Why US beef prices skyrocketed is a bigger question. What whacked out regulations were imposed on the beef and feed industries to cause this?
EC
US beef prices have zero to do with regulation. Ask a rancher.
Prices are up due to drought which has led to reduced head count.
Derrell Peel, agricultural economics professor at Oklahoma State:
There’s plenty of alternative protein sources in terms of pork and poultry, primarily in the U.S., that consumers could turn to that are in abundant supply and relatively cheaper. And yet beef demand has stayed remarkably robust.
Americans’ enduring appetite for beef has coincided with shrinking cattle herds. The number of beef cattle in 2025, 27.8 million, is the lowest it’s been since the 1960s despite the growing U.S. population, Agriculture Department data shows.
Over the last decade, in turn, the decline in cattle supplies has mainly been driven by drought conditions around the U,.S., which reduced the available feedstock and forced many cattle ranchers to sell off their beef cows. They simply had no choice because of the drought.
Most recently, a severe drought started in 2021 and continued through last year, sweeping through the western half of the country.
Somewhere during that period, just about every major beef cow-producing area was subject to drought and subject to this sort of forced liquidation.
Even without the challenge of insufficient rainfall, herds take a long time to grow due to the biology of cattle. Cows can only have one calf at a time, and it takes longer for them to reach the age for slaughter than other livestock.
Correct question but does any peon out here have a reasonable answer?
I admit that I have no clue, but there has to be a gummint cockaroach sneaking around in the dark.
“Why US beef prices skyrocketed is a bigger question. What whacked out regulations were imposed on the beef and feed industries to cause this?”
Just speculating, but perhaps it has something to do with the deportation of cheap, illegal labor.