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Aggregate or residual

Four largest beef packers

Aggregate USDA CR4 category for the four largest purchasers of U.S. steers and heifers; not a single firm.

Source label, not a legal-entity resolution or finding of market power.

Source-to-market route

Follow how this label moves from public rows into a measured market, operator boundary, peer set, and public context.
Four largest beef packers evidence routeA four-step map linking source rows, measured market scope, operator attribution or label boundary, and public context for this participant profile.Source rows3 rowsSource rows: 3 rows; 1 public sourceMarket scope1 marketMarket scope: 1 market; Beef meatpackingLabel boundaryAggregate or residualLabel boundary: Aggregate or residual; no legal resolutionPublic context2 recordsPublic context: 2 records; 1 peer rows

Latest sourced position

Beef meatpacking

Market
85.0%2019 · rank #1
Reported share trajectory+49.00 pp
Four largest beef packers reported share trajectory in Beef meatpacking3 published observations from 1980 to 2019. The visible detail scale runs from 21% to 100%.21%61%100%1980: 36.00%19801995: 81.00%19952019: 85.00%2019
Latest change
+4.00 pp
Previous published row
Market HHI
Withheld
Same bounded market
Peer rows
1
2019 source table
Verified · High confidence
2019 · U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service
Participant profileFour largest beef packersAggregate or residual / 85.0% / 1980-2019

  • Record typeAggregate or residualSource-labeled participant
  • Market scope1 measured marketBeef meatpacking
  • Time coverage1980-20193 source rows
  • Permitted useDescriptive sharesNot legal-entity resolution
This record is an aggregate, residual, or selected-group share. It is displayed for source coverage and must not be interpreted as a standalone firm.

Measured footprint

Share history by market

Percentage-point change is descriptive within the same sourced series. It is not a causal or conduct finding.

Beef meatpacking

United States / regional cattle procurement markets / USDA-reported share of steer and heifer purchases handled by the four largest beef packers

Open market profile
Four largest beef packers reported share history in U.S. steer and heifer purchases by beef packersA line chart from 1980 through 2019 using a labeled vertical scale from 23.7 to 97.3 percent.24%42%61%79%97%198036.0%199581.0%201985.0%
Latest share85.0%2019 / rank 1
Latest change+4.00 pp1995 to 2019
Full-period change+49.00 pp1980 to 2019
Market HHIUnavailableclassification unavailable / high confidence

Competitive set / 2019

Peers in the same source table

1 published rows

Bars preserve the source table's latest shares. Aggregate rows remain labeled and are not treated as firms in concentration screens.

Four largest beef packersAggregate85.0%#1

Definition contract

What this share measures

Product boundary
Purchases of steers and heifers by beef packers
Geography
United States, while cattle procurement often occurs in regional markets
Denominator
All U.S. steer and heifer purchases represented in the USDA historical CR4 series
Measurement basis
USDA-reported share of steer and heifer purchases handled by the four largest beef packers
Included
The aggregate top-four packer share at published historical anchors
Excluded
Individual packer shares, hog purchases, regional procurement areas, cattle prices, and wholesale beef sales

A national aggregate buyer-side CR4 is not an HHI, does not identify individual firms, and does not define the regional procurement choices facing a particular rancher or feeder.

Evidence custody

Sources and reusable packets

Participant data packet

Exact index, share-history, market, policy-context, and report routes for this profile.

Entity profileJSONShare historyJSONShare historyCSVMeasured marketsJSONMarket-linked eventsJSONMarket-linked reportsJSON

Compilation license: CC BY 4.0. Upstream source terms continue to apply.

Market context only

Policy docket and public research

0 events / 2 reports

Policy events and reports are linked through the participant's measured market. That relationship supplies market context; it does not establish that the event concerns this participant or attribute conduct to it.

Market-linked policy events

No dated policy events are linked to the measured market.

Market profileDefinition, HHI, peers, and local evidenceParticipant atlasCompare all source-labeled share rowsMethodologyThresholds, data status, and caveats

Participant interpretation boundary

These profiles describe source-labeled market participants, not legal entities or findings of market power. Shares only apply to the stated market definition, geography, denominator, and year.

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