PROSPER WEEKLY

Americans are paying more for beef than ever before, but the reasons extend far beyond temporary inflation or seasonal shortages. According to Bill Bullard, CEO of R-CALF USA, today’s record prices are the culmination of more than forty years of policy decisions that steadily weakened America’s cattle industry.

This week on The Big 3 with senior economists Mihir Torsekar and Andrew Rechenberg, the discussion begins with the historic decline in the U.S. cattle herd, now the smallest in roughly seventy-five years. Bullard argues this contraction did not happen overnight. Instead, decades of consolidation among meatpackers, declining competition, and steadily increasing imports have hollowed out the domestic cattle industry. The result is fewer ranchers, fewer feedlots, fewer processing plants, and ultimately fewer cattle available to meet growing consumer demand.