Meat Packers Control Beef Prices - Rancher Reveals Shocking Truth

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]It's because of these four companies that are the meat packers and that they are setting the prices and increasing costs for the ranchers and for the consumers. Can you explain what how these four meat packers are impacting your business?

[00:00:18]Well, for instance, they set the price when I have a me or a feedlot or another independent feedlot wants to go sell a a fat beef, we have to take the price that is getting bid from say JBS. So, essentially, there's no competition amongst the market. We have a they're completely consolidated owning like 85% of the beef industry and we don't have a choice other than to take what the market price is. If we keep that beef and keep growing it and growing it, first of all, it becomes too fat and it it's not good for the animal it's and it's not good for the consumer. So, when you they know that when we have beef ready to to sell, we have to move those beef and And so, they take advantage of that.

[00:01:05]Yes. Yeah, they can set the price on on a whim. They can decide if they want to, you know, cut less meat that day or for a week and then therefore, they can manipulate that market pretty easily. Now, if you were to buy a beef from me directly off my farm and I take it to a local processor, I would sell it I just I tell the story a lot. I sold a beef this summer and I took market price for the beef. The the customer pays the processor at a USDA inspected facility and we could get into that as well, but they pay the processor and by the end of the day, they got the whole beef back. I think the total cost was like $6.25 a pound for the beef. So, that's steak, you know, roast, ground beef and everything. When you're paying over $20 a pound for a ribeye in the store.