If you've been to the grocery store lately, you may have noticed beef is costing you more. Beef prices right now are at an all-time high. July 29, 2025. PC: Fox 11 Online
(WTAQ-WLUK) — If you’ve been to the grocery store lately, you may have noticed beef is costing you more.
That’s because beef prices right now are at an all-time high. This isn’t only impacting Wisconsin shoppers, but farmers too.
In June, the average price of a pound of ground beef in the U.S. reached $6.12. That’s nearly a 12% increase from the same time last year, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The price of steaks also rose 8% to $11.49 per pound. Despite this, demand for beef remains high.
“We’re not really seeing the consumption levels down. A lot of them are shifting, so maybe instead of grabbing a ribeye, they’re grabbing a strip steak or something similar. We’re seeing larger demand in ground beef,” Wisconsin Beef Council Director of Communications Kaitlyn Kessler said.
The increases are mostly being blamed on the COVID-19 pandemic, along with the drought we saw in 2022. As a result, cattle-producing states saw smaller herd sizes.
The Wisconsin Beef Council said cattle herd inventories are at their lowest since the 1950s, and the effects are being felt across the board.
“We used to be able to say we have enough steers to provide meat to our waiting lists, and we would maybe need to buy one or two. We’re really having to look at that because the prices to buy another animal to fill our waiting lists is really extraordinary,” Algoma’s Lakeshore Land & Livestock farm owner Rachel Harmann said.
Harmann said along with the cost of livestock, everything from vet costs, fertilizer, food and fuel are driving up the cost of their operation. This means farmers aren’t seeing a huge profit.
“Not all of that is trickling down to us on the farm. It’s really getting caught up in that middle between processing and retailers and transportation,” Harmann said.
Despite rising prices, some meat markets are luckier than others, like Waseda Farms Market in De Pere. They produce their own beef and don’t have to work with a “middle man.”
“On the production side, it’s good, right? Because the cattle we’re producing are worth more than they’ve ever been worth before, and on the retail side, it means that we can kind of control that price. We don’t need to fluctuate with the market as much as other retailers may,” Jeff Shefchik of Waseda Farms Market said.
Shefchik said his prices have gone up since 2022, but are able to undercut others. It’s unclear when prices will come down, but experts say this won’t last forever.
“We do anticipate that prices will eventually even out, and our consumers will see some of that relief, but it’s just a waiting game,” Kessler said.
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