Beef Prices Aren’t Going to Come Down in Idaho and Utah

Beef prices won’t be going down soon.  The price per pound probably hasn’t reached a ceiling.  The size of the nation’s beef cattle herd is now the smallest it has been since 1951.  At the time, there were 151 million Americans.  To put that into perspective, the Census Bureau now estimates there are more than 340 million of us.  We’ve well more than doubled the number of people, all of whom wake up hungry.  Check out this link to get even more details on the numbers.  The shrinking herd isn’t expected to stabilize for another couple of years.

Imports Won't Help

The controversial idea to alleviate the shortage (and the high cost) by importing more South American beef won’t make much of a difference.  It would be only a small fraction of the available supply, and an increase in imports would trigger an increase in the beef tariff.

President Trump is being blamed by many Americans for a bitter economy, and much of it centers on the price of meat.  Beef is a staple of the diets of most Americans.  Even some liberal pundits grudgingly admit the President shouldn’t shoulder all the responsibility for the economy.

There are Alternatives to Beef

People are scrambling for protein alternatives.  Many of those are dairy-related.  The environmentalists hate dairy cows as much as beef cattle.  You’ll notice there’s a scramble at your local grocery store to buy discounted cuts of meat.  People are stocking it in their freezers at home when they get an opportunity for a markdown.  The greenies are loving it.