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Food

America’s Cows Are Fatter Than They’ve Ever Been

Things aren’t looking good for the bovine patron saint of these United States, and the beef industry is pretty much out of ideas. Except for this lone scheme: make the cattle fat. Really, really fat. Fatter than they’ve ever been before.
Photo via Flickr user essjay

America's beef industry is totally fucked. The writing was pretty much on the wall when it was discovered back in 2012 that, for the first time in 100 years, American chicken consumption was actually larger than beef consumption. This fall, the World Health Organization released a report categorizing processed meats as a carcinogen. Alas, things aren't looking good for the bovine patron saint of these United States, and the beef industry is pretty much out of ideas.

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Except for this lone scheme: make the cattle fat. Really, really fat. Fatter than they've ever been before.

And so it is.

Last month, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data, heads of cattle weighed in at an average of 1,390 pounds each. That's an all-time high, and a 2.6 percent increase over just a year ago. In Iowa—where, as we're sure you know, the corn grows as high as an elephant's eye—some cattle topped 2,000 pounds.

Why is this happening?

Simply put, the cattle are being held in feedlots for 30 to 60 days longer than normal, says Ed Greiman, who runs a 2,000-head feedlot in Garner, Iowa. This is all being done in an attempt to get higher prices for larger cattle. The cows are being fed lots of cheap grain and corn to make up for lost income—and getting fatter than they've ever been before.

It all comes down to this: Cattle supply is up, and demand is down.

According to AgWeb.com, which cites Livestock Marketing Information Center estimates, industry losses began in December and rose to $420 per head of cattle this month. To ease the pain, feedlots have been taking advantage of low-cost grain supplies and keeping the cattle almost a month longer than is typical—in effect, stuffing the cattle to pack on the fatty pounds.

"It still makes economic sense to put on as many pounds as efficiently as you can" to minimize losses, says Tom Fanning, an Oklahoma feedlot operator. His cattle's lives have been extended by 25 days—days in which they eat and eat and eat, adding about four pounds per day.

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And if you remember a little Economics 101, high supply and low demand equals low prices. Wholesale beef prices are dropping fast, closing this week at a 22-month low. Tyson Foods Inc., the largest US meat processor, is feeling the pain: its earnings dropped by $70 million in its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended in October.

READ: This Farmer Is Using a Drone to Spy on His Cows

Will beef prices drop for consumers? "Eventually, consumers are going to benefit," said David Kruse, president of CommStock Investments Inc. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. But have prices dropped for consumers yet?

Not so much.

In the meantime, feedlots and cattle owners are going to try to preserve their profits. And they'll be doing it by letting their cows live to eat.