Beef Prices in US Near Record Highs

Beef prices in the U.S. are nearing record levels, driven by supply challenges and rising costs across most food categories.

According to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the average, per-pound price of 100 percent ground beef reached $5.625 in February. While only a slight increase from $5.545 in January, this marks a nearly ten-percent jump since February of last year, and nears the all-time high of $5.670 reached in September.

Why It Matters

Beef, like many grocery items, has seen a sharp price increase since the COVID pandemic, with Americans facing higher costs for one of their most popular protein sources.

Like with egg prices, the significant increase underscores the country's ongoing struggle to get inflation closer to the Federal Reserve's two-percent target, as well as the broader structural challenges and supply constraints facing the beef industry.

What To Know

According to the most recent inflation reading from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the prices of all food groups rose 0.2 percent in February, having risen 0.4 percent in January. The index for meats, poultry, fish and eggs rose 1.6 percent monthly, a softer increase than had been anticipated thanks to a sharp drop in egg prices. Meanwhile, beef prices surged 2.4% in February, outpacing the broader food category.

According to priceofgoods.com, utilizing BLS data, the Midwest has seen the largest price surge over the past year, with costs rising 17.1 percent to $6.105/lb, followed by the South (+9.5 percent), and the Northeast (+8.4 percent). The South continues to be the most budget-friendly region for ground beef, at $5.530/lb, having seen only a 3.9 percent price increase in the past 12 months.

Beef prices across the U.S. have been climbing due to a shrinking cattle herd, rising input costs, and consistently strong consumer demand. According to the Iowa Farm Bureau in September, these factors—combined with post-pandemic inflation and prolonged drought conditions in the western U.S.—have driven the prices to their current highs.

What People Are Saying

Terry Houser, director of Iowa State University's Meat Lab, told the Iowa Farm Bureau in September: "Hopefully, it gets raining and we can turn it around in the next couple years and get more cows back, build up the herd. Because it doesn't do anybody, and it doesn't do the beef (ranchers), any good to have really high prices. It just makes consumers switch to different proteins."

What Happens Next?

The next challenge to face U.S. cattle farmers, and the country's agriculture sector more broadly, will be the import tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. Farmers have already expressed concern that the cost of certain goods on which they rely—such as wheat and potash, primarily used as a potassium-based fertilizer—are rising thanks to the duties placed on Canadian imports.