COBB COUNTY, Ga. — As shoppers are making decisions about what to cook for dinner, some are deciding to leave beef off the menu.
Beef prices are up 15% compared to last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
At Old South Barbeque in Cobb County, owner Joy Llewallyn says beef is part of their menu and their history.
“We sell black angus, eye of the round beef because it’s just what my mother always sold and I don’t change from what my mother sold,” she said.
That is, until recently.
“The price just got too high. We couldn’t afford to buy it. It was taking up the majority of our grocery bill,” Llewallyn said.
Channel 2 Action News has covered the rise in prices, going all the way from the table to the farm in recent months.
“We’ve been on a meteoric rise over the last several years of increase in beef and cattle prices due to the United States having the lowest number of cattle in production since 1952,” Brian Lance of Iron Will Cattle said.
It’s not just the small supply and large demand.
Ranchers have seen their cost increase, everything from feed to land shortages.
Recently the Trump administration has taken steps to lower prices.
The Wall Street Journal reporting the president asked his advisors to find a way to lower prices.
And the president asking the Department of Justice to investigate meat packers.
“We are not able to set what we get for prices for these animals. It’s mainly controlled by the packer,” Lance said.
Economist say the prices will eventually come down.
It will take a couple of years to rebuild the herd.
Llewallyn at Old South BBQ will be waiting.
“I want to have it back. I want to have our full menu. I hate not having it,” she said.
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