Producers say beef prices are a bargain and cattle prices are not too high

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Consumption of America’s favorite red meat has grown in recent years while the cattle herd continues to shrink due to low prices, drought and instability in the market. Additionally, the border is closed to Mexican cattle due to the threat of New World Screwworm and President Trump implemented tariffs on Brazilian beef. This produced a “perfect storm” of strong beef and cattle prices simultaneously.

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President Trump has made clear his plan to lower beef prices. With the recent removal of reciprocal tariffs on South American food products, the plans to quadruple the amount of Argentinian beef allowable under the tariff quota, and the reversal of the Brazilian tariffs, the last six weeks have brought the largest and fastest downturn in feeder cattle futures this nation has ever seen.

On the flip side, consumers are filling their plates with more beef, and because the cattle market had shot up to record highs, cattle producers are still enjoying strong prices, albeit about 20 percent lower than six weeks ago. Beef prices, however, apparently didn’t get the memo. While boxed beef prices had made a minimal correction throughout the month of September, upon the President’s announcement to support additional imports, the price of beef did the opposite of what the President had seemingly hoped – increasing steadily throughout October and then leveling out.

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Examples of recent beef prices are as follows, bone-in ribeye is $12.96/lb, compared to $10.28 five years ago and $7.70 ten years ago.

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Stratford Angus owner Steve Stratford who is also cattle buyer at Pratt Livestock located near Pratt, Kansas, took to Facebook in August to address this topic. He said cow-calf producers were enjoying record highs, which he called “well-deserved,” and pointed out that the higher prices were crucial to the survival of independent cattle producers. “The prices…are needed with the way the inputs have been. They were all going to be broke if we didn’t get to these levels,” he said in a Facebook video.

“It’s common right now…in the media…trying to predict when this will change…that we are waiting for the consumer to balk, and say that ‘beef is too high,’ I guess I’m here to argue that…beef is still a bargain, we are at the price levels we should have been for a long time for what you get nutritionally and in comparison to the other things they are buying.”

“I think as cattlemen and anyone that represents cattlemen, we need to be out there screaming from the rooftops that beef isn’t too high, it’s where it should be, and it’s so much cheaper in comparison to the other junk that you buy and as far as the consumer we are selling it to…I’m going to tell you some of the things they purchase and you tell me which is the better bang for their buck,” he said.

Stratford said that “beef, eggs and milk,” are the best deal for consumers when considering the nutritional component.

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The good news: throughout 2025, cattle prices were higher than most had dreamed possible, and climbing. The bad news: backgrounders and farmer-feeders who bought in at the high now face catastrophic losses. Additionally, many ranchers say the record cattle prices weren’t out of line with the increased cost of machinery, nutrition supplements, veterinarian expenses, land prices and more.

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