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Beef prices had soared to a record high in April - up almost 50 percent from five years ago.
While Americans are eating more protein than ever, farmers are hiking up the price of their beef as they struggle to raise cattle.
According to government statistics, the average cost of one pound of ground beef reached $5.80 in April — a new record for the meat industry and an almost 50 percent price increase in five years.
Stephen Kirkland, owner of the Texas-based Z Bar Cattle Company, told CBS News that he could buy a steer for roughly $1,500 a year ago. Steers are young male cattle raised for beef. Kirkland said the price of a steer has now spiked to almost $2,400.
He explained all the extra costs of raising cattle: "$2,400 for one steer going into the feed yard, and then feed and everything else, transportation, everything else that gets involved in that.”
Kirkland said his company has tried to absorb the cost increases at his two butcher shops.
“But as cattle prices increase, we're left with no other choice,” he said, adding, "If we want to stay profitable, we want to stay in business at all, you've got to go up on your price.”
One Texan shopper, Darlowe Torkelson, who was buying a single sirloin steak and one potato for him and his wife, told CBS News that he hasn’t found his upper limit of what he’s willing to spend on certain groceries.
But he said, “I'd like to see it back down.”
Despite high prices, more Americans are eating protein. The New York Times reported earlier this month that “meat is back.”
The Times cited a report from the Food Industry Association and the Meat Institute released in March stating that meat sales, which included beef, hit a record high of $104.6 billion in 2024.
Another report that the sustainable food company Cargill issued in April, which was also cited by the Times, stated that 61 percent of Americans increased the amount of protein they ate last year compared to 48 percent who upped their protein intake in 2019.
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