the April report. Now USDA is forecasting Q2 production to be up 5.4% compared to the previous year. Some of this reflects the slower pace of slaughter in April. Production growth in Q3 was revised from 4.3% to 2.9% while Q4 was revised down from 5.1% to 4.9%. For the year USDA now is forecasting beef production to be 27.278 billion pounds, some 424 million pounds less than the forecast presented a month ago. This volume represents a 3.9% increase from year ago levels. Only minor adjustments were made to import/export forecasts so the change in per capita consumption is largely driven by the downward revision in production forecasts. Currently USDA is forecasting 2018 per capita consumption on a retail basis to be 58.1 pounds per person, 1.5% less than in last month’s forecast but still 2.1% higher than a year ago. Beef production in 2019 is expected to increase a rather modest 1.8% compared to 2018 levels while per capita consumption next year is forecast at 58.8 pounds per person, up 1.2%. For more complete information go to http://www.dailylivestockreport.com.