Meat market read, Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Ground beef 73% at 365¢/lb is the loudest line on the board, up 30¢/lb on the day and 43¢/lb on the month, with history pointing to another 17¢/lb from here. That's not a soft print anywhere in the trim complex. Chemical lean 50% has gained 15¢/lb over the past month and the seasonal forward adds another 14¢/lb, so the fat-end grind pipeline is being priced like protein is scarce. It is: cow kill has been running short, and frozen buffer has been drawn below recent norms. Middle meats are going the other direction entirely. Short loin off 108¢/lb today, lip-on ribeye down 53¢/lb. Trimmed tenderloin lost 77¢/lb on the week. Loads on the beef side ran thin, which means the cutout softness in middles isn't finding a bid to catch it. The tariff relief chatter circulating through the headlines this morning adds a wrinkle for EU-origin buyers specifically: if US import quotas loosen, domestic trim prices may find a ceiling, but rounds would be the first primal to see relief as export-sensitive supply rotates inward. WASDE prints Friday and any revision to domestic beef availability could be the first number that tests whether the trim squeeze has legs beyond the near-term calendar.

meatread.com