Why the U.S. cattle herd is at a 75-year low

https://text.npr.org/nx-s1-5719511

by mooreds • 2 months ago

13 5 2 months ago

text.npr.org

Isamu• 2 months ago

Wow, such a great text only page with news reporting, I thought these were extinct!

faangguyindia• 2 months ago

Sometimes back I heard many regions in US are suffering from draught like conditions. Could that be the reason?

hoppyhoppy2• 2 months ago

Drought is one of the reasons mentioned in the third paragraph of the article.

mannyv• 2 months ago

The article buries something interesting at the bottom:

"Herd size is down, but U.S. beef production is steady"

So the author talks about all this stuff, but probably the three big cost drivers are:

1. Input costs are higher

2. Possible price fixing by meatpackers

3. Lack of Mexican imports due to screwworm. Although it sounds like Mexican imports would increase the herd size, not the amount of beef on the market.

Not sure why people haven't been importing more beef. The article mentions tariff cuts for Argentina, but there are other places that export beef. Possibly the market is tight all over the world?

qsxfthnkp2322• 2 months ago

Just like eggs. If you artificially cut supply then you can charge more.

Why the U.S. cattle herd is at a 75-year low

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