Bidenflation

Jerky plant in SD gets South American cattle in a buddy that was a deputy up there said those cattle look rough compared to US stock. We have strict standards then politicians allow cheap beef with less standards into the country to undersell us.

There’s been a lot of call for the reimplementation of COOL (Country Of Origin Labeling) so people know where it’s coming from.

I hope it happens I like to know where my meat comes from if I need to buy some.

Many years ago when I was a salesman for a local meat company I learned much about such things. Most of our volume selling bulk ground beef that we sold was imported beef. It came in 25# /50# boxes of solid blocks of frozen shank meat imported from Australia. That was an eye opener for me.

The butchers would cut all the frozen shank meat into 1.5" square sticks the length of the box then run the frozen sticks thru the grinder.

Magic > Ground beef.:) Some added a little food color to brighten the meat before packaging.

I don't think it'll matter. If beef from Argentina is $.10 cheaper a lb that's what will be bought. Not to mention restaurants won't care were its from

Pure corruption by doing this it’s the only thing that explains the betrayal to US producers.

40-50% of our beef eaten in the US is ground beef and it can come from several sources, many of which are not available to us right now.
The US beef herd is the smallest in 70 to 80 years. Feed lots are compensating for the fewer head by feeding out fat cattle to heavier weights. Usually not very profitable but at these prices it does.
The screw worm in Mexico is preventing about 800K to a million feeder cattle per year from entering the US. The USDA is working with Mexico on a sterilization program to limit the spread of the screw worm. screw worm was eliminated from the US about 50 years ago.
I don't know how the tariffs and chest thumping with Brazil is impacting imports from them but all that politics is not helpful.
We are starting to see a back off in protein purchasing by US consumers, but not enough yet to lower demand enough to lower prices.
If nothing changes with the above and other issues we can expect the same or even higher the next year or so. It will take a long time to rebuild the beef cow herd and that can''t be done if the Great plains and basins stay dry. Also if you are a rancher or cow calf raiser, keeping back a few more heifers worth $1000 to $1500 is a risk and if you don't have feed you can't.

Bryce

I don't recall the last time I bought ground beef, as it's generally $6+ lb here. I can find other cuts of beef cheaper here. We eat more steak than ground these days. $8 for a lb of ground beef or $10 for steaks for both of us.... seems a no brainer... (granted, the steaks are thin, but still better than a burger).

replacement heifers are 2000 to 2800 dollars on 600 to 700 pounds heifer very hard to keep any at that price. wait untill the price tumbles before keeping any. its already started to drop on the live market but still going up in the stores.

Just more reasons to not eat beef.

Can you give us a couple more reasons? I’d love to hear your thoughts

For me it's because deer are readily available for a little effort. Same with beaver.

LOL.

The current con men will say anything to deflect from the economic dumpster fire they are creating. And what's crazy (and sad) is that people believe it.

No beef here,elk,moose or deer.

I know it’s not a huge amount, but have you heard of any increase in dairy cow slaughter, since most of that goes to the grinder it at least would increase the amount of ground meat.

Dairy farmers are milking 200k more cows this fall than last year, so culling has slowed down but over 3 million dairy cows are slaughtered for beef every year. Also with sexed semen most dairy farmers are breeding their best 20-30% of their cows and heifers to heifer semen and lusing angus or other beef semen on the o ther 70-80%, so there are more dairy and half dairy cattle going to market then a decade ago. The vast majority ot cull dairy meat is ground beef and much of it is lean ground beef. I don't know the percentage of total beef dairy contributes to the total beef supply but with a small cow-calf herd, less imports it is higher than it was even a few years ago. Large Holstein cull cows can weight 1600-1800 lbs easily and thus can provide a lot of beef when slaughtered.

Bryce

I'm picking up a half beef my cousin raised in Nebraska this Friday. $4.00/# hanging weight. Cost for me is $1580/395# hanging weight. Processing will be another $450 or so. Right around $2,000 for a half. A year ago, it was $3.15/# hanging. It's spendy, but I am money ahead vs buying in store. I'm hearing $10/# ground beef may be a reality soon?

Too expensive, high cholesterol, but most of all the costs. Have you bought a steak or prime rib at a restaurant lately ? I refuse to pay those high prices for usually a sub par piece of beef.