But feedlots are making more than $400 per head.
It’s a total flip-flop from two years ago when United States President Joe Biden called for more competition in meat-packing and backed it up with a suite of subsidies for entrants. He also pointed to price-fixing lawsuits in the pork, chicken and beef industries, playing to farmers’ complaints that they were losing money while the packers were realizing big increases in profit margins.
The federal government’s Daily Livestock Report said cattle slaughter declined by more than seven per cent from the same last week of July last year.
It said packer margins are the worst in five years.
The situation in Canada is almost certainly much the same since there is open trade for both cattle and beef and Canada’s largest beef-packing facilities are owned by Cargill and JBS.