Rising beef prices affect local ranchers

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Grocery store customers are experiencing sticker shock over the cost of beef. Ranchers are also experiencing sticker shock due to their own high costs.

Years of drought and rising operational costs have made ranching a tough business for Kansans.
KSN spoke with a rancher who says she’s trying to keep her “farm to table” cost low, even if it means making the bare minimum profit.

“It’s in my blood. It’s my passion. So I’m a fourth-generation farmer, raising a fifth-generation farmer,” said Ashton Schneider, a beef cattle rancher.

Sustaining her ranch is Ashton Schneider’s life mantra right now because she says what goes from the “farm to the table” matters.

“Our goal to keep our prices as minimum as possible for our beef is because we want, we want healthy, we want people to be healthy, we want good home-raised beef on their plates,” said Schneider.

She sells some of her beef directly to neighbors and friends, and she has not increased her prices, even though she says inflation and the drought have driven up operational costs to the point where she’s not breaking even.

“Main input cost we have for our steers at the end is feed. It’s a mixed ration that we make up, and each one of those pieces of that ration have gone up,” said Schneider.

But she can’t do it without another full-time job.

“The farm is not my main income. It can’t be because of inflation, because of grain prices, feed prices, things like that, which I would love to be. I would love to be a rancher full-time,” said Schneider.

Still, she stays committed to the lifestyle, saying it’s fulfilling her dream.

“It’s very important to me. My late grandpa, who passed earlier this year, I always said, grandpa, I’m going to follow in your boot steps,” said Schneider.

She adds that high feed prices and increasing equipment and utility costs continue to keep ranchers stretched thin.

Kansas Livestock Association

KSN also contacted the Kansas Livestock Association. Its Vice President of Communications, Scarlett Madinger, says the ongoing drought has hit the cattle industry hard.

Madinger adds a few years ago, ranchers sold their cattle early because they couldn’t afford the high prices of feed. Since it takes a couple of years to build up a cattle herd, it will take time to increase the overall supply.

“If we’re talking about feed or fertilizer or just the cost of parts to fix equipment have gone up. And so anything like that causes, of course, their whole bottom line to be impacted with increased costs,” said Madinger.

She also says that inflation plays a role in the increased costs.

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