Stellar Snippets
Retail beef prices are at a record high, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), due to low cattle supply and high input costs.
Cobank data reveals that beef cow slaughter was higher by 11% year-on-year in 2022 3.95 million cows slaughtered, the highest since 1996.
Wells Fargo’s Chief Agricultural Economist Michael Swanson warns that this will mean "paying more for all beef products for several more years."
Cattle have reduced to the "smallest number in decades" because of drought in states like Texas and Kansas.
Usually, ranchers raise calves and sell them to a feedlot where they are fed, fattened, and sold to meatpacking companies. Retailers then buy the meat.
But now ranchers are retaining cows to rebuild the herd. This has resulted in a lower cattle supply for beef production and adds to input costs, such as labor.
The second half of 2023 will see a beef production decline of 180 million pounds from Aug. 2023, according to a Sept. livestock report.
The weather and poor forage conditions have also led to the slaughter of reproductive cows since 2020 because rearers couldn't keep them over the winter.