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Higher Beef Prices Could Follow Shrinking U.S. Cattle Herd

Dan Cattle, This Land of Ours

The nation’s cattle herd is shrinking and that could mean higher prices at the grocery store. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.

cattle herd

American shoppers struggling with inflation are looking at higher beef prices continuing in their local meat cases. Due to high feed prices and severe drought, ranchers were forced to reduce their cattle herds.

Grain prices have dropped to their lowest levels since Russia invaded Ukraine, but Reuters says that might not mean lower food prices right away at the grocery store. Corn futures have dropped by 26 percent since they hit a 10-year high in April after the Ukraine conflict sparked supply worries. However, those corn prices are still nine percent higher than last year.

While the lower prices benefit livestock producers, U.S. government data showed on July 1 that producers had already lowered the nation’s cattle herd by approximately two percent compared to last year. Ground beef prices are already ten percent higher than last year. Because of continuing drought in cattle country, producers will likely still have to liquidate even more cattle.

The NAFB contributed this story.

Listen to Sabrina Halvorson’s This Land of Ours program here.

Higher Beef Prices Could Follow Shrinking U.S. Cattle Herd

Sabrina Halvorson
National Correspondent / AgNet Media, Inc.

Sabrina Halvorson is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and public speaker who specializes in agriculture. She primarily reports on legislative issues and hosts The AgNet News Hour and The AgNet Weekly podcast. Sabrina is a native of California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley.