06/08/2026
Hey everyone this is not a post we enjoy making. In an effort to continue to provide high quality beef fresh from our farm to your family, we have made the difficult decision to increase our beef price to $8.50/lb hanging weight including processing. This still includes $100 non-refundable deposit per quarter to book that is applied to your balance on pickup.
There are many factors that have gone into influencing this price increase and we want to be transparent with you.
-The price of live cattle is at a all time high and that's due to a few reasons. One big one is that our national heard population is 4 percent below what it was in the 1970s, yet a roughly 69% human population increase. So less cows per human population. Some other reasons are we are still catching up from all the cullings that happened due to processing plants being closed during COVID. From Heifer growing to produce its first calf and that calf being large enough for butcher is approx 5yrs. Wildfires out west have caused herd loss as well as grazing/hay ground loss which means farms had to sell off more of their breeding stock. Lastly, this pesky screw worm that has now made its way to Texas is going to affect what can be butchered, as well as moving live cattle.
-Due to the high prices in the cattle market we have decided to hold back all our heifers. What this means is girl calves born on the farm are being held back to breed, instead of butcher. We will only be butchering steers (castrated bulls). We hope this move will grow our herd so we can be more independent from the larger beef market. This will take some time to do.
-In years past we have been able to purchase steer/bull calves for around $400 each and raise them up on our land for butcher. Currently a bottle calf is selling for $1,000/calf, if you can even find any for purchase.
-Sellers have given farmers incentives to sell them their cows. This means that we would be actually making more selling to a large seller, than directly to the consumer. We stand firm in our values, and believe it is better for the community to know their farmers and that food should be produced on a small scale.
-Butcher fees have increased. Our butcher has made some amazing upgrades to their facilities in order to meet demands of local producers like ourselves. As well as now providing vacuum sealing for all orders.
-Fuel for manure spreading, cutting and baling hay for winter feed, and driving to/from butcher has almost doubled. We do the leg work of bringing orders to our farm, so that you don't have to. The butcher is just about an hour west of our farm.
-Believe it or not, the price of machinery and parts has also increased, thus adding insult to injury. If our tractor, skid steer, hay cutter, baler, and wrapper go down (like they did last week), it takes time and money to get them going again. Thankfully Farmer Ed is handy and can do most of the work himself.
We have never held our customers hostages to rising prices. During COVID when eggs were $8/dozen, we kept ours at $4 because we chose to eat the increase and wait to see what the future held. Feed prices eventually went back down. We have waited the past 6mo hoping and praying beef prices would go back down, but they unfortunately have not. They have continued to climb higher and higher.
We have not changed any practices on our farm that reduces the quality of beef due to costs by any means. While we know the implications this change has on everyones grocery budgets, we hope to continue providing fresh quality beef from our farm to your table.
Honey Bee Acres Farm/Ibarra Family
