As the far left insists we cut down on our beef eating, they’re getting their wish by chance. A real boon for them. The cattle are disappearing as a result of inflation, drought, and a farm bill that gets very little of the sales money back to farmers and ranchers.
Now farmers are aging out, and we are on the precipice of losing our industry, one of the world’s best.
We Import Beef, Export Less
According to Reuters, the United States is importing record amounts of beef this year and exporting less after ranchers slashed the nation’s cattle herd to its lowest level in decades, tightening margins for meat companies like Tyson Foods (TSN.N).
Cattle numbers have declined after drought sent the beef prices soaring. Higher prices encourage companies to import cheaper beef from Japan, China and Egypt.
The USDA expects the US to drop to the ranking of the worlds fourth largest beef and veal exported this year down from second and 2022.
This should make the far left happy. It’s one more industry that America is failing on, and it’s one the social planners want us to abandon.
Why is it cheaper to import beef rather than raise our own beef?
Tyson, CEO, Donnie King in August warned that the herd was the smallest since 1962.
it seems that very little of the money you spend on your beef gets back to the farmer or rancher who is raising the cattle. It’s been marked for failure in the Farm Bill.
Unless Congress comes along with some reforms in the Farm Bill to restore competition to US cattle markets, the business will continue to go downhill. The cattle industry is in peril.
From the Farm Bill
…The U.S. cattle industry is marked for failure – just as occurred to its sister sheep industry that no longer provides even half the volume of lamb needed to satisfy America’s consumers – unless Congress acts decisively to enact meaningful reforms in the 2023 Farm Bill that restore competition to U.S. cattle markets and profitable opportunities for independent cattle producers.
Unsurprisingly, the economic viability of all segments of the live cattle supply chain is in peril as evidenced by prolonged declines in cow/calf producers’ returns, returns to cattle feeders, and the overall share of the consumer’s beef dollar allocated to the live cattle segment of the beef supply chain, which as shown below was flipped on its head in just over a generation.
The average farmer is aging out, and they’ve suffered a steep decline in average annual net cash income.
Farmers are suffering the double whammy of inflation and drought and a bill that doesn’t work for them. All that made us great is disappearing.
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