The U.S. is facing a historic cattle shortage that is pushing beef prices to record highs.
Years of drought throughout the Midwest have degraded pastures, forcing ranchers to sell more of their cattle rather than retain heifers for breeding. El Niño is currently bringing some relief, though dry conditions persist in parts of the country’s ranching regions.
But drought has only accelerated a decades-long trend.
The U.S. has lost roughly 4 in 10 ranches since the late 1970s, according to the USDA’s latest agricultural census. More than 1 million operations raised beef cows in 1978, compared with about 622,000 in 2022. (Nebraska had 14,834 beef cow operations in 2022, down from 17,707 in 2017, according to the USDA. The next census will be released next year.)
Groups like R-CALF, which represents independent ranchers, point to free trade agreements like NAFTA and decades of industry consolidation as key factors that have pushed ranchers out of business.
In the 1980s, a wave of mergers and acquisitions left four companies controlling more than 80% of beef processing. Today, those companies are known as the Big Four: Tyson Foods, Cargill, National Beef and JBS.
Meatpacker consolidation reshaped the entire cattle industry, favoring larger operations and economies of scale. Today, just 10 meatpacking plants process nearly half of all U.S. beef. Feedlots have grown larger, while smaller operations have shut down. For ranchers, fewer feedlots mean fewer buyers for their cattle.
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Data Harvest is Investigate Midwest’s way of making complex agricultural data easy to understand. Through engaging graphics, charts, and maps, we break down key trends to help readers quickly grasp the forces shaping farming, food systems, and rural communities. Want us to explore other data trends? Let us know here.
Investigate Midwest is an independent, nonprofit newsroom. Our mission is to serve the public interest by exposing dangerous and costly practices of influential agricultural corporations and institutions through in-depth and data-driven investigative journalism. Visit us online at www.investigatemidwest.org
3 Comments
Hey, look! An article from outside Omaha! We should be thrilled that Flatwater remembered there are parts of Nebraska that aren’t Omaha, right?
Except that:
1. The article isn’t actually written by Flatwater. It was written by someone else and merely regurgitated by Flatwater.
2. The article is low key gaslighting us with “climate change” scare tactics by giving only one reason why there has been a decline in cattle ranches (drought). Do they really expect us to believe there are *no* other reasons for this scenario? Economics, politics and culture play no role at all? Just ranchers walked outside one day and said, “boy, sure is dry out here today, think I’ll move to New York City and take up a new job as an architect!”
3. Is it just me or is this the shortest article Flatwater has published all year? If someone in Omaha shuts down a restaurant we get a small novel about their life story. If one of the most essential industries in Nebraska is suffering for multiple decades, we get one chart with a few paragraphs to explain it.
” Feedlots have grown larger, while smaller operations have shut down. For ranchers, fewer feedlots mean fewer buyers for their cattle.”
Huh? But larger feedlots means more cattle capacity, which means feedlot owners need to find & buy more cattle to fill their larger feedlots viable!
How exactly is that bad for cattle ranchers?
Now, if the data shows that these [fewer] feedlot owners are paying less for more cattle, then one might have a point, but…
the reality is is that feedlots (large and small) have been paying a premium for cattle for well over 3 years! (source: Iowa State Extension service)
“Data Harvest is Investigate Midwest’s way of making complex agricultural data easy to understand.”
Well, it failed with this article! But it’s clear from Investigate Midwest’s website that IM has a different agenda, right?
Not so much comments as questions:
1) The article talks about larger “feesdlots.” Are we talking about cattle being fed under contract awaiting sale, or are we talking about growers raising cattle in confinement rather than grazing them on acreage or open range?
2) Do the figures you quote exclude dairies? I’m presuming they do. How does that industry factor into the discussion about growers?
3) Your outlet and others have described a cattle shortage. How is demand for beef? Rising, falling, or flat?
4) The article describes a “Big 4” and while I realize there are fewer smaller packers, wasn’t it a Big 4 (granted – a different four) back in the heyday of the Union Stockyards?