{"id":3318,"date":"2025-07-30T13:46:32","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T18:46:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/30\/thinning-herd-heavier-cattle-reshape-missouris-beef-supply-chain-2\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T13:46:32","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T18:46:32","slug":"thinning-herd-heavier-cattle-reshape-missouris-beef-supply-chain-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/30\/thinning-herd-heavier-cattle-reshape-missouris-beef-supply-chain-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Thinning herd, heavier cattle reshape Missouri\u2019s beef supply chain"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Cows are pictured at the University of Missouri South Farm. Cattle weight may be approaching a tipping point, experts say (Noah Grabianski\/Missouri Business Alert)<\/p>\n

Cattle farms and feedlots in Missouri today are populated by cows that are a far cry from those that roamed pastures 80 or 90 years ago.<\/p>\n

Cattle back then were referred to as \u201cbuckle cows\u201d \u2013 named that way because they only went about as high as a rancher\u2019s belt buckle. But in the 1950s, when cattle herd numbers were low, cattlemen began putting more emphasis on cows\u2019 \u201cframe size,\u201d or their height.<\/p>\n

In the past few decades, with improvements in genetic technology, farmers have been able to measure extremely specific qualities in their cattle. This has led to a shift from increasing the frame size of cattle to increasing the \u201cperformance,\u201d or weight, of cattle. That means cattle aren\u2019t getting taller, but heavier.<\/p>\n

The U.S. cattle inventory hit its lowest level in 73 years<\/a>\u00a0in 2024,\u00a0largely as a result of recent droughts. The solution isn\u2019t as simple as just breeding more cows, because cattle producers have to balance the amount of cattle they hold back to reproduce, and the amount they sell off to feedyards to generate revenue.<\/p>\n

Don Close, a senior animal protein analyst at agriculture publication Terrain Ag, said the industry has been shifting breeding practices to mitigate the recent cattle shortage.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing the lowest we\u2019ve been since 1951, the industry has elected to make cattle bigger, to compensate in pounds what we\u2019re losing in head count,\u201d Close said.<\/p>\n

Close estimated that the average live weight of U.S. cattle increases by about eight pounds a year. The carcass weight, or how much cattle weigh once the hide, bone and other inedible parts are removed, increases by about five pounds a year.<\/p>\n

But there has been a particularly noticeable spike in the past decade or so, caused by incentives from meatpacking plants.<\/p>\n

This trend can be seen through what\u2019s known as the hot carcass weight discount, which is the payout reduction cattle producers receive when carcasses exceed a meatpacking plant\u2019s maximum weight. As a result, producers try to get their cattle as close to that weight limit as possible without exceeding it.<\/p>\n

Jamie Courter, the state beef genetics specialist at University of Missouri Extension, said that when she first started in the industry about 10 years ago, that weight limit was 1,000 pounds. It\u2019s been creeping up ever since. The limit went up to 1,050 pounds, then 1,100, and now some plants have improved their technology enough to accept 1,200-pound carcasses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe keep pushing what we\u2019re willing to accept, as far as size of feedyard steers, higher and higher,\u201d Courter said. \u201cThe packers are incentivizing the feedyards and the commercial cattlemen to do so, and \u2014 right, wrong or indifferent \u2014 commercial cattlemen are going to chase that incentive because that impacts their bottom line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Higher cattle weights also have an effect on consumers down the line. Certain beef cuts, namely ribeye and loin, are getting too big to be easily packaged. Because the cows are bigger, these cuts are larger, meaning they have to be cut thinner and with more surface area than they used to be to maintain a consistent weight.<\/p>\n

But Close said these high cattle weights are, in large part, a good thing for beef consumers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we were to limit weights on the cattle, it would limit the total of beef production, limiting supply, that would drive price higher,\u201d Close said. \u201cSo in a backwards kind of way, yes, it\u2019s actually supporting \u2026 consumers, because it keeps more product available to the counter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beef is getting more expensive, with the average price of ground beef hitting a record high of $6.12 per pound<\/a> in June. However, bigger cows also means better quality. Bigger size leads to higher fat content and better marbling. Close estimated that 82% to 84% of all beef is of choice or prime grade, which lines up with consumer tastes.<\/p>\n

However, researchers and cattle producers have said the current trajectory of beef performance isn\u2019t sustainable. Courter said it\u2019s important to consider the economic factors of farming cattle when trying to breed for size.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t have 2,000-pound mature-weight cows, because those cows eat more, which means you need more acres to raise that cow in a year,\u201d Courter said. \u201cWhich means, if you don\u2019t buy more land, you have to decrease the number of cows you have, or you have to increase how much hay or corn or whatever you\u2019re buying to sustain that 2,000-pound cow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doug Frank, co-owner of the Frank\/Hazelrigg Cattle Co., said that cattle performance is reaching a threshold. In recent years, this has led farmers to start analyzing other significant traits.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaintenance costs are going up, and maybe we\u2019re past the point of the most efficiency there,\u201d Frank said. \u201cWe\u2019re probably at the limit of what our commercial customers have for resources, and we\u2019re a lot more interested in other traits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where farmers used to look towards breeding for weight, some are now beginning to place importance in feeding efficiency. Farmers are tracking relative feed intake, which measures how much weight a cow gains from a certain amount of feed. Those that need less food to gain weight are more profitable for farmers.<\/p>\n

Cattle performance may be starting to even out, but Frank highlighted the industry\u2019s ability to continue delivering product, even during a downturn in inventory.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeef is not cheap today, but \u2026 we\u2019ve increased production pretty substantially in the U.S. beef industry,\u201d Frank said, \u201cand we\u2019ve done it with the lowest cow numbers that we\u2019ve had in (decades).\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n

This story originally appeared in Missouri<\/span> Business<\/span> Alert<\/span><\/a>, a digital newsroom covering business<\/span>and the economy in Missouri<\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cows are pictured at the University of Missouri South Farm. Cattle weight may be approaching a tipping point, experts say (Noah Grabianski\/Missouri Business Alert) Cattle farms and feedlots in Missouri today are populated by cows that are a far cry from those that roamed pastures 80 or 90 years ago. Cattle back then were referred…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThinning herd, heavier cattle reshape Missouri\u2019s beef supply chain - WestplexNews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/30\/thinning-herd-heavier-cattle-reshape-missouris-beef-supply-chain-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thinning herd, heavier cattle reshape Missouri\u2019s beef supply chain - WestplexNews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cows are pictured at the University of Missouri South Farm. 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