In news coming out of Texas, we have the lowest amount of cattle in the USA since 1951. The United States cattle herd has reached an all-time low, totaling 94.2 million head as of July 1, 2025, which is the lowest number since 1951. This historic low is primarily due to a prolonged drought that forced ranchers to liquidate their herds, and it has contributed to record-high beef prices because of the tight supply.
What this means for the average consumer, beef prices will remain high at least until next season. To raise 10 cows, it takes between 20-30 acres of land. Since the water shortages in some grazing areas, there have been less land to have cows grazing and that is a big complaint of farmers.
The U.S. beef herd will not show a strong increase next year; it’s more likely to remain flat or see only modest growth. The major expansion phase is probably a few years out. The USDA projects that it will take to 2027-2030, before beef herds rise again and beef prices will get back to a normal range. We guess the "Beef. It's What's For Dinner." campaign worked too well.
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That's cause my Dad sold the herd and quietly passed away some years ago.
ReplyDeleteI note that our President is telling the ranchers that they need to take less to lower the cost of beef. Well Donny, you're absolutely wrong this time. The cow/calf producers have been taking it in the shorts for years and only receive the price for the calves that the feedlots [owned by the packers] are willing to pay them. Donny if you want to lower the price of beef go after the packers who are making record profits while the cow/calf producers are finally making enough to make up for all the years they've lost money. By the way, three packers control 85% of the markets and in 1918 four packers controlled 20% of the market and were broken up for being a monopoly.
ReplyDeleteFunny, but nobody reported that the Biden administration killed whole herds of cattle over suspected diseases with no testing done, and also removed ranchers' access to grazing grounds and water (many times to allow mining by the Chinese or for solar farms.)
ReplyDeleteThat's not even considering the attacks on cattle ranches and dairy farms by the EPA too over the 'damages' caused by cow poop and pee. No, not kidding.
Gee, who could have thunk that doing that would reduce herd sizes and water and grazing ability would affect the price of beef? It's almost like beef comes from cows...
There's a huge solar farm north of Gainesville off of I-75 that used to be a huge dairy and cattle ranch. Until the Obama and Biden admins made it more profitable to do solar.
Live cattle future prices, $2.40+ per pound for 40,000 pounds of live cattle, delivered. This is the cost of your hamburger before processing.
ReplyDeletehttps://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/live-cattle
Where's the beef now its "is the beef real or fake vegan meat" Real beef has flavor that does not need to marinate for 2 days, just salt, pepper, garlic and hit the hot grill.
ReplyDelete