09/13/2026
Diesel hit $6 a gallon this week. First time ever. Oil's over $105 a barrel. Saudi Aramco's own CEO says it costs them about $2 to pull a barrel out of the ground. Their all-in number is around $3.50. That's a nickel a gallon of crude, selling for $2.50 a gallon before it ever sees a refinery.
Now look at this mama cow.
A bred heifer costs $3,500 to $4,000 right now. Raise her yourself and the University of Florida says you've got closer to $4,500 in her. Then it costs $1,000 to $1,500 a year to keep her, per USDA and Kansas State. What does she pay back? USDA and the Livestock Marketing Information Center have tracked it since the '70s. Best year on record (2014): about $535 a cow. 2016: lost $21. 2018: made $15. 2019: lost $200 a head. The last couple years have been good ones, around $440 a cow.
Do the math on a $3,500 cow. Best year of a generation, 13%. Normal year, 2%. Bad year, you lose money. And that's before the rancher pays himself a nickel.
One business makes 30 times its cost. The other feeds, doctors, and waits three years to maybe make 2%.
Every pound of beef on your table came from somebody who did it anyways while hoping and praying things turn around.
— Mitchell Family Farms
