Where’s the beef? Burger meat prices soar to new records, as US cattle herds shrink to Eisenhower administration levels.

Photo above – The future of cattle ranching - in1882 Montana - is contemplated in the film “Open Range”. RIP, Robert Duvall.

Let’s pretend it’s 1952. World War 2 is over. Eisenhower is president. The US population hits an astonishing 160 million. Today it’s more than double that.

Can you believe that today America has FEWER cattle on the hoof? And beef prices are up 15% compared to a few months ago. Despite the blather we are fed about inflation. (see link below). The Los Angeles times has a theory about why a Big Mac, Coke, and fries are becoming unaffordable luxuries. of course.

“Drought”. This certainly will certainly make climate activists sit up and applaud. Except that the corn acreage planted today is WAAAY higher than in 1950. And yields per acre have soared 400%, from 40 bushels per acre to 180. Sorry Los Angeles Times, your theory smells like BS. There’s plenty of corn, and water to make that corn grow.

Simply parroting “higher cattle production costs” doesn’t explain anything either. Consumer beef prices are rising faster than productions costs. That’s how capitalism works. Both costs and prices are on the rise, unless its one of those dreaded depressions. When prices go up faster than costs, it’s win. Just ask dairy farmers, poultry farmers, etc.

The LA Times article takes a pot-shot at Fed interest rate increases, but I doubt if what’s making car loans and mortgages unaffordable is also preventing keeping mama cows from having baby cows.

Is it tariffs? Are those keeping US cattle herd sizes down? Again, t’s hard to see how that would be. Anyway, the Times says that import restrictions on beef from Argentina have been lifted. More cows should mean cheaper burgers, right? Right?

This LA Times clickbait article answers zero questions about burgers, the weather, fed interest rates, tariffs, or inflation in general. Two humans claim to have written it. “Ilena Peng” is a Bloomberg reporter who has published a zillion articles on tariffs. “Enda Curran” also works for Bloomberg and seems to mostly rewrite government press releases on the economy. Not that I’d be happier with an AI-written piece of burger clickbait. But at least I’d feel that the next chat GPT release had a shot at improving it’s results when it comes to burger inflation.

I'm just sayin' . . .

America's cattle herd hits smallest level since 1950s, pushing beef prices to record highs - Los Angeles Times

Crop Production Historical Track Records 04/09/2025