Increase in Beef Supply Should Cut Retail Prices
A mountain of meat has ended the longest rally in U.S. cattle prices since at least the 1960s, when baby boomers and McDonald’s ushered in the American burger boom. Not only have ranchers added to their herds, but consumers are being inundated with increased supplies of cheaper pork and poultry. Ground-beef prices are down from a record high 11 months ago, and buyers like Darden Restaurants Inc., owner of the LongHorn Steakhouse...
Fattest-Ever U.S. Cattle Herd Signals End to Record Beef Prices
Chicago — Cattle in the U.S. are now the fattest they’ve ever been, signaling an end to the seven-year run of record beef prices just as losses begin to mount for American feedlot owners. Tom Fanning, who manages a feedlot herd of 30,000 in Buffalo, Okla., said he loses $100 to $300 on each animal he sells to slaughtering plants, even though they are bigger and produce more meat than ever. Its worse for other producers. On average,...
Grass-Fed Beef Fills Market Niche
Deleon Springs, Fla. — Cow No. 150, her pregnant belly bulging, nosed around rancher David Strawn’s pickup hoping to find something good to eat in the bed of the truck. For decades, Strawn’s family raised cows, lambs and pigs on this lakeside spread about 40 miles north of Orlando. But when his father died in 2002, Strawn shifted the family business to grass-fed cattle, eventually eliminating the other animals. Strawn loves a good...
Trade Groups, Farmers Spar Over Beef Ban
Washington — Bob Wilts was 10 years old when the Big Lake, Minn., farm where he grew up got its first beef cow. Fast forward 45 years to today, and Wilts still lives in Big Lake, about 35 miles northwest of Minneapolis. He still raises cattle. Wilts and his wife, Judy, manage about 30 steers that they sell to individual families and stockyards annually. But Wilts and other ranchers worry about something that they say could threaten...
U.S. Producers Fear Retaliation Over Labeling Law
Washington — California ranchers and their Capitol Hill allies are scrambling to peel away a country-of-origin labeling law they fear will hurt the state. Facing potentially punishing tariffs on U.S. wine, apples, cherries and more, after a World Trade Organization ruling against the United States’ labeling requirements for beef and pork, the Californians are mobilizing. They face, though, Midwestern resistance as well as a history of...
