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September 12, 2026Shrinking Cattle Herds
Where is the Beef?
Michael Olson’s Food Chain Radio Show #1427
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Guest: Will Harris, Farmer & Rancher, White Oak Pastures, author, Giving a Damn: A Bold Return to Giving A Damn
Michael Olson Food Chain Radio – The Shrinking Cattle Herd – Where is the beef?
There is a lot of grass growing in America the Beautiful, and that grass could feed a lot of cattle. That it is not feeding enough, leads us to ask: Where’s the beef?
Topics include why the USA must import beef from elsewhere; how the nation’s beef food chain is restricted for the control of it; and how the nation’s beef food chain might be improved to provide higher quality meat at less expense to consumers.
There is a lot of grass growing here in the United States. According to the Great American Grazing Lands report, there are 654 million acres of land that could support an abundance of grazing cattle. Yet, it is not!
In fact, America’s cattle herd has declined for three years in a row, and is now at its lowest level since 1951. And with the herd’s heifer retention rate plummeting, the shortage will most certainly get worse, much worse.
As a consequence of the shrinking herd, the cost for our beef is growing, and it is going to keep growing. The USA has the grass, but is losing its herd, and so we ask: Where is the beef?
Leave a comment below: Given a choice, would you opt for grass fed, or grain fed?
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Michael Olson’s Three Laws of the Food Chain
#1 Agriculture is the foundation upon which we build all our sand castles.
#2 The farther we go from the source of our food, the less control we have over what’s in that food.
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1 Comment
We are just retiring from twenty five years as a grass fed direct market to consumer producer. We have a hundred and twenty acre farm on which we produce twenty five acres of hay for winter and twenty five acres , with eleven pastures , rotationally grazed. We can only hold a maximum of twenty animals that includes 7 to ten mothers , their babies and their yearlings as grass fed , needs to be held for 2 years before it is palatable.
We never made any money at it, due to the cost of equipment depreciation , etc, but produced a nice product for our surrounding area , including madison , wisconsin.
We used the website eat wild.com, As a way for people to find us.
We sold most of our cattle during COVID as our local butcher shops were booked with people who couldn’t slaughter.Elsewhere. we\n Are now back to 10 breeding females And we sell across the scale, as we have a sale barn within a mile of our house now.
One of the problems you didn’t mention was the drought out west and in the center of the country, which we experience here this year.
Also the weather is weird now.
When I was young growing up in wisconsin , we had three days of sun and a day of rain , then three more days of sun and a day of rain.
I don’t personally believe that it is global warming per se.So my question to you is what is wrong with the weather systems across the US? is it the jet stream?Someone said oh they’re seading the clouds. Is the government messing with the weather?Can you look into it?
Love the show. Thanks. M