johngaltshrugged
Diamond Member
- Oct 15, 2020
- 6,714
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Who among us doesn't love to pay $15+/lb for a steak at the grocery store?
With current beef cattle inventories at the lowest level since 1962 (US population <182 million), the prices have nowhere to go but up. And then up higher again.
Drought conditions, high fuel costs & fertilizer shortages combined with massive increases in the prices of feed & hay caused much of the reduction.
Here in OK, many of the ranchers faced the same circumstances & we were forced to cull herds just to get the remaining ones through the winter with enough feed.
The current inventory shortages will really hit your wallets over the next few years.
Is everybody ready for those $12 Big Macs?
The prices we get as ranchers has barely gone up at all so far so the price of raising beef for market makes it almost impossible to turn a profit.
Just like with the farmers, these conditions are not sustainable & may force independents like myself to make some hard choices.
In the last 2 years, my costs on round bales have risen >250% while cattle feed is up about 30%, my herd is down over 50% & I'm seriously considering just keeping enough to raise for family & friends.
University of Kentucky’s Kenny Burdine and James Mitchell, extension livestock economist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, recently explained that “There was no question that the beef cow herd had gotten smaller” and that the cattle production’s downward trend does not seem like it will reverse in 2023.”
“There is a pretty substantial biological lag in the beef supply chain,” Mitchell noted. “What consumers experience at the grocery store is a product of what cattle producers were going through a year or two ago. It takes about two years for a new calf to become the steak on your dinner plate.”
www.breitbart.com
With current beef cattle inventories at the lowest level since 1962 (US population <182 million), the prices have nowhere to go but up. And then up higher again.
Drought conditions, high fuel costs & fertilizer shortages combined with massive increases in the prices of feed & hay caused much of the reduction.
Here in OK, many of the ranchers faced the same circumstances & we were forced to cull herds just to get the remaining ones through the winter with enough feed.
The current inventory shortages will really hit your wallets over the next few years.
Is everybody ready for those $12 Big Macs?
The prices we get as ranchers has barely gone up at all so far so the price of raising beef for market makes it almost impossible to turn a profit.
Just like with the farmers, these conditions are not sustainable & may force independents like myself to make some hard choices.
In the last 2 years, my costs on round bales have risen >250% while cattle feed is up about 30%, my herd is down over 50% & I'm seriously considering just keeping enough to raise for family & friends.
University of Kentucky’s Kenny Burdine and James Mitchell, extension livestock economist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, recently explained that “There was no question that the beef cow herd had gotten smaller” and that the cattle production’s downward trend does not seem like it will reverse in 2023.”
“There is a pretty substantial biological lag in the beef supply chain,” Mitchell noted. “What consumers experience at the grocery store is a product of what cattle producers were going through a year or two ago. It takes about two years for a new calf to become the steak on your dinner plate.”
U.S. Beef Cattle Has Lowest Inventory Since 1962
The beef cattle inventory in the United States is at its lowest point since 1962, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
www.breitbart.com
