Overview
- Domestic beef prices are up about 75% year over year, a jump economists link to a severe supply squeeze.
- The drought-driven liquidation of breeding stock has left fewer calves, and producers are now retaining animals to rebuild herds over the next two to three years.
- Global markets are tight as the United States has turned into a net importer, with cattle futures in Chicago rising roughly 40% over the past year.
- The U.S. government granted Argentina a 100,000-ton beef quota, creating export opportunity even as local supply remains constrained.
- Consumers are shifting plates toward poultry and pork—2025 consumption reached about 47.7 kg of chicken and 18.9 kg of pork per person—as the sector adopts productivity measures like Beef-for-Dairy, F1 embryo programs, DDGS feeding, and navigates sanitary limits on Mexican calves.