American cattle ranchers say the story behind today’s record high beef prices is not what most shoppers think. While consumers are paying more at the grocery store, the people raising the cattle say they are earning less and in many cases losing everything.
“Beef and cattle are not the same thing,” said independent rancher John O’Dea. “The cost of beef and the cost of cattle are completely disconnected,” added former rancher Coy Young.
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According to recent reports, ground beef prices are up nearly 13% and steak prices are up 16%.. But ranchers say those rising prices are not reaching them. Instead, they argue both producers and consumers are getting squeezed by a system that funnels profits elsewhere.
“So the consumer’s getting taken advantage of. The boots-on-the-ground producer’s getting taken advantage of,” O’Dea said. “There’s somebody making a lot of money and it isn’t you and me.”
According to Young, the U.S. is losing an average of 17,520 farms each year. “What happens in 20 years when we’re all gone?” O’Dea asked.
Much of the frustration centers on the cattle futures market and industry consolidation. Ranchers rely on feeder cattle futures to predict what they will earn, but sudden swings can erase profits overnight. Many believed 2025 would be a rare profitable year until President Donald Trump announced plans to increase beef imports from Argentina and called on ranchers to lower prices.
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“We’re going to do something very quickly and easily on beef to get it down,” Trump said.
Ranchers say those comments sent cattle prices tumbling. “Looks like we’ve lost around $200 a head. That would be around a $17 billion hit,” said rancher Mike Callicrate.
O’Dea said his operation lost between two and three hundred dollars per head in a single month. “So, quarter-million-ish in a month. It’s real money. It’s real dollars.”
Despite the losses, beef prices stayed high. “I would handle it better if it was actually making a difference for the consumer, but it’s not,” O’Dea said.
Coy Young says futures trading has become a playground for speculators. “Those guys don’t own any cattle; they don’t do anything but paper trade and drive the board down,” he said.
The problem is compounded by consolidation. Just four companies control about 80 percent of meatpacking. Bill Bullard, CEO of R-CALF USA, said producers once received 63 cents of every beef dollar in 1980. By 2021, that share had flipped. “Because the marketplace is fundamentally broken,” Bullard said.
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R-CALF USA has called on the Department of Justice to act. “We would like to see the US Department of Justice initiate an antitrust lawsuit against the largest meatpackers and even the retailers,” Bullard said.
For ranchers like O’Dea, the concern is personal and generational. “We feel a lot of betrayal at this point,” he said. “I hope there’s a bigger plan… But I’m hoping that we aren’t going to get drug down in this quest for cheap food.”