Beef Prices Might Finally Start Falling As Ranchers Expand Herds

CHICAGO — Cattle in the U.S. are now the fattest they’ve ever been, signaling an end to the seven-year run of record beef prices. That’s good news for consumers but not for American feedlot owners, whose losses are beginning to mount.

Heavier cattle are helping to boost domestic beef supplies, which had tumbled and sent retail prices soaring. On Nov. 10, the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast that fourth-quarter production will rise 1.8 percent from a year earlier and that output in 2016 will increase 4.8 percent to 24.9 billion pounds, the first growth in six years.

Prospects for increasing supplies are reducing costs for consumers.

At Weiland’s Market in the Clintonville area, the easing of beef prices is welcome.

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