Texas A&M AgriLife’s Dr. Jeff Wright said while some consumers are buying substitutes like chicken or pork, beef’s demand has kept up with rising prices.
SAN ANGELO, Texas — If beef is what’s for dinner, you might have noticed you’ve been paying more for a while. Several factors have created the beef-flation and a complicated reality for farmers, ranchers and consumers.
Texas A&M AgriLife’s Dr. Jeff Wright said low grain prices have actually made it easier to feed cattle in an ongoing drought, but a shortage of the animals is a long way from getting back to normal. Ranchers can’t import calves from Mexico because of an embargo caused by the New World Screwworm, which is shrinking herds- skyrocketing prices.
“We have a seasonal trend where it’ll tend to drop off maybe a little bit through the fall, but not much,” Wright said. “People keep asking ‘is it going down?’ It’s not going down to what it was last year, and the prices at the grocery store are not going down to where they were over the last five years.”
Wright says some consumers have considered other options, like buying chicken or pork… still, the demand for beef has been consistent even with a shrinking supply.