Meat market read, Thursday, June 11, 2026

Chuck short rib at 588¢/lb has added 26¢/lb on the session and 58¢/lb on the week, and the four-week seasonal projection adds another 35¢/lb from here with a floor that hasn't once gone negative in five years. That kind of consistency matters today because the NASS kill print dropping this afternoon is the event most likely to either validate or break the broad firmness that's been building across the box. If the kill confirms the year-over-year tightness already visible in recent data, short rib and the rib complex have the cleaner forward case. Top butt cc at 690¢/lb recovered 19¢/lb today but shed 80¢/lb on the week and seasonal history points 52¢/lb lower; that gap between the two primals tells you where the box is concentrating its energy. Rounds remain the quieter lane, with export softness keeping inside and outside rounds looser than the rest of the carcass, and pork's heavy loads this week aren't moving its cutout, which suggests food service menus aren't being pulled hard enough toward pork to divert measurable beef demand.

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