Shoppers have been coughing up the big bucks for beef this year, as data from the Federal Reserve shows beef prices continuing to climb. Ohio cattle farmers have been reaping the benefits of those high prices.
Beef prices have steadily been on the rise since the 1980s but saw a steep uptick in 2020, according to data from the Fed. Those prices jumped again last year, with the most recent data pricing a pound of ground beef at $6.25 nationwide and $6.33 in the Midwest.
"All time highs definitely in the cattle, anything beef related is at all time high prices from our market side that we've seen," said Thurman Mullet, the president of Mt. Hope Auction.
Mt. Hope auctions livestock, hay and produce in Holmes County and has a big feeder calf sale, where young cattle mature enough to be fattened, coming up Sept. 29.
"You go back four, five, six years, those calves would bring $100 to $200 a piece," Mullet said, "and you now see them bringing anywhere from $900 up to $1,100 a piece for an on average a 90 to 100 pound Holstein calf."
What's caused this massive spike? Mainly a supply and demand problem, according to Kenny Rufener with Congress Lake Farms, a cattle farm in Mogadore.
"I think we're just behind the curve where you don't have enough animals out there, and that's driven the price up," he said. "Because there's not enough supply out there."
The supply of cattle has drastically decreased the past few years, largely due to drought conditions across the country, but the demand for beef has not let up, Rufener said. And replenishing the herd takes time.
"It's not like chickens or hogs where the turnaround is so fast," Rufener said.
It takes around three years for a cow to be sold as beef, he said, while a chicken's life cycle is a few months and a pig's is less than a year.
That demand for calves to raise for beef has caused Rufener to change his business strategy.
"We were raising all of our calves up to full maturity and selling them as beef, but as the replacements got less, the calf price has risen," he said. "And about a year and a half ago, we started selling all of our calves."
That's been extremely lucrative, with the farm making about 30% more profit, Rufener said.
"It makes it more profitable for us," he said, "because we can get rid of the risk day one when they're born."
Shoppers may not be able to expect these prices to go down any time soon, Garth Ruff, a beef cattle field specialist with the Ohio State University Extension Beef Team, said.
"It looks like this pattern should be steady at the bare minimum for the next two years," he said.
But consumer choices could cause prices to drop sooner, Rufener said.
"A couple local meat shops that we have, they've already seen people buying more of the chicken, the pork, the hotdogs than they have of the beef," he said.
Demand for beef dropping might be the fastest way for prices to drop too, but Rufener isn't planning to change course yet.
"We'll continue to sell the calves until they go down probably 40 or 50%," he said. "When they do that, then we'll probably start raising them again."
