Why is beef so expensive these days?
- Thread starter Formerly Rockymtnole
- Start date
Excessive Big Mac usage after the 34 felonies, rapist, charity fraud, 6 times bankrupt domestic terrorist somehow was voted back into office.
1. Corporate greed
2. Biden has inflated certain grocery items with executive power
Pick your reality
2. Biden has inflated certain grocery items with executive power
Pick your reality
Feeder cattle are selling at $250/cwt. That is not only an historical high price, it blows previous highs out of the water.
Just stop.
I know defending this latest Hunter Biden development has you worked up, but seriously.
I give your mom a free hot beef injection every night OP.
No idea. Just took a quick peek at some data. In 2020 feeders were selling at about $110/cwt and there were just under 11 million cattle on feed. NASS reported about 11.6 million cattle on feed Oct 1 of 2024. So inventory isn’t a problem. I don’t know the demand side of that equation though, particularly when it comes to exports. Logic would tell you that’s driving it though. I agree though, beef is crazy expensive; it’s definitely led to me to buying more pork, the price of which has remained more stable. They say high prices is the cure for high prices, so we’ll see what happens in the future.
Thanks
This morning I saw London Broil (historically low proce, low demand meat $2.99-4.99/lb) in the case at 9.99/lb.!
Our ground beef is 8.99/lb
Yeah, I made a pot roast last week and chuck was $10/lb
I just asked the woman who I buy my beef from. She's been raising cattle for decades. She says absolutely beef is more expensive. "A calf walking around your field today is worth more than it was a year ago." Almost doubled in cost. Why? There's not enough beef out there. Because of the droughts in Texas and Oklahoma farmers couldn't feed their cattle...that's where a lot of the feed comes from so cattle were basically given away. Wildfires in Oklahoma which I wasn't aware of were a cause of a lot of this feed also. "World population is going up and right now there aren't enough cattle to keep up."
I started buying all my ground beef at Costco. I've always bought steaks there but the ground beef prices at Publix are outrageous.
I've got a vacuum sealer so I buy the 8-9 lb trays and divvy them up into 1 or 1-1/2 lb bags. Last time I bought some, I think it was $5.49 a lb for 90/10
I'm assuming this ties into people giving away or just slaughtering pigs a couple of years ago too. A guy I taught with would process pigs that were given away for a couple cases of Busch Light. He and a buddy.
Guess I haven't noticed. We don't eat a ton of beef at home besides ground, and we get that from the neighbor for $4 lb and it blows anything from the store away.
I'm not sure but my son's father in law buys 2 cows and distributes it to his kids. Basically they get almost an entire cow because her siblings don't take much. They are sending us home with 5 chuck roasts and 20lbs of hamburger so they can clear some room for more. They'd send more but that is all our cooler will hold.
The herd needs to be rebuilt. Cow/calf guy wants to hold back heifers to do that but at these slaughter prices they go into the kill instead. Buckle up, its gonna be a long ride.
I know almost nothing g about the topic but according to what Maryland posted the herd is as large as it's ever been.
3 or 4 meat suppliers control the market. It needs to change. I've started buying all my beef and pork from a small family farm nearby.
lowest number of cattle on the ground in fifty years, more people need more food.
You need to start shopping at Costco or Sam's.
I'm a cow/calf guy. We start with baby calves starting in late February. Once calves are weaned in early October, we background them until 6-700 pounds and then sell them to feedlot guys. They will then feed them until finish.
Why is beef so expensive? Pretty simple really. It is work at every phase. Whether you are breeding the cows/heifers, calving them out, backgrounding or feeding to finish, it is demanding work that requires daily chores. The age of the farmers and ranchers that are raising cattle only increases each year and there aren't really young guys jumping into the fray to backfill those jobs. In Iowa for example, it is a lot easier to put in a few weeks in the spring, summer and fall raising row crops versus taking care of cattle 365 days out of the year.
The dry conditions over the last decade across the United States has led to major widespread liquidation among all herds which leads to a supply issue. Heifer retention is also an issue. It is expensive to keep heifers back and breed to be cows as you forfeit 2 years of any income before you get a calf on the ground from them.
Most recently, screw worms in Mexican Cattle has caused a supply issue with importing their product to the US market. Which leads me to my next point from a global scale. Congress needs to enact country of origin labeling again to remove foreign beef from being imported and labeled as a US product. It is bullsh!t that imported beef isn't labeled properly and is allowed to compete directly with US beef and labeled as such. Consumers deserve a right to know the source of the product.
Why is beef so expensive? Pretty simple really. It is work at every phase. Whether you are breeding the cows/heifers, calving them out, backgrounding or feeding to finish, it is demanding work that requires daily chores. The age of the farmers and ranchers that are raising cattle only increases each year and there aren't really young guys jumping into the fray to backfill those jobs. In Iowa for example, it is a lot easier to put in a few weeks in the spring, summer and fall raising row crops versus taking care of cattle 365 days out of the year.
The dry conditions over the last decade across the United States has led to major widespread liquidation among all herds which leads to a supply issue. Heifer retention is also an issue. It is expensive to keep heifers back and breed to be cows as you forfeit 2 years of any income before you get a calf on the ground from them.
Most recently, screw worms in Mexican Cattle has caused a supply issue with importing their product to the US market. Which leads me to my next point from a global scale. Congress needs to enact country of origin labeling again to remove foreign beef from being imported and labeled as a US product. It is bullsh!t that imported beef isn't labeled properly and is allowed to compete directly with US beef and labeled as such. Consumers deserve a right to know the source of the product.
This one is easy. Beef is high because people are willing to pay for it. Trust me, when that ends, the price will come down. Why would they lower the price before people quit buying it? BTW this is true for everything not just beef.
I get steaks there when it’s a large group, but probably need to start getting ground beef there and freezing it.
Yeah, but as mentioned, there are legit supply issues. Fan gave a pretty good explanation. I've posted a few times over the last years snippets from my weekly Farm Bureau newsletter that the US herd size has been declining. Once it declines, it's hard to build back up, it takes several years. People on the right had better start to admit what climate change means for US, and foreign, producers. Drought conditions made it easier to kill off stock versus feed them.
I love this place because I learn new stuff all the time. Great post, thank you.
Also, I had NO idea we import beef.
Ground beef, poultry, steaks, pork tenderloin, etc are way cheaper there. Buy it and freeze it. The steaks are thick and typically come in a package of at least 4 pounds for anything but filet, but you can freeze that too if you like, if your needs are less. My 2 cents.
Praying for another deer in a couple weeks to fill the freezer back up. I just finished last years deer yesterday. Helps a lot.
I know it's not quite as good for the whole meats. For the burger I asked the meat department at hyvee to save me 5 lbs of beef fat trimmings. I paid them a dollar a pound for it. Ground it in to the deer meat. You can't tell it's not beef. It's delicious.
I know it's not quite as good for the whole meats. For the burger I asked the meat department at hyvee to save me 5 lbs of beef fat trimmings. I paid them a dollar a pound for it. Ground it in to the deer meat. You can't tell it's not beef. It's delicious.
Went to the store to buy a beef roast the other day. I was shocked!
Shocked I tell you.
I guess it's gonna be pork and chicken for me.
Shocked I tell you.
I guess it's gonna be pork and chicken for me.
Biggest issues as already mentioned, droughts in Texas and Oklahoma, they are starting to think those herds will never bounce back. Secondly the smaller farmers getting out and selling their 15-30 head and retiring. Do think we will see more bigger operations pop up with these prices.
Buying a lot less of it in the past year. Pork is still dirt cheap and my freezer is full of ribs, loins, sausage and chops, and I'm not complaining.I have mostly stopped buying it.
Getting a lot of Pork and chicken. Wife picked up a couple rotisserie chickens at walmart for $2.50 each. Shred and use in casseroles. Pulled Pork, heck pre sliced hams are $2 to $2.50 a lb. Other than the salt and some fat on the pulled pork, heck of a deal.
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Question. There is NO labeling restriction? Meaning 100% raised on foreign soil and then imported live and steps foot in the US and no labeling of "hencho in Mexico" is required? Or it can be raised, slaughtered, processed, and packaged in Mexico and there are NO requirements to mark as imported beef? Isn't that required for seafood? Why is beef treated differently? I realize I may not be asking the right person, but you are a start...
Over the last years we have moved to local raised and processed qtr beef and half hog. The supplementing with store purchases. Just feels better knowing we are supporting locals.
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