Courtesy Photo Cattle are seen grazing on Ben Nowakowski’s farm, B&B Farms, in Alpena. Nowakowski said the price of beef has increased steadily over the last five years.

ALPENA — Local farmers and meat processing businesses say that beef prices are rising and will continue rising for the foreseeable future.

Ben Nowakowski, owner of B&B Farms, explained that his prices for beef have steadily increased in the last five years. Nowakowski said that their farm currently charges $3.83 per pound for cattle in the 500-pound range. A year ago Nowakowski charged $3.18 per pound and five years ago he charged $2.16 per pound.

Nowakowski explained that prices in the beef market are all dependent on cattle numbers.

“What drives that is availability,” Nowakowski said.

He explained that there is a shortage of cattle nationwide, the lowest it has been in 50 years.

A Farm Bureau economist, Bernt Nelson, reported in February 2024 of the cattle shortage, stating that the U.S. had its lowest cattle population since 1951. Nelson explained that this shortage is a result of drought conditions that began in 2020.

A February 2025 USDA Michigan Cattle Inventory press release reported that as of Jan. 1, the total number of cattle and calves totalled 86.7 million head in 2025, a 1% decrease from 2024. The press release reported that Michigan’s total number of cattle and calves totalled 1.11 million head in 2025, increasing 2% from 2024.

The USDA July Cattle report will be released on July 25, according to Michigan Farm News.

Nowakowski explained that due to nationwide drought conditions, many farmers battled a hay shortage which led to an influx of cattle sent to slaughter. He explained that many farmers are holding back heifers (female cattle that have not given birth) from feedlots (farms that feed cattle for slaughter) to rebuild their herds. Nowakowski added that it can take up to two years before a heifer has a calf.

Tom Shooks, owner of Standard Provisions, agreed with Nowakowski that beef prices have been increasing.

“It’s steady going up, that’s for sure,” Shooks said. “But there’s a shortage.”

Shooks also noted the hay shortage as the culprit for the current cattle numbers. He said that hay shortage occurred a year to a year-and-a-half ago throughout the U.S.

“They had to butcher a bunch of their cows … the cows have calves,” Shooks said. “And now we’d be butchering (the) calves … being that they butchered all (the) cows, there (are) no calves, which should be butcher beef right now … so there’s a shortage.”

Shooks said that it will be a while before the market is relieved of the shortage due to the nature of building a herd back up.

“That’ll be another year-and-a-half before (calves) get bred to have calves … so this is going to be going on here for a while,” Shooks said.

Both Nowakowski and Shooks explained that this market spike in beef prices is part of a 10-year cattle cycle that ebbs and flows with the supply and demand of both herd numbers and beef sales.

Kayla Wikaryasz can be reached at 989-358-5688 or kwikaryasz@TheAlpenaNews.com.