Palisades Gold Radio · Saturday, August 1, 2026
Joel Salatin pointed to a significant decline in the US beef cow herd, reaching its lowest point since 1950, which has directly contributed to a threefold increase in beef prices over the last five years. He cited an example of one-week-old calves fetching up to $1,500 at auction, far exceeding typical inflation. Salatin attributes this to the longer production cycle for cattle compared to crops, making the market slower to respond to shortages.
“The United States has the lowest, the lowest beef cow herd that we've had since 1950. So the price of beef has literally tripled, tripled in the last five years.”
“Um, uh, one week old baby calves, for example, at auction are bringing up to, uh, $1,500 for a baby, five-day-old calf. That's unprecedented.”
“So we can talk about, uh, we can talk about the, um, the shortage of cattle nationwide. That's, that's, and I'm trying to connect those dots.”