Today's USDA Daily Boxed Beef Cutout Value report showed that rare phenomenon of an inverted Choice-Select price spread. Cutout values for Choice beef were $192.94 and cutout values for select were $193.21. This is only the 14th time in history that this has occurred, but it has become less rare of late (three of the four past spring seasons). The last time the spread was inverted was April 2012, before that March 2011, and prior to that April 2009. Before 2009 the spread had not been negative since 1989.In short, an inverted spread says that demand for lower grade beef is greater than higher grade beef. Obviously, this is a phenomenon that doesn't last long. A better understanding is that there are essentially two markets for beef: a mar...