U.S. RED MEAT EXPORTS ADD VALUE TO U.S. CORN AND SOYBEAN INDUSTRIES

Exports of U.S. beef and pork play a crucial role in the economics of corn and soybean production, according to a new report.

The independent study, conducted by Dave Juday of The Juday Group and released by the U.S. Meat Export Federation, found pork and beef exports add 14.6% or $.87 per bushel to the value of corn and 13.9% or $1.95 per bushel to the value of soybeans.

Dave Juday says beef and pork exports account for more than 500 million bushels of U.S. corn usage.  “And if you take the calendar year average price in 2023 of $5.95, that’s about $3.05 billion of foreign purchases,” he says.  Exports also accounted for 3.07 million tons of DDGS usage with a value of $671.62 million.  Juday says pork exports accounted for nearly 97 million bushels of U.S. soybean usage. “That would be 1.36 billion in value to soybean production,” he says.

Juday says the study quantifies the returns that beef and pork exports brought to corn and soybean producers nationally and on a state-by-state level for top corn and soybean-producing states.

According to the USDA, more than 70% of the soybeans grown in the U.S. and nearly 40% of U.S. corn production are used for animal feed.