Beef Restock, Mucho Eggs, High Beef Prices Explained

What a strange winter it has been.  Ten below zero and a foot of snow in November and near record highs of almost 50 degrees first week of January. Seems like Mother Nature always has a few surprises for us.  Pictured above we are feeding the beef herd in the cowshed after the big snow.  Normally we like to outwinter the beef on the fields so they can deposit lots of fertility directly onto the pastures, but during winter storms or excessively wet or soggy days we move them back to the shed for a few days.

 

We restocked our beef freezers last weekend from our December processing dates so for now we have a full selection of local, 100% Grass Fed beef cuts in the farm store and most of the beef bundles are back on the website. That includes the premium steaks, roasts, various ground products (including the popular ancestral blend with organ meats mixed in), as well as bones and beef fat and tallow products. We did have to make some price adjustments to many of our grass-fed beef products, see further details about beef pricing below.

 

Our raw milk supply is strong right now, with a few new calves born in the last few weeks and the new mamas contributing to the milk supply. Most days now we are NOT selling all the milk online before the store opens so we have some available for walk-in customers to purchase.  

 

And we have good news on the egg front … our new pullets finally kicked into egg production mode over the last week and started laying eggs, a lot of eggs in fact.  So for now our egg shortage is over and we no longer have any limits on egg purchases in the store.  As the days get longer over the coming weeks we should continue to see an increase in our egg production.

 

We processed 60 pasture-raised pigs in December so there is plenty of pork in the store as well, including all of the artisan sausages we make from our pigs: Farmers Hot Breakfast, Mamas Italian, Smoked Kielbasa, Jalapeno Brats, and even the Smoked Andouille which we haven't had in a while.  I made Anna a shrimp and sausage Jambalaya this week with that smoked Andouille and it was scrumptious.  

 

We also have a good variety of fresh organic produce available in the store this weekend including Avocados, Cauliflower, Comice Pears, Grapefruit, Oranges, Kiwis, Ginger, Red and Green Grapes, Green Cabbage, Carrots, Snap Peas, Sweet Peppers, Mini Peppers, Celery, Yellow Onions, Shallots, and Garlic.  

 

Local produce includes Gold, Russet, and Red Potatoes from Igl Farms in Wisconsin, and a variety of fresh organic Michigan apples including Macintosh, Golden, Liberty, Spy, and Gala. Plus Microgreens from Kaleido Greens and local Oyster and Shiitake mushrooms from Crystal Lake Mushrooms. 

 

We have also setup a new product shelf in the store, this week featuring Raw Almond, Cashew, and Coconut Butters from Artisana Organics.  And regeneratively-grown brown and white rice from Castor River Rice in Missouri. 

 

This is a common question we hear, both from customers as well as in the media. The short answer is supply is low - the US national beef herd is at its lowest headcount since the 1950s. There are a number of reasons for this, but long droughts in the western and southern US in recent years have forced many of the cow-calf operators to reduce their herd sizes given lack of forage. Most beef calves are still born on these large cow-calf operations then shipped to the feedlots after weaning to fatten.  Other problems include a screw worm outbreak in Mexican cattle which has closed off most beef imports from Mexico in recent years. 

 

These shortages affect beef prices nationwide as well as our own production. We purchase most of our beef as weaned calves, primarily from one small cow-calf operator and his son who raise good grass-optimized beef on pasture in Western Illinois. We always pay them the market price for their calves, and most years that price ranges from $1,200 - $1,600 per calf. We then raise those 6-month old calves for two years on our farm, rotating them through our pastures during the spring, summer, and fall and feeding hay in the winter.  Our goal is to grow them out to about 1,200 pounds then we take them to our processor for harvest and packaging. 

 

Last year, in 2024 we paid an average of $1,800 per calf, which was the highest we had ever paid. We were hoping to see some price relief in 2025 but the market kept rising all year, when we purchased our fall calves right after Thanksgiving, we paid an average of $2,600 per calf!  

 

That is the highest price ever for calves in the U.S., even adjusted for inflation. All of our turkey sales revenue went to purchase calves this year, and then some. Based on these high calf prices we were forced to adjust our beef prices in the farm store to try and recover the extra $600-$800 per head we are spending these past two years to purchase calves.

 

That's it for this week, stay warm out there!

 

Cliff, Anna, and the Farm Team