Slaughter cows and ground beef

One of the principal ingredients in many ground beef formulations is 90 percent lean beef trimmings (90s). The wholesale price of 90s reached a record level of $338.56/cwt. the last week of March and appears to still be moving higher. Nonfed beef (cull cows and bulls) is the source of 90s. Fed beef (fed steers and heifers) produce fatty trimmings, commonly reported as 50 percent lean trimmings. The current wholesale price of 50s is $102.84/cwt. A reference formulation of ground beef consists of a 5:1 ratio of 90s to 50s, that is, five pounds of 90s and one pound of 50 percent lean,…