Low cattle supply could push steak prices up at supermarket

• The American cattle supply is at its lowest level since 1951. As a result, cattle prices are soaring, and the increases could reach consumers.
• Despite the recent supply concerns, The Wall Street Journal reported that cattle markets in Chicago hit a record in January and were almost 20% higher than two years ago.
• Cuts affected include rib, loin, round and flank.

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The American cattle supply is at its lowest level since 1951, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department. As a result, cattle prices are rising, which could soon mean higher prices for consumers at the grocery store.

Despite the recent supply worries, The Wall Street Journal reported cattle markets in Chicago hit a record in January and were almost 20% higher than two years ago.

The low supply impacts several cuts of meat, including chuck, rib, loin, round and flank.

What companies are affected by this shortage?

Due to the low supply, food brands like Tyson Foods, JBS and Cargill are striving to maximize the amount of meat obtained from each head of cattle. Large companies can earn about $80 million more annually if they increase the meat harvested per cow by 1%.

Workers at meat processing plants are now processing as much meat as possible. Workers send bones that still have meat on them to a trim table in a different part of the plant, where they clean the bone and use the remaining meat they harvest for ground beef.

Henry Davis, the CEO of Greater Omaha Packing, told the WSJ the excess trim is worth anywhere from $1.25 to $3 per pound. He says deboning is very labor-intensive and time-consuming. The plant calls this process of cleaning all the meat from the bones the white bone program.

Workers can send the little meat that remains on the bones for rendering and grind it up into pet food.

What happened back in 1951?

In 1951, drought and high feed prices reduced the cow herd and made fewer cattle available. The USDA’s recent cattle count at the start of 2025 in the United States was about 28 million.

The bottom line is that due to today’s cattle supply shortage, meat processors and beef giants are doing everything possible to maximize profits by pulling as much meat off the bone as possible to sell it.