Supply and demand? Has there been a huge drop in cattle numbers this year?

Supply is shrinking and demand is rising

The drop this year is not that great. The herd due to retiring ranchers, droughtss has been declining significantly the last decade.
Add to that now feeder cattle from Mexico due to the screw worm fly which is 880K to 1 million feeders per year. Canadian exorts have declined and tariffs on Brazil and other beef producing nations contributes to the shortage as well. With higher input costs and fertilizer shortages feed grain costs could well rise too and that will add to beef, poultry and hog prices.

Bryce

Smallest herd nationally since 1951.

Severe drought in the last 5 years, screwworm, and increased input costs.

Demand for beef but buy beef locally from a farm or rancher

Look at tons of beef slaughtered. We are producing more pounds beef per mom cow which is making up for some of the cow herd shrinking

We had a record high beef production in 22 i believe despite a shrinking herd

Around here the farmer's kids went to college so they could have a better life old farmer dies kids sell the farm to developer's who put garden homes five feet apart over the whole farm. I been saying for 30 years it's crazy to have less farmland and more mouth's to feed, at some point in the future it's not going to work out.

Screw worm in Mexico though i imagine has ALOT to do with it, we quit importing cattle from there when that was discovered.

Demand for beef but buy beef locally from a farm or rancher

Looking at 7 bucks a lb. on the hoof going that route, not taking out a loan at the bank to buy some beef, lol.

Buy from a local I graduated high school with. Anywhere from full beef to quarter. Never looked at bill. Wife could tell ya!

Beef IS expensive, but if you watch for sales some cuts are almost reasonable, lol

Subsidize corn/beans/row crops. Subsidize wildlife (CRP) and other easements.

Huge mystery as to why there's a overabundance of corn/grain and a lack of cattle.

The US exported 2.51 billion pounds of beef last year. That's down from 2024, when we exported 2.84 billion pounds. When beef gets sold in other countries, there's less of it here, which drives up prices in the US. We bring in more beef than we export, but not enough. 45% of our beef industry is foreign owned, mostly Brazilian. That number should be zero.

Foreign countries, overall, own about half of our meat production. This should be stopped.

Keith

Not true. Just stocked up on Mexican beef today. If Pete or I get worms, I'll let ya know.





Why should it be stopped???

If foreign countries can produce beef for so much less, why shouldn't we buy it from them???

I think the question we SHOULD be asking is why can they produce it for so much less???

Eat it and enjoy.
Know your farmer.

I would say there are alternatives, but they aren’t like they used to be. Elk tags are harder to draw each year. Deer tags in some states are as plentiful as they’ve always been. But the deer in some states are seeing decreased numbers. Whether it be from weather patterns or the libtard states introducing wolves, tightening/eliminating trapping the predators.

Angela foreign corporations and countries own, control and manipulate US production, on our soil, as well as many of the animals. They paid members of Congress to make it prohibitively expensive and hard for new competition to start. They have a monopoly which ensures they get most of the profits and can keep prices high.

For instance Smithfield's which controls most of the pork in the US, is Chinese.

Keith

Brazil owns a signifcant percentage of the beef processing in the USA The USA is the leading beef producing country with Brazil 2nd and not far behing and China the third. One of the reasons that a lot of USA beef may be exported is due to the foreign ownership of processing. USA capitalist many times will sell out for a profit and not worry much about how things will play out.

Bryce

Government control. EPA and inspection of everything that is being consumed by the public. And that is any products people buy in a store that has a license to do business. Uncle Sam and the lawyers all have their part in the price increase and the people want it that way. Because they don't want to take responsibility on their own . It is just the price of modern life. You can go back and handle it on your own or you can go to the store and pay the price.

Brazil owns 45% of the beef processing, 30% of the chicken processing and 25% of the pork processing in the US. It's foolish to let a foreign country or company to own and control any of our food supply, much more so to own so much. At best, they only care about making high profits by driving our food prices unnaturally high. Worse yet, they could use that control against us in war. There's no doubt that's a major reason why China now controls a significant portion of our food industries. They could introduce diseases, ship it overseas, destroy our food, poison it, or stop production and starve us out.

Keith

Brazil the government or multi national corporations headquartered in Brazil?

"To conquer the world market, Brazil’s Big Three beef packers — JBS, Marfrig and Minerva — invited in foreign capital. Today, all three are transnationals, with the original Brazilian founders owning only minority shares in their own companies."



The Redacted administration has forked over more than $62 million — taxpayer cash that was supposed to be earmarked for struggling American farmers — to a massive meatpacking company owned by a couple of corrupt Brazilian brothers.

The Department of Agriculture cut a contract in January to purchase $22.3 million worth of pork from plants operated by JBS USA, a Colorado-based subsidiary of Brazil’s JBS SA, which ranks as the largest meatpacker in the world.

The bailout raised eyebrows from industry insiders at the time, as it was sourced from a $12 billion program meant for American farmers harmed by President Redacted escalating trade war with China and other countries.


JBS N.V. (JBS) I might be an owner?

"JBS has strong commercial ties to China—such as major supply agreements (e.g., a $717 million annual meat supply deal with China's WH Group in 2026, and a $1.5 billion e-commerce pact with Alibaba in 2025)China is a key market for JBS beef/pork/poultry.

Marfrig (now merged into MBRF with BRF): Like JBS, Marfrig has pursued sales and joint ventures in China (e.g., past distribution centers with COFCO and recent BRF."

My point that apparently bears repeating is:



Keith