Beef Prices Squeeze Treasure Coast Families as U.S. Cattle Herd Hits 75-Year Low

For Treasure Coast families already watching every dollar at the checkout line, the price of ground beef and ribeyes is likely to keep climbing — and the reasons run from drought-scorched pastures to a flesh-eating parasitic fly creeping toward the U.S.-Mexico border.

The U.S. cattle herd stood at just 86.2 million head on Jan. 1, 2026, the smallest count since 1951, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. That 75-year low results from years of rising production costs, drought, an aging ranching workforce and an increasingly consolidated meatpacking industry — pressures felt directly by producers in western St. Lucie and Martin counties, where cattle ranching remains one of the region's oldest agricultural industries.

"Our expenses have gone up just like your beef prices have gone up," said Jason Cleere, a professor and extension beef cattle specialist at Texas A&M University who raises about 25 head of his own. "I don't want our ranchers to be painted as the bad guys that are evil that are making all the money. We're just finally caught up to where we can make a good living now."

The national cattle operation count dropped from 882,692 in 2017 to 732,123 five years later — roughly a 17% decline, according to USDA figures. The median U.S. farmer is now 58 years old, making agriculture the oldest workforce in the country, according to a 2023 U.S. Senate Committee on Aging report.

A new threat compounded the supply crunch in May 2025, when Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins blocked all live cattle imports across the southern border with Mexico after the New World screwworm — a parasitic fly whose larvae burrow into and feed on living animals — was detected within 70 miles of the U.S. border. Mexico had accounted for roughly 62% of U.S. cattle imports between 2020 and 2024, according to USDA data. Losing that supply pushed domestic cattle values higher almost immediately.

"If you take that number of cattle out of the beef supply chain, yes, it's going to increase the value of the rest of the calves that ranchers are selling domestically here," Cleere said.

At the retail end, four meatpacking companies — JBS, Cargill, Tyson Foods and National Beef — have controlled more than 80% of U.S. cattle processing since 1995, according to USDA data. In November, President Trump directed the Justice Department to investigate those firms for potential price-fixing and collusion.

"The ranchers keep getting paid less and less for cattle, but yet your prices at the grocery store keep going higher and higher," said Scott Wilbeck, co-owner of two Texas cattle operations.

Rebuilding the national herd offers no quick relief: a cow's gestation period is nine months, and calves typically grow for at least 17 more months before slaughter, Cleere noted.

Treasure Coast shoppers and ranchers alike are watching whether USDA's announced plan to expand domestic grazing on federal lands and tighten "Product of USA" labeling requirements will eventually ease prices — steps that, if implemented, could take years to reach the meat case at a Port St. Lucie Publix or a Stuart farmers market.

This article was generated with AI assistance using publicly available information. It was reviewed and approved by a human editor before publication. TC Sentinel uses AI writing tools in accordance with FTC guidelines.