COLORADO SPRINGS — If you have taken a trip to the grocery store, you may have noticed a rise in the price of certain cuts of meat. News5 wanted to look into this issue.
Beef prices have been high for years, but now they're soaring even higher, with average prices for two popular cuts sitting near record highs.
Drought, high grain prices, and rising interest rates have made cattle farming more expensive, leading many farmers to reduce their herds.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has tracked prices for sirloin steak and ground beef since the 1980s.
Data shows prices for these two popular products remained pretty consistent until COVID, when people spent more time cooking at home. Since then, we have seen multiple record-setting price spikes.
Our News5's Piper Vaughn spoke with the founder of Ranch Foods Direct, a local meat-packing facility here in the Springs. He tells us why he thinks the prices are rising.
“So at a time when we should have been building our herd with increased demand, we were actually liquidating our herd because of the pressure, the price pressure, the big meatpackers. It's just so unfortunate that the big system that the overall corporate control centralized system is breaking down at that very time that consumers are wanting to eat more meat," he said.
He says he hopes more people start choosing to shop locally.
"I hope for the future is that consumers will become more aware of the situation we're in from an overall food supply perspective and that they will shop more local and regional," says Mike Callicrate, the founder of Ranch Foods Direct.
It looks like beef prices will keep rising for a while as the amount of cattle is decreasing, and demand keeps increasing. Beef prices typically drop when supply goes up or demand goes down — or both.
Watch the full story above.
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