Why beef prices are so high

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 September 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

Beef is getting more expensive, and it doesn’t look as though that’s going to change any time soon. That’s the view of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, which wrote in its Beige Book entry this month that the trend of rising beef prices continues. There’s solid demand for beef, but falling supply, as production decreases. Ranchers are making more per cow, but their costs are rising. We speak with a rancher in Wyoming to learn what high beef prices mean for him and other ranchers.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR.
0:02.0	Hey, Robert. Looks like you just went to the grocery store. Will you show me your hall?
0:16.5	Yes, I decided to buy all the items mentioned in the most recent beige book.
0:22.1	Good list. The beige book is our favorite obscure government document here at The Indicator.
0:28.7	It gives insight into how local economies are doing. And Robert, you went super local, hyperlocal.
0:34.6	Yeah, of course. The beige book says that beef prices are up, so I bought some
0:39.5	hamburger. And eggs and dairy products, they're cheaper in some places, according to the beige book,
0:44.8	so I got a deal on those. And what's that peeking out of your bag? Corn? I did get a few cobs. The book
0:51.6	says that corn prices are down. The only question now is, can you make a beige book recipe with this stuff? You know, if you have one of those newfangled fridges that you connect to Wi-Fi, it tells you what to make with the random stuff inside, I feel like it would tell you make a really strange frittata. Frittata is always the answer when you don't know what to make. Just throw it all in there.
1:11.5	A frittata is hearty, and I think we're going to need some sustenance to get through today's
1:16.3	episode, which is, of course, it's the Basia Awards, our eight times a year salute to
1:24.4	the art and science of telling stories about the economy.
1:27.7	I'm Robert Smith.
1:28.7	And I'm Whalen Wong.
1:29.8	It is a fascinating moment in the economy right now.
1:33.0	When is it not, though, Robert?
1:34.8	True, true.
1:35.6	We have a labor market that seems frozen, inflation sneaking in around the edges, and there
1:40.9	are great stories from inside our refrigerator.
1:44.1	We'll hear those ahead on the Basie Awards after the break.
1:51.1	At Radio Lab, we love nothing more than nerding out about science, neuroscience, chemistry.
1:58.5	But we do also like to get into other kinds of stories.
	...

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