So much for my BBQ:
America’s ranchers are facing their smallest cattle herd in 75 years, a shortage now rippling from pastures to some of the nation’s largest meatpackers.
USDA data shows the U.S. entered 2026 with about 86.2 million cattle and calves, the smallest herd since the early 1950s. That’s down from roughly 94.7 million cattle and calves in 2019, a decline of more than 8 million animals.
And therefore:
Tyson Foods announced last week that it will close beef facilities in Illinois and Utah and pursue the sale of another in Washington as it reshapes its beef business amid what the company called one of the most historic cattle shortages the country has ever experienced. Tyson said recent USDA data suggest supply constraints are likely to persist.
And the reason:
“The biggest thing has been drought,” Eric Belasco, head of the agricultural economics department at Montana State University, previously told Fox News Digital.
He said years of dry weather have depleted grasslands across the West and Plains, leaving ranchers without enough feed or water to sustain their herds. Many have been forced to sell cattle early, including cows needed to produce the next generation of calves, making the road to recovery even longer.
The effects are reaching beyond ranches and into grocery stores, where consumers are paying more for beef.
Tell me about it. Beef has long been a staple chez Du Toit, but I think our current consumption of steak, burgers and such has been more than halved over the past year or two. As for going out for a steak dinner? Not since B.C. (before Covid).
I can’t even afford to make my own biltong anymore. No wonder New Wife has been cranky recently.
Worse is that I don’t much care for chicken, unless in toasties… but I guess that will have to change.
As much as I’m reluctant to let Gummint be involved in anything, I do think that cattle farmers could do with some help from that quarter. (I don’t know where because I’m not a cattle farmer. But no, it can’t come from tax relief because that just benefits Big Beef Inc., who controls most of our beef production.)
I have to tell y’all, though: I’m getting kinda cranky myself every time I go into the store and see those beef prices. Beef shouldn’t be a luxury foodstuff; but it’s become one, and I don’t like it.
Thank you, Mother Nature, you dried-out old bitch.
