08/02/2026
Beef prices are wild and no one is winning 🤷🏾♂️
What's the beef with soaring burger costs in the US?
A cheeseburger in Omaha costs $11.95. By the time the bills are paid, the restaurant is left with around 60 cents.
Meanwhile, beef in America costs almost 12% more than it did a year ago. So who's getting rich?
🐄 Cattle farmers and feeders: Ranchers raise calves, which are then sold to feedlots to be fattened for market. Prices are at record highs, but many say they're not getting richer. Eric Gropper is selling calves for around $2,500 a head, yet soaring costs for essentials like trucks and fencing eat into any gains. "In the end," he says, "I really didn't make any more money."
🥩 The meatpacker: Just four companies control around 85% of US beef processing. Yet Tyson, the biggest, lost more than half a billion dollars on beef in the first half of its financial year. Smaller processors say soaring cattle costs are squeezing them too.
🍔 The restaurant: Paul Urban's burger joint sells a cheeseburger for $11.95. His profit? Around 5%. Rather than raise prices further, he's switched to cheaper cuts and accepted a smaller margin.
So who profits from your more expensive burger?
The answer may surprise you: nobody, really.
Every link in the chain is paying more for the same animal and passing most of the cost on. The real problem is supply: America has fewer cattle than at almost any point since 1951.
🎧 Follow the Money from BBC Business Daily: https://www.bbc.co.uk/audio/play/p0nyyq08