Why Beef Is So Expensive, and What Brings the Price Down

Описание: Ground beef cost $6.92 a pound in August, the highest price in the 42 years the government has tracked it. Yet Tyson, one of the four giants that process most of America's beef, lost $483 million on beef in nine months. This video follows $100 of beef from the checkout back to the pasture and shows where the money moved.

You will see how USDA splits $100 of beef between the cattle sellers, the plant and the stores (the plant keeps $3.80), what Tyson and JBS filed about their beef losses, why a plant can lose money when there are not enough cattle, how the money moved from the plants to the cattle owners between 2021 and 2025, why cattle prices fell from May to August while shelf prices did not, what USDA expects next, and what to buy until the price turns.

My own arithmetic (not published figures): the steer cost of about $1,630, $3,340 and $3,525 (five-market price per hundredweight x 15), the $3.69 change per pound since 2020 and its split, the 40,000 head a week shortfall (8,000 a weekday x 5), "about three years" from a kept heifer to beef, about $3 lost per $100 of Tyson beef sold, Kroger's 70 cents per $100, and the 46% and 40% price gaps. USDA's price spreads are averages, not profits. JBS's number is adjusted EBITDA (before interest, tax and depreciation). Cargill and National Beef do not publish the same detail, so the video covers two of the four big packers.

CHAPTERS
0:00 The record price paradox
0:45 Where your $100 of beef goes
1:42 Why Tyson and JBS are losing money
2:56 Why a record price still loses money
3:36 Where the money moved
4:18 Why there are not enough cattle
5:25 The strange part: cattle fell, beef did not
6:10 Is the store the villain?
6:53 Could imports and Mexico help?
7:45 What USDA expects, and what brings the price down
8:36 What to buy until the price falls
9:18 Back to the $100
9:42 Two limits of this story
9:55 What to watch next

SOURCES
BLS average price of ground beef (100% beef), U.S. city average, via FRED (series APU0000703112):
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/AP...

BLS average price of all uncooked beef steaks and of boneless chicken breast, via FRED:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/AP...
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/AP...

USDA Economic Research Service, Meat Price Spreads (the $100 split, Choice beef, steer prices):
https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-product...

USDA Economic Research Service, Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook, September 2026 (production forecast, slaughter, imports, Mexican cattle, per-person beef):
https://ers.usda.gov/media/29662/ldp-...

USDA Economic Research Service, Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook, May 2026 (seven years of declining beef cows, heifers kept back):
https://ers.usda.gov/sites/default/fi...

USDA Economic Research Service, Food Price Outlook, updated 25 September 2026 (beef +9.4%, all food +2.9% for 2026):
https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-product...

USDA NASS, Cattle report, 24 July 2026 (28.5 million beef cows, 32.5 million calf crop):
https://data.nass.usda.gov/Newsroom/p...

Tyson Foods, "Tyson Foods Reports Third Quarter 2026 Results", 3 August 2026 (Form 8-K, exhibit 99.1):
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da...

Tyson Foods, "Tyson Foods Updates Fiscal 2026 Outlook", 3 September 2026 (Form 8-K):
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da...

JBS N.V., "JBS Reports Second Quarter 2026 Results", 10 August 2026 (Form 8-K, exhibit 99.1):
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da...

Kroger, "Kroger Reports Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2025 Results", 5 March 2026:
https://www.thekrogerco.com/ir-feed-i...

American Farm Bureau Federation, "Beef Production 101" (heifer breeding age, gestation, feedlot timing):
https://www.fb.org/intel/markets/beef...

This channel explains how businesses work. It is not personal financial or investment advice. Sketch the Why is not affiliated with Tyson Foods, JBS, Kroger or USDA.

#Beef #BeefPrices #Economics