Planning a cookout? There’s one grocery item costing Americans a lot more this year.
Heading into Fourth of July weekend, Americans are going to be making some tough choices about what to throw on the grill. The price of beef in the U.S. is still hovering around its record high, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In April, beef hit its highest price yet, averaging $6.92 per pound of ground chuck – up almost a dollar per pound from the year prior and almost three dollars compared to early 2020, before prices began rising. In May, it dipped slightly to $6.72 per pound, a price that remains well above what Americans expect to pay for red meat. Beef’s problems are myriad. The U.S. cattle herd, which includes dairy and beef cattle, has contracted to its smallest size in 75 years. For farmers, raising cattle is a more expensive endeavor now than in the past. Rising costs for everything from fuel to fertilizer have imperiled the business of raising cattle. With fewer suppliers, that business is now even more volatile – and even riskier for anyone looking to get in. The Farm Bureau predicts that cattle inventory in the U.S. won’t expand until 2028 at the soonest. “The combination of fewer beef cows and a declining calf crop means the 2026 calf crop will likely continue to trend downward because there are fewer calves available for the breeding herd, even if more heifers are kept for breeding purposes,” a report from the farming organization earlier this year stated. Beef’s uncertain future Environmental conditions have also worsened conditions for cattle farming. In parts of the country experiencing historically dry weather, farmers face difficult choices about how to keep cattle fed and watered with pastures in a depleted state. “There’s just no way you can survive in this business if you don’t have rain,” NC State Ruminant Nutrition Specialist Matt Poore said in a report on drought conditions and farming in North Carolina. “On the pasture-based livestock farms I work with, your primary crop is the pasture, the gras