It might be one or the other or both, but I can tell you with 100% certainty that the point of the story is not BS.
Just yesterday I had a conversation with the farmer that I buy my beef from about this very topic. He is contacting all of his customers to let them know that the rail price of beef will be north of 4$/lb plus processing costs come butchering time next spring.
Feed costs are through the roof right now, and with the drought that we're experiencing here in Misery there isn't going to be an adequate supply of hay to get the herds through winter. My hayfields made 14 5'x5' round bales this time. Last year those same two fields made 34 bales, and that is roughly 2/3 of what I get in a "normal" year.
If your account is true and accurate, that’s a better anecdote than this anonymous blog full of meat packaging ads.
As I said, I’m sure we’re going to see worse, in my tin-foiliest hours I think our government is trying to set a Pogrom upon us.
90+% of cattle ranches run on a maximum $$$ per acre basis. Mutt cattle. No fault with this.
We had a ranch in OK when I was growing up that went the other direction. Prime beef, registered Black Angus exclusively. Well, almost exclusively. Once, one of the mature heifers died leaving a few months old calf. Bought an old milk cow and she adopted the orphan calf and supplied milk to a number of other calves to boot. Damn but there were fat calves for several years. Lol…
Our family went the other direction with the Angus. Model was prime beef. Much lower cattle per acre. Better supplemental feed in the winter. Much greater $$$ per lb at auction time for steers. Heifers sold for bigger $$$ for breeding stock instead of heading to the feedlots. The local high school 4H kids really liked our calves for livestock shows. Higher end restaurants and meat markets liked our steers for that best you ever had big $$$ steak.
Going with this high end model generally doesn't get the greatest $$$ per acre. However…. It especially doesn't have the extremes of low $$$ per acre when economics are stressed. Also, the land is protected and doesn't look like a plague of locusts ate it bare.