Episode Details

Taco Meat Tuesday | September 15, 2026

Your daily market update on all things protein

HOST: Welcome to The Protein Pulse Podcast — your daily market update on all things protein. This is Taco Meat Tuesday for September 15, 2026, from The Sparks Group.

SHAWN: Consumers aren’t walking away from protein. They’re trading around it. Beef is still expensive at retail, but the grind is getting cheaper. Pork has tightened production and still can’t get enough demand underneath it. Chicken keeps putting affordable pounds in front of the consumer. When the price gap gets wide enough, somebody loses an occasion. Beef can lose one to chicken. Pork can be cheap and still not win it. Retailers can get relief at wholesale and keep some of it before the consumer ever sees it. The consumer still wants protein. They just don’t have to buy the same one every week. People don’t quit protein. They trade proteins.

HOST: Fresh beef trim gave grinders more room Monday. Nineties around four thirty-five. Fifties below eighty-nine cents. Packer margins are positive again, so processors have more incentive to run cattle even while year-to-date slaughter remains down seven point six percent. Pork’s issue is clearer: August wholesale demand was down seventeen point three percent year over year. Chicken keeps the relative-value advantage, though new HPAI cases across the Upper Midwest put animal-health risk back in the conversation. Wednesday, the Federal Reserve announces its September rate decision. A quarter-point increase is widely expected.

SHAWN: The cutout did not do much Monday. The grind did. Fresh ninety C L finished around four thirty-five. Eighty-fives around three fifty-two. Fifties below eighty-nine cents. On the weekly averages, nineties fell two point eight percent and fifties nearly seven. For grinders, both sides of the blend got cheaper at the same time. That is a bigger development than another small move in Choice.

HOST: Packers have a reason to run again. Hales estimates calculated margins around plus eighty to plus one hundred ten a head — a fourth consecutive profitable week. Monday slaughter returned to one hundred six thousand after last week totaled five hundred five thousand. The cattle supply did not suddenly improve. USDA still shows slaughter seven point six percent below last year year-to-date. The economics improved.

SHAWN: Mexican cattle are moving again through the Douglas, Arizona port of entry. Current volume remains modest — roughly five hundred eighty to eight hundred fifty head a day presented for inspection. Some of the early cattle are reportedly seven hundred to nine hundred pounds, heavier than the traditional Mexican calf flow. The larger event would be Santa Teresa, New Mexico. That crossing historically handled far more volume. USDA has not confirmed a reopening date.

HOST: Retail is moving more slowly than wholesale. Beef and veal prices fell one percent in August, the second straight monthly decline, but remain five point nine percent above last year. Ground beef was essentially unchanged for the month. Wholesale relief does not automatically become consumer relief. Retailers have room to rebuild margin before every penny gets passed through the meat case.

SHAWN: Pork finally has a number that explains a lot. Wholesale pork demand in August was seventeen point three percent below August twenty twenty-five. The demand index fell from seventy-seven ninety-seven to sixty-four forty-nine. That weakness is estimated to have reduced market hog prices by roughly seven point five percent, or about fifteen twenty-four a head. And August was not a one-off. Wholesale pork demand averaged six point seven percent below last year from January through August.

HOST: Monday’s cutout finished almost unchanged a