What is Up With All the Beef Price Chatter?

There has been a lot of chatter going on about cattle prices, importing beef, and many farmers are upset with how the story is being portrayed. Rather than weighing in on the politics about what is going on, we wanted to explain some of the financial aspects of what is happening with cattle farmers. If you live in a rural area or have friends that are farmers, you might have heard that the cattle markets are at record numbers. You might have also heard some light hearted comments of “wow cattle farmers are rich”, or “I wish I farmed cows instead of corn and soybeans.” With this blog we hope to give a little perspective, especially from young farmers, as to the financial aspect that goes into owning cattle. 

For some background, In 2019 according to a Drover Magazine article citing a University of Tennessee livestock extension economist, 550 pound steers were going for $1.45/100 lbs of body weight. (Total~ $880.00) Further down in the article they explained the total cost to keep a cow for 1 year in 2019 totaled to $898. The article states that if you take into consideration that not all our cows will wean a live calf (because these are live animals) that dividing out a 90% calving percentage will lower your income per cow to be $623/cow. That means in 2019 cattle producers on average were losing $275/cow. What! 

The only way farmers can correct this loss is by selling their cull cows (cows who no longer fit in their herd). This allows the ones who own their cows to keep them on the farm. 

Now to compare our prices from 2025. (Which are record high prices). These are Bryan and Tabby’s numbers for selling calves in June 2025. To preface, in our herd in 2024 we had a 95% calving percentage and we weaned 95% of the calves that had a live baby at birth. We had a good year. We sold 36 of our calves to the market with 60 days of weaning and backgrounding. We sold them for $3.49/lb. avg.  for a 547 lb animal. Totaling $1,912.09. Because we had backgrounded them for 60 days, we paid a daily rate to my dad to feed them. So we have to take off $165/calf from our total because we have to pay that in feed making our revenue per calf $1,747.09. In the October 2025 issue of Drovers Magazine an article talked about replacement heifers. It cited that the Kansas Farm Management Association estimated that it costs a farmer $1,551 on avg. to keep a cow in 2024! We did the math on our cattle (Bryan & Tabby) and since we don’t own land, feed, equipment, or all the cattle themselves we know this number is really accurate at least for us. 

If you spread that across our 95% calving rate last year we had 45 cows and we made $156 per cow profit. 

Yes, this market has allowed beginning farmers who already took the chance when markets were lower to stay in the game. It has allowed us to pay our bills for the last year with farm income alone instead of using our day job money to pay for our farm. This is the way it is supposed to be. Now it is still hard for young farmers to add to their operation with what money we bring in from the cattle farm, like a tractor we own and a gooseneck trailer. For Bryan and Tabby who started their own cow herd in 2020, this year (2025) has been the first time we have made a positive return on our investment in 5 years.  Being in cattle is not a get rich quick type business like people have been saying it has been for the last couple of years. To stay farmers, we have to make money. Just like any other job.

We hope this explanation helps those understand a little more about what is going on with the markets. We promise we aren’t making a lot of money from this. Remember you as the consumer can vote where you spend your money!

Love,

Olivia, Tabby, Gina, & Kendra