Aiden Martin is the Treasurer of the United FFA Chapter. While attending the FS Fall Ag Roundtables, FFA leaders were given the opportunity to ask a panel of agriculture industry leaders questions.
“This is a question about the beef industry. What are the key factors that are making the beef industry so high?”
Thad Tharp from the Illinois Beef Association Board shares that there are a few factors that have caused beef prices to climb.
“Two to three years ago, prices on cull cattle started climbing because of supply and demand; in feeder cattle, prices also started to climb. So heifer retention fell to the wayside,” explains Tharp. “We have been depleting the herd as opposed to building the herd. Now the pounds of beef on the market are eerily similar, with substantially fewer cattle, but there’s a point in time where that will no longer be the case, and we’re not far from that.”
Exports have also had a hand in high beef prices, especially to Asian markets.
