This is basically a re-print of a Washington Post article that is in its current edition, minus the paywall.
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While I don't think the meat packing industry being controlled by four companies is a good thing, I don't think that's necessarily the major issue. When I buy beef from someone local I buy it on the hoof at market price, and then it's processed by a local butcher. The market price for a steer on the hoof is several times what I paid a year ago. Friends can make so much from selling a steer they can't afford to keep one for themselves. Extreme weather, causing decimated herds is the issue.Last edited by Bogy; May 26, 2026, 12:58 PM.
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I know farmers and ranchers have complained for years they're getting shafted by processors/packers and aren't seeing ANY of these gains... is that really true? Like... these 'market prices' would imply their gross revenues HAVE gone up substantially (per head), though they may have been outstripped by the other additional costs - feed, vaccinations, fuel, fertilizer, etc. Just curious because I've heard nothing but how ranchers are getting screwed by ALL of this. -
realdocBBQ there's a pending lawsuit in NC for collusion of packers similar to the realpage lawsuit last year. The big problem here is (allegedly) China bought most of the packers out (some of the US processors did the same but to focus on their own farms) and then decreased services to farmers in the hopes to push them out of business and buy up their farms. It is mostly target towards hogs and poultry here, but is has affected beef too.Last edited by ItsAllGoneToTheDogs; May 27, 2026, 03:43 PM. -
Right, I don't doubt that there is a problem in the packing industry. But there are a ton of factors in all of this, at every level.
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It looks like from the above post - live prices have more than doubled - which is essentially what has happened to retail prices in the last 5 years, too, right?
Naturally, some cuts that used to be throwaway are now considered 'niche' cuts and have triple, quadrupled or more. But that isn't surprising. Tri-tip - I got a whole case for $3.29/lb maybe 3 years ago? Now they are routinely $9.99-12.99/lb.Comment
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Here's a little background, as I understand it primarily from an Iowa standpoint, either living in or having relatives in, especially central and northwest Iowa for the past 72 years. First, only one beef packer is owned by a Chinese company, and less than 1% of farmland in Iowa is owned by Chinese investors. So, while the rhetoric in Iowa politics is full of warnings about how China is taking over Iowa farms, it's far from the truth. BTW, if you would rather not support that one Chinese owned packing company, it's Smithfield.
Who does control the meat industry in Iowa? For beef it's Tyson. In 1960 Some local guys in Northwest Iowa, with a $300,000 small business loan changed the industry. They shifted packing away from centers like Chicago to places like rural Iowa and South Dakota. Where Chicago was still using facilities built in the previous century, Iowa Beef Processors (IBP) was building brandnew streamlined plants. They invented boxed beef. Instead of shipping beef halves to be processed or to butchers, they broke down the components and shipped them in vacuum sealed packages. They also broke the meat packing union. I had a job lined up to work for IBP on a night shift when I came back to northwest Iowa for my last two years of college. Another opportunity came up, and after seeing buddies come back to the dorm after putting in a shift I decided I'd go with that. Today, most of the jobs in packing plants are done by the people we don't want here anymore. Since the union is gone, worker safety is a joke. The grease from the animals makes it difficult to hold a knife, and carpal tunnel numbs their hands, so they tie the knives onto their hands. They are standing shoulder to shoulder, so during that time when we were dealing with the malady which must not be named, plants had to shut down because there were no healthy people to keep the lines running. Farmers and ranchers may be getting screwed, but the people who are literally throwaways are the people who work in the packing plants.
IBP was eventually bought by Tyson, the controlling majority of which is still owned by the Tyson family. Biggest processor in Iowa, although the other three companies also play a part. Beef production here in Iowa is different than it is in someplace like Texas. Rainfall is fairly reliable, and so pasture is not the issue that it is when you are running steers on a place like the sand hills of Nebraska. Corn is abundant for feed. Actually, since 51% of Iowa corn goes to making ethanol, the byproduct, distillers grain makes great feed.
As far as pork, the industry in Iowa is largely controlled by Jeff and Deb Hanson, who own Iowa Select. They live in Des Moines, and several other places, although they started in Iowa Falls, where the headquarters remains. The hospital in Iowa Falls is the Hanson Family Hospital, several buildings at the local Community College are named after the Hansons, and they donate thousands of pork loins to food banks all across Iowa every Christmas. I used to live 11 miles from Iowa Falls. Business plan is that Jeff contracts with farmers to feed pigs for him. I have friends that do the whole process themselves, from farrow to market. Most of the guys have piglets delivered, and they feed them to market weight. Jeff controls the market in Iowa, because if a packing plant needs 5,000 hogs to slaughter tomorrow, Jeff can gaurantee there will be 5,000 hogs there tomorrow. Jeff is making out extremely well. The guys who contract with him, not necesarily. It takes a lot of the risk out of things for them, they know there will be a market, and I believe they are garanteed up front how much they will make per hog. But since Jeff is the one taking the risk, but also with the leaverage, they aren't going to make as much as they might have. Out of 10 farmers you could probably find at least 6 who would describe Jeff as a devil, while probably none of them would describe him as an angel, the rest would probably acknowledge it's the way things work today.
I've been a pastor, mostly in farm country, since 1981. Went through the farm crisis in the 1980s. And I just deleted a paragraph, because I don't want to be more political than I have already been.Comment
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I was at the local US Chef store yesterday, found St Louis cut ribs for $2.70 # , whole spares for $2.50 , pork butt was somewhere around $1.80 . To the best of my memory, this is in line with pork prices for several years now.
On the beef side, a rib roll for $15 #, just takes some simple butchering on my part . And I bought chuck beef ribs that were priced at $7 , but they were labeled beef clod at $5.50 and that's what rang up at check out.
I bought pork butt at Sams last week for $2 a pound and cut my own pork steaks.
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jfmorris I cut around the bone and then use a meat cutting blade in my recip saw, to get through the bone. But I really think just a plain ole hand meat saw would work better. I'm still not very good at it, my pork steaks come out uneven. But I don't do this but once every year or two. -
That reminds me I was going to order a stainless meat cutting blade for my Dewalt reciprocating saw and try this... I would probably wrap the bottom guard below the saw body in foil or something... I imagine it would be easier to cook if put in the freezer for an hour before attempting it, to firm the meat up some. -
jfmorris US Chef store is usually priced competitively with Sams, they're a little below on most everything. Is definitely commodity meat meant for restaurants, mostly .
The recip saw will vibrate a lot. And I start on the bone end, so I can have some bulk to hold the meat steady. I'm looking for a better way.
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Kosmo on the ribeye roll .............. great way to save money
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My wife went to B&E Meats the other day. She goes there often for a few favorites and brought a choice NY home the previous visit and it was very small and not thick enough for my liking. I told her to have them cut a 2-inch steak of Prime NY or Ribeye. The last time I did that is was a reasonable sized Prime NY that still lasted us a few days. There are usually just the two of us and my wife eats about an ounce.
My wife brought home a 2.61-pound Prime Rib Steak. It was a little more per pound than what DuckinBBQ paid. My wife and I agree I need to buy the meat. Dry Brining now for a Friday Smoke.
Last edited by Midway; May 28, 2026, 06:28 PM.Comment
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We have a fairly new store called Madison Meat Center. It's up in Madison NC which is about 30-35 minute away. I have a friend that lives up there and he swears by it. They currently have Certified Angus Prime bone-in ribeye for $12.99/lb and Certified Angus Prime NY strip steaks for $16.99/lb. I may just have to go check them out. They guy that runs it is the son of the owner of our local Bi-Rite up in Stokesdale so he's grown up in the business. Here's a link to their store with a little history. Pretty neat.
Last edited by Hulagn1971; June 1, 2026, 12:14 PM.Comment
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Nebraska drought. Irrigated crops will be fine. As to grass, brother says: "We have a lot of acres; not much grass."
He says the processors/packers claim to be losing money.
Like most things these days, who really knows?Comment
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Son-in-Law raises Piedmontese. He has a couple animals coming up for slaughter. With his carcass price, kill price, and processing cost it comes out to about $7.30/pound. That would be for steaks, roasts, hamburger etc. A good price in today's market.
Reach out to a local producer and see if they would be willing to work with you on purchasing an animal. Ranchers can't sell processed beef directly to the consumer, but they can sell a carcass which you can have processed by a local butcher. Reach out to your friends if a whole beef is too much and you can split it in half or half of a half.
Final product depends on the weight of the animal but a "rough" estimate might give you 140-150 pounds for half of a half, 280-300 pounds for a half, and 560-600 pounds for the full carcass. Let me know if you need help with the math.
Have fun!Comment
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This may be what you mean, but in Iowa the farmer delivers the steer to the processor, I tell the processor how I want it packaged (do you want the brisket ground up into hamburger? Yes, this does happen!) and then I pick it up from the processor. I have both paid the farmer and the processor separately (most of the time) and the last time a friend paid to have the steer processed and I paid him a set price for a quarter. BTW, a year ago I paid right at $3 lb for that quarter. -
Yes, that's how it works. The $7.30/pound included the cost of the animal, the kill cost and the cost of processing by a butcher. I rolled them into one number so folks could compare what they pay in the store vs. getting an animal through a local producer/butcher. What a difference a year makes.
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It was Tuesday morning at Sams this week, can't go tomorrow.
But still found meats on sale. Whole Spare Ribs for $1.70 . Chuck Roast at $7.50 , normally $8.50 .
And it wasn't just individual packs of ribeye and NY strip marked down, it was the entire inventory .
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jfmorris FWIW, I was at the meat dept at Sams once, and a butcher was out stocking. There were steaks marked down with a sell date of that day, or maybe the day after. I talked to the butcher about them, he told me not to worry about the sale date. And that's all he would say.
And even then, I put the meats in the freezer, if I don't immediately cook them. -
Lynn Dollar I don't worry much with beef that is at or just past its sell by or freeze/use by date. I avoid pork or poultry that is "aged" though. I had a lady at church once bring me two butts to smoke for her when she knew I was running the offset back in the day, and you never ever forget the smell of a truly spoiled Boston butt! Yuck! Or your first package of rotten chicken. If I was cooking it the day I bought it I might get the marked down chicken at Sam's, but that is about it.
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Screwworm has been identified in US cattle. Free link below to the NYT article:
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It seems as though pricing on beef in my area of Houston has largely stabilized if not come down slightly. Prime cuts of ribeye and NY Strips at my local HEB have come down from about $22/pound to as low as $18/pound if you catch a sale.
I'm also exploring various cuts of beef. Costco just had a run on flat iron trimmed steaks for $14/pound. They each like beefy tenderloins. Point is there are alternatives that keep the cost down.
Like most of you, however; they will have to pry that beef steak out of my cold, dead hands. Gotta have my beef
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