{"id":10187,"date":"2012-05-09T12:00:23","date_gmt":"2012-05-09T17:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=10187"},"modified":"2012-05-11T11:39:58","modified_gmt":"2012-05-11T16:39:58","slug":"why-cattle-prices-are-so-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/05\/09\/why-cattle-prices-are-so-high\/","title":{"rendered":"Raise the Steaks! Beef Prices Soar"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by DAMIEN MEYER\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>

Cattle prices are breaking records as ranchers rebuild their herds after the drought.<\/p><\/div>\n

If you\u2019re getting ready for summer grilling season, be warned. You can expect the price of steaks and hamburgers to be higher this summer. The reason is that cattle prices are nearly double what they were last year.<\/p>\n

The drought that struck Texas in 2011 caused the state cattle industry to lose over three billion dollars<\/a>.\u00a0With little rain, grass simply didn\u2019t grow, and ranchers had to buy hay at record-high prices from as far away as Montana. Many ranchers sold off their herds, which resulted in the largest decline in the beef cow inventory in Texas history.<\/p>\n

But as that dry weather reduced supply, recent wet weather has increased demand.<\/p>\n

Seeing rains across much of the state, ranchers are now trying to rebuild their herds. That\u2019s brought the price of cattle higher than it\u2019s ever been. Cows that would have cost $1,800 dollars last year sold for nearly $3,000 at a recent auction, according to the Associated Press<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The price hike isn’t unexpected. In December, Peter\u00a0Bonds, Vice President of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, predicted this would happen<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cWhen it does rain, we ranchers will start retaining heifers to build these cow numbers back. There\u2019s going to be a time there when there\u2019s actually going to be less beef on the market,\u201d he told StateImpact Texas at the time.<\/p>\n

Adding to the demand end are increasing exports to Canada, Mexico, Korea and Japan, says Stan Bevers, an Economist with the Texas Agrilife Extension Services at Texas A&M University.<\/p>\n

“Over the last six to eight months, a lot of other countries want to import our beef and when you get low supply and high demand that\u00a0 tends to make prices go somewhat ballistic,” Bevers told StateImpact Texas.<\/p>\n

He expects it will all translate into higher prices at butcher counters and in grocery stores for the next two to three years.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s been pretty well documented. From last year beef prices were up seven, eight, nine percent higher at the super markets. We could probably see that again over the next couple of years very easily,” Bevers said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re getting ready for summer grilling season, be warned. You can expect the price of steaks and hamburgers to be higher this summer. The reason is that cattle prices are nearly double what they were last year. The drought that struck Texas in 2011 caused the state cattle industry to lose over three billion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":10193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[59],"tags":[61,140,126],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10187"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10187"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10209,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10187\/revisions\/10209"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}