Posted on 10/23/2025 4:49:01 AM PDT by Adder
President Donald Trump’s administration intensified efforts on Wednesday to combat rising beef prices, calling on domestic cattle ranchers to lower prices for consumers while also releasing a multi-agency strategy to restock the nation’s depleted cattle herd. Beef prices in the United States have eclipsed record levels after a prolonged drought that has impacted grazing lands and elevated feed expenses, forcing ranchers to reduce herd sizes. The U.S. cattle inventory, currently at its lowest since 1951, has been shrinking amid import restrictions, including the suspension of Mexican cattle shipments due to pest concerns and tariffs constraining Brazilian supplies, all while consumer demand remains strong.
(Excerpt) Read more at theepochtimes.com ...
IS someone going to tell him us ranchers do not set the prices?
I was going to buy 3-4 Cow-calf pairs back in late spring and prices were sky high as used to be around $2000 for a good pair but had went to $4000-5000 range and even for newborns which are risky was up in the $700-900 range. Heck even chicks has gone from $3.50 to $6 and higher. First year I broke out my incubators instead of ordering new birds...
It’s all a mess. Demonopolize, deregulate, jail Gates and Algore, and 1000 other things to allow a free market to actually operate, including such idiocies as the Chinese and Bill Gates scarfing up agricultural land.
Left alone, it’s a certainty they will not. There is no incentive to do so.
amen
Did we vote for Trump to get into the socialist business of price controls?
Oh, they absolutely WILL lower their prices. When the market dictates a price of X, and a rancher tries to sell at 2X, he WILL lower his prices or he will sell NOTHING and go out of business very quickly.
the beef demand is directly related to the herd size and the number of people in the US.
before biden’s admin, we had 30m+ illegals in the country. this isn’t counting their kids, who are also in the US illegally.
then biden and crew dragged 20m more illegals into the country from jan 2021 to jan 2025.
that’s 50m+ illegals in the US increasing the demand for beef
which is a 16% increase.
remove ALL illegals and solve many problems
More people eat out at food joints than ever, and the prices there are higher than ever...and then bitch about the price of groceries. DJT needs to concentrate on wiping out the demoncrap left and stop worrying about farmers and ranchers. THEY will do what they HAVE to do to stay in business.
You are correct. My rancher friend basically quit and his neighbors quit using his land for summer feed as their numbers are way down. Several years now.
All prices skyrocketed under COVID for all sorts of reasons. Supply chains. Shut downs.
COVID ended but price increases never come back down all the way. Remember $4-5 gas under Obama and motor oil went from $3/qt to $6/qt? Gas prices came down but oil never did. Why?
Pre COVID OSB was $8-9/sheet. During COVID it went to $40/sheet. It’s currently $15/sheet. Why?
This was all pre tariff and has always been an ongoing thing. Use any excuse to increase prices temporarily and never bring them all the way back down.
We have a greed problem and consolidation/centralization problem causing lack of competition.
Even though grain prices are lower now, the higher prices of the past few years have boosted costs for the animal/meat production sector for years. You can point specifically to the 2005 ethanol mandate and implemented over the next few years. U.S. cattle population reached a cyclical peak at 97 million head in Jan. 2007. Totaled just 86.7 million early this year.
Yes they are absurd. The price went up because the cost of transport went through the roof under barak and biden, which drove th3 price of everything up. Gas prices are gert8ng lower now, and p4ices of goods should r3flect that. P4ifes 5hough f9r gas around us are still high, $3.50, but other places its in the $2 range. Under obama the price soared to $4.60 a gallon (and in some states around $7 a gallon)
But we all knew that once conpanies got a taste of higher p4ices, they would be loathe to reduce costs again once gas and transport prices reduced.
I vaguely remember eating beef that was chewable. The only beef we can afford today is tougher than a pine knot
What about if you were to fertilize every couple of years? Wouod tha5 be more ec9n9micala d still keep the ground in ok c9ndition?
By 5hat i m3an ALL companies, not just the beef industry- all the suppliers of p4oducts needed for beef production, farming, e5c. 9nce p4ices got high, its not likely they go down, at least no5 quickly. They sure rose quickly though.
Be careful or the Trump can never do any wrong sycophants will condemn you as a never Trumper or even antifa like they do me. I try to always be happy but never satisfied. Everybody can do better and nobody is perfect.
Trump is the smartest man in the room and he does not like anyone to forget that.
You ought to see enrollment at vet schools. Here something like 80% are female and they don’t do large animals. In fact, they don’t do small ones either for very long as they go to raising children.
We used to do a whole lot or most of treatment ourselves but now a lot of things are not OTC as you say.
The price of weeds is at an all time high.
They are price takers, not price makers. Order buyers are the price makers.
By the way, I am not about to do any herd replacement by the market. Cow calf pairs, if you can find them, are stupid money expensive. Last time I looked for any was a year ago and they had gone from $1500 a pair to $2200 to $2500 for some pretty shady looking mommas that did not have much time left. Left alone the market will correct. It will not go back to what it was but it will go down eventually.
As an example of how low numbers are, the local sale barn went out of business, just not enough stock passing the ring. They consolidated to the next county 30 miles away and the throughput there is pretty spare some Wednesdays.
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