Due to unprecedented circumstances in the beef industry, I feel compelled to let folks know what has been going on in the feeder cattle market specifically, and how it has affected us.

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As some of you know, we dispersed our cow herd a few years ago and began purchasing all of our feeder calves from a couple of farmers who sell clean, genetically sound calves that are well suited to grass finishing. We had a market for an increasing number of grass-finished cattle and believed that using our limited land resources to finish more cattle—rather than feeding each cow for a full year to produce one calf—could be a win for both us and our customers.

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At that time, prices for feeder cattle, which comprise over half of our total farm costs, were well under $2 per pound (live weight) at 500–600 pounds. Fast forward to today, and feeder calves are now selling for over $5 per pound. As this increase unfolded over the past several years, we gradually raised our prices for grass-finished beef, but not nearly enough to keep pace with rising costs.

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My assumption was that the pendulum of feeder calf prices would swing back soon, and I didn’t want our prices going up and down in rapid succession—especially since we tend to commit our beef to customers several months in advance. As it turns out, we are either on the upswing of a very slow cycle or entering a whole new era of pricing.

Regardless, we have now experienced multiple years of negative farm income and are being forced to raise our prices significantly in order to return to profitability by 2027. The lag in profitability is also due to the fact that once we purchase a feeder calf, we still have over a year invested in raising and finishing it before it can be sold as freezer beef.

We sell beef by hanging weight (also called carcass weight), which is typically 50–55% of live weight. This means the calf’s live weight must roughly double while in our care to produce a 600 lb. carcass.

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Currently, farms with adequate acreage to maintain a herd of cows and produce their own calves have a pricing advantage over producers like us who purchase all of our calves. Overall, I consider that a good thing, as there are years when cow-calf operations struggle to make a profit. However, it does create challenging conditions for operations that rely on purchasing calves.

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There are many more details I could share, and I encourage you to call or email me with any questions. However, I didn’t want to overburden folks by getting into all the factors affecting cattle prices.

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In addition to striving for transparency in our business—and keeping our customers better informed than large corporations often do—we have also worked hard to provide the highest-quality, clean, and healthy product possible while keeping it as affordable as a small farm can. This is somewhat reflected in the fact that, despite the steadily rising cost of living, we have maintained the same price on pork for several years.

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We also do our best to keep the pricing example on our website updated with the most recent estimate of what costs will be by the time beef is available.

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You can read more about our feeder calf provider on our About Us page at the link below.

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