Beef prices have soared to an all-time high and a local cattle farmer said a decline in cattle population is one of the main reasons why.
Ground beef prices have risen to an average $5.80 per pound. Sirloin steaks average $12.33 per pound. Local Cattle Farmer Fletcher Dalton said the nation’s cattle herd population is at a historic low.
“We’re at levels as a U.S. as a whole, cattle numbers that are in line with the 1950s, and obviously, with a growing population and the cattle numbers being that low, you know, the demand for beef is as high as ever, and the supply is as low as ever,” Dalton said.
Dalton said the cost to operate a cattle farm has gone up due to inflation. Dalton said the average price tag to purchase 10 cows to start a cattle farm is $25,000. Dalton said the popular belief among cattle farmers in the Upper Cumberland is that beef prices may fluctuate up and down, but high prices may be here to stay.
Dalton said the cattle herd population has dropped because many cattle farmers are selling heifers rather than keeping heifers to use as breeding cows. Dalton said shrinking farmland in the Upper Cumberland is also contributing to the decline in cattle herd population.
“The farmer out here cannot compete with what the developer can come in and pay for this land,” Dalton said. “I mean, and especially guys right now, young men, young women that are 18, 19, 20 years old, that maybe they would like to be a beef producer, but they don’t have family that has done it, and they are not gonna be able to inherit any land. They are gonna have to go out there and start from scratch. I would say it would be nearly impossible for what it costs today.”
Dalton said though beef prices are at an all-time high, most people are still buying beef. Dalton said the first step to drop beef prices is to address the declining cattle herd population.
“That in itself is almost impossible, just due to how much farm land is consumed each day, that’s no longer being farmed,” Dalton said. “It’s one of those things that a farmer has three or four children and he passes away and it gets split four ways and one sells it, one keeps it, and once you split those farms up, then they are never coming back.”
