Full spareribs off the belly side, plus St. Louis style and back ribs. Roughly 5 to 7 percent of carcass weight. Demand peaks in summer with the BBQ pull. Live USDA AMS prices for every spareribs sub-primal, updated every business day.
Source: USDA AMS National Daily Boxed Pork Cutout, Negotiated Sales (LM_PK602). Click any row for the full chart, multi-year history, and seasonal context.
About the pork spareribs
The sparerib primal comes off the belly side of the carcass and carries something in the range of 5 to 7 percent of carcass weight. Three formats dominate: full spareribs (IMPS 416), St. Louis style spareribs (a trimmed format with the brisket bone removed), and back ribs (IMPS 422), which technically come off the loin primal but trade and report alongside spareribs in buyer practice. Light sparerib weights (3-down basis) trade differently than heavy sparerib weights (5-up basis) because the end-use ratios differ between bone-in retail and trimmed foodservice programs.
Sparerib demand has a clear summer peak driven by BBQ and grilling, and the price spread between full spareribs and St. Louis style varies with the labor cost of trimming. Back ribs run on their own demand cycle, with retail rib feature programs concentrated around the May-July window and a smaller fall pull around football season.
Sparerib lines print daily in the USDA AMS National Daily Pork Carcass Cutout report (LM_PK602), with the various weight-band and format variants breaking out separately. Volume on the sparerib lines runs thinner than belly or butt because of the format fragmentation.
Frequently asked
What is the most valuable cut from the pork spareribs?
St Louis Spareribs, Poly, Frozen is the highest-priced spareribs sub-primal at $2.84/lb as of 2026-10-13, from the USDA AMS National Daily Boxed Pork Cutout report (LM_PK602).
What's driving pork spareribs prices today?
Average $2.12/lb across 8 sub-primals Composite is down 1.3% week over week and running 7.9% above its usual level for this time of year.
Are pork spareribs prices reported by grade?
No. Unlike beef, USDA does not publish a Choice/Select grade split for pork. Each spareribs sub-primal reports as a single weighted-average daily print on the USDA AMS National Daily Pork Carcass Cutout report (LM_PK602), with weight-band variants where buyers care about portion size.