© 2024 Kansas City Public Radio
NPR in Kansas City
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
From small ranchers to large packers to U.S. dinner tables, the beef industry is a gigantic multi-billion dollar business. Whether you eat it or you don’t, beef is what’s for dinner, what’s for lunch and what’s for breakfast on thousands of Americans’ plates daily.Harvest Public Media takes a look at America’s beef industry, examining what goes in to our meat. We’re looking at the safety of the meat in our grocery stores and who funds the scientific research on the industry. We’re diving into what goes in to breeding the highest-quality beef, the potential environmental impact of the way conventional cattle are raised, and what might happen if the beef industry continues to consolidate.You can view and hear more on Big Beef on Harvest Public Media's website.

Beef Prices Down As Summer Grilling Heats Up

Flickr/TimSackton

Expansion in the country’s beef cattle herd is bringing cheaper meat prices to the grocery store just in time for the summer grilling season, but those reduced prices might get some scrutiny on Capitol Hill.

 
U.S. Department of Agriculture data show the price of ground beef is down about 30 cents per pound compared to last year.
 
Cheaper feed, falling land prices and increased consumer demand for meat over the past three years spurred the nation’s beef producers to raise more cattle, said Lee Schulz, a livestock economist at Iowa State University.
 
“We’ve seen increases in beef production really start[ing] in late 2015 and into 2016,” Schulz said. “That increase in production will lead to lower prices.”

Still, he said prices have dropped a bit quicker than expected.

“What many of us thought would be a much longer, prolonged process to get to this new price level, really occurred in the last three months of 2015,” Schulz said.

As summer heats up, other kinds of beef like steaks and ribs should also have lower prices than last year, Schulz said. But, he added, increases in pork and poultry production are also expected.

“Reduced prices will benefit consumers,” Schulz said. “Competition at the retail meat case for the consumer’s dollar will be aggressive.”

But those lower prices prompted U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to request a Government Accountability Office study of the cattle market.

“We’ve seen unbelievable volatility in cattle prices during the last year,” Grassley said.

During a U.S. Senate agriculture committee hearing on the state of the livestock industry last week, Tracy Brunner, president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, testified that given the price variability, farmers and ranchers need to have confidence in the futures market so they can use it to manage the risk from fluctuating prices.

“The integrity of our market forums is very important, for without futures contract integrity, our industry will abandon their use,” he said.

Brunner specifically asked the government to stay out of that marketplace.

“Today we ask for no direct action from our government in our cattle marketing systems and forums," he said.

Schulz says farmers know when they produce more meat they’re likely to see lower prices.

“I don’t see anything as far as market collusion or price fixing or anything like that,” he said. "The market is just adjusting to changes in supply and demand."
 

Amy Mayer is a reporter based in Ames. She covers agriculture and is part of the Harvest Public Media collaboration. Amy worked as an independent producer for many years and also previously had stints as weekend news host and reporter at WFCR in Amherst, Massachusetts and as a reporter and host/producer of a weekly call-in health show at KUAC in Fairbanks, Alaska. Amy’s work has earned awards from SPJ, the Alaska Press Club and the Massachusetts/Rhode Island AP. Her stories have aired on NPR news programs such as Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition and on Only A Game, Marketplace and Living on Earth. She produced the 2011 documentary Peace Corps Voices, which aired in over 160 communities across the country and has written for The New York Times, Boston Globe, Real Simple and other print outlets. Amy served on the board of directors of the Association of Independents in Radio from 2008-2015.
KCUR serves the Kansas City region with breaking news and award-winning podcasts.
Your donation helps keep nonprofit journalism free and available for everyone.