While the beef you've been buying isn't literally plated in gold, the cost may have you thinking it should be. Hopefully we can shed some light on what has caused these higher prices.
In 2020, when Covid hit, the supply lines were severely disrupted as we all know. Meat processors shut down, transit was a mess, and demand for home prep food went through the roof. In the most glaring modern example of weakness in our food system, grocery store coolers sat empty while farmers had no buyers for their cattle. This processing bottleneck took nearly a year to iron out.
Just as things were starting to get back to more normal in the beef supply chain, grain and feed prices went way, way up. Higher input costs force producers to make hard decisions. Sell beef at lighter weights, decrease the size of the herd or go out of business altogether. The trouble was just getting started!
Drought conditions ingulfed the western US for most all of 2020 - 2022! Some relief came for the first part of 2023 but ended very dry for large parts of the country, including the Northeast. With no pasture and no feed, large numbers of mama cows went to slaughter with no one able to afford to feed them. It takes a long time to replace a brood or mama cow! Most weaned calves are sold at 6-8 months old. If a rancher keeps a heifer calf to add back to the herd, she won't have a calf for another year and half, then it will be another 6-8 months before her first calf can be sold.
As we start 2024, the value of beef calves is at all-time highs. There is a huge shortage of these "feeder" calves in the market. Dairy/Beef breed cross calves are also fetching prices never seen before and now account for roughly a quarter of the beef supply in the US.