Sam Jones-Ellard, (202) 660-2268Samuel.Jones@ams.usda.gov
WASHINGTON, May 25, 2012 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture is releasing a new interactive Dashboard which allows users to view data for boxed beef markets in an easy-to-use, customizable way.
The innovative Dashboard provides users with quick, easy access to volume and price information that can be customized and downloaded. A Dashboard is a user-friendly visualization tool that brings market data to life in the form of customizable graphs and tables, which complement the existing data available through the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) Livestock and Grain Market News site. With the addition of boxed beef, the AMS Livestock Dashboard now provides weekly data on boxed beef, cattle, hogs and sheep covered by Livestock Mandatory Reporting.
“This will help present information in graphs, charts, and other ways that are meaningful and useful, as well as educational, to our customers,” said Craig Morris, Deputy Administrator of the AMS Livestock and Seed Program. “AMS collects and publishes a great deal of information under Livestock Mandatory Reporting and these tools help public users manage, sort, and view data in a way that creates perspective.”
Modeled after the other Dashboards, the new Boxed Beef Dashboard includes the same types of interactive features for querying and viewing information, such as navigation tabs, slide bars, graphs, tables, daily market tickers, and downloading capabilities.
One feature unique to the Boxed Beef Dashboard is a picture of a beef animal illustrating the primals of a beef carcass. Users can select a specific wholesale beef cut and the beef illustration will reflect the primal area of the carcass from which that cut was produced. In addition, a color photograph and brief description of the wholesale beef cut is also displayed.
To check out the Boxed Beef Dashboard, visit the AMS Market News site at marketnews.usda.gov/portal/lg. A Users Guide is also available that provides a feature-by-feature overview of the Dashboards.
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