Wyoming
‘Megadrought,’ Big Meat Packers Drive Prices Up For Wyoming Beef
Anyone who loves to throw a good burger or steak on the grill won’t be surprised ranchers are realizing record profits and consumers are paying premium prices at grocery stores.
The contrast between these trends stems is the first lesson taught at business schools everywhere: supply and demand, or vice versa. For the beef industry, including Wyoming ranchers, high demand and limited cattle supply allows them to get top dollar for their livestock, maximizing profits in the current market.
“It’s a supply and demand issue,” said state Rep. Bob Davis, R-Rock Springs, who is also a rancher by trade. “Beef is in high demand, but ranchers don’t have the inventory to fill that demand. That’s bringing prices up and determining the price that the processors are willing to pay the ranchers for the beef.”
At a recent National Cattle Convention held in Florida earlier this month, industry experts from CattleFax presented an optimistic outlook, projecting record prices across all classes of cattle for the year ahead.
Drought Discourages Breeding
Several factors propel the bullish forecast, with a yearslong drought being the most significant. These dry spells in the Western and Midwestern regions of the U.S. have hindered efforts to expand herds and contributed to their continued decline, Davis said.
“We’ve been in a drought for at least four years,” he said. “And ranchers have had to sell down their inventory because of a lack of feed, lack of pasture, lack of water. We just can’t compete with mother nature.”
Severe drought causes cattle to stop breeding, resulting in a scarcity of calves for sale, which causes ranchers to miss out on crucial income.
“We had to sell half our herd over those four years. We started with 300, but when there’s a drought they don’t breed, so they’re dead weight and we don’t make money if they aren’t breeding cattle we can spell,” said Marilyn Wood, a southern Utah rancher.
To replenish the depleted inventory, the Wood family would need to spend about $1,500 per head at current prices, amounting to a significant $225,000, she added.
However, realizing a return on that investment would require a two-year process. After acquiring the calves, a year is needed for it to mature and become eligible for breeding. Then it’s an additional year before the bred calves can be sold.
Rebuilding
Furthermore, achieving a full return on that investment depends on several factors, including the selling price of the beef compared to the initial purchase price. There is also uncertainty about whether all calves will successfully breed.
“Most ranchers don’t have $225,000 to go out and replace 150 head of cattle,” Wood said. “It takes a lot of years to rebuild that inventory.”
The most recent USDA inventory report reveals a historic low in cattle numbers, with a 2% decrease to 28 million head. This marks the lowest inventory level in 50 years, a trend expected to continue for three more years.
The low inventory also creates problems for ranchers needing to buy cattle to replenish their herds.
“There isn’t enough cattle on the market for ranchers to just go out and buy more,” Wood said. “We have to build our inventory with the herds we already have, and that takes years.”
While 2023 brought favorable weather conditions overall for cattle ranchers, it wasn’t enough to declare an end to the drought, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 2023 drought report.
The Great Plains region, spanning from Montana and North Dakota to Texas, endured three years of unusually dry conditions. Above-average precipitation in 2023 brought some relief, especially in the Western areas. But the area still didn’t fully bounce back from the deficits of the previous three years.
Scientists have dubbed the drought ongoing in the Western region for more than two decades a “megadrought.”
The Southwest region also has experienced several years of drought, with 2023 providing some relief, but not sufficient to fully alleviate the area from drought conditions.
Even if the drought lifts and ranchers can replenish their inventory, shoppers aren’t likely to find much relief at the grocery store in the near future.
Big Beef Business
Many ranchers say this is largely because of the influence of major packing conglomerates on the meat processing industry.
“These corporations are the biggest reason why we are seeing the prices we are seeing,” said Tyler Lindholm, fifth-generation rancher and state director for the free-market advocacy group Americans for Prosperity.
Referred to as the “big four,” these companies wield control over the market, dictating the price at which beef is sold, Lindholm said. Critics argue this dominance amplifies market instability and undermines the interests of consumers and ranchers.
“These four major packing corporations are the problem,” Lindholm said. “Yes, right now ranchers are making a profit. But it’s just a bubble and like bubbles, they pop. And I don’t expect these processing companies, who really are responsible for setting the price you pay at the store, to bring the price back down.”
Lindholm also stressed the importance of legislative measures to address the overwhelming control exerted by these corporations to ensure fairness and stability in the market.
As part of this, Lindholm advocates for state laws that enable people to buy beef directly from local ranchers, bypassing the big companies. He said direct-market friendly laws pair consumers with fresher and potentially higher quality products, but also enable them to support local businesses and farmers.
Additionally, he would like to see more state-inspected packaging facilities. This way, ranchers wouldn’t have to rely on big corporations to process and package their beef, giving them more control over their products and ensuring a fairer marketplace.
Summer is Wyoming’s season for turning over rocks, poking into holes and walking with a perpetual hunch looking for snakes.
Herpalogists, the zoologists who study amphibians and reptiles, are out scouring the landscape and herping, the term used when they are actively flipping rocks and searching stream beds to find Wyoming’s elusive snakes in their native habitats.
Sometimes those finds can be unexpected. The fork-tongued reptiles appear on a trail when least expected.
Recently, a foot-long “nightcrawler” suddenly moved like a snake and slithered into the rocks, its tail disappearing into the shadows. Rather than a shapeshifter, this was an elusive rubber boa, Wyoming’s tiny constrictor snake that can look like a giant worm at first glance.
These rarely seen creatures are more common in the Cowboy State than most people realize.
“I personally don’t feel that any of our snakes in Wyoming are terribly rare,” said Matt Rasmussen, vice president of the Wyoming Herpetological Society. “However, a lot of them are very rarely encountered because they spend most of their lives either underground or under rocks.”
Rasmussen said most of the secretive snakes in Wyoming only come out at night or when conditions are right — typically warmer, humid times. The rubber boa, for instance, showed up on a day when it had rained and then the temperatures spiked hot.
Rasmussen helped found the new Herpetological Society two years ago to teach others to herp. He said it’s possible to learn more about our state by flipping rocks and seeing what is beneath.
“That’s the great thing with Wyoming,” Rasmussen said. “There is so little known about the herpetofauna — the frogs, lizards, snakes, turtles, etcetera — that live here, and so little known about their distribution.”
He said Wyoming is known for “large charismatic megafauna” such as bison, elk, moose and deer rather than the harder to find animals. As a result, no widespread surveying has been done on smaller non-game species. Wyoming Game and Fish has even asked for community members to help by reporting rarely seen reptiles and amphibians.
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The Great Basin gopher snake is a non-venomous snake found primarily in the western United States and parts of southwestern Canada. You can find these snakes in a wide range of habitats; grasslands, woodlands, and deserts. -
The plains hognose snake can be mistaken for a rattlesnake but is harmless to humans. -
The Eastern yellow-bellied racer is incredibly fast, alert, and primarily hunts during the day using their sharp eyesight. Harmless to humans but feisty and will bite and musky-spray if cornered or handled. -
The smooth green snake is completely non-venomous, quite secretive and rarely seen. The Wyoming Natural Diversity Database said they are mostly found in localized pockets within southeast and south-central Wyoming and the Black Hills area. Their habitat are moist meadows, marshes, stream edges, open woods since they can camouflage in lush vegetation. This snake feeds almost exclusively on insects and spiders such as crickets, grasshoppers and caterpillars.
Elusive, Not Rare
While most people think of the more common bullsnake or venomous rattlesnake when discussing reptiles, Rasmussen said Wyoming is home to many harmless snakes.
According to Rasmussen, a few snakes, such as the colorful pale milk snake and rubber boa, could be considered rare in Wyoming. However, he believes they are just harder to find and most people are not aware of them unless they stumble across them.
“There’s the plains black-headed snake, which we really don’t know much about their distribution in Wyoming,” Rasmussen said. “They’re just not studied and have a limited habitat.”
This tan snake with a black head is small and feeds primarily on centipedes and ant eggs. Rasmussen cautions that when found, rather than kill the strange looking snakes that are harmless, report finding them to Wyoming Game and Fish and leave them in their habitat.
In this way, Rasmussen said, herping can be fun. He encourages people to get into the action.
“There are some other really small fossorial snakes like smooth green snakes, which live along creeks in the mountains and eat caterpillars and spiders,” Rasmussen said. “Then there’s the Black Hills red-bellied snake, which is a very small snake that eats slugs, worms and snails primarily.”
People are often surprised that Wyoming is home to such a large variety of snakes. He especially likes to show off a milk snake, which is harmless and eats lizards and even baby rattlesnakes.
“It is a beautiful, almost tropical-looking animal that lives right here,” Rasmussen said. “They are just rarely encountered.”
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The northern rubber boa is found in the northwest corner of state such as Star Valley and east into the Bighorn Mountains. They are a small, docile, non-venomous constrictors that are rarely seen since they are excellent burrowers and climbers. The Wyoming Game and Fish consider them vulnerable/secretive and track sightings to help build their statewide database. -
The pale milk snake is not a venomous coral snake and is found in the Bighorn Basin, eastern plans and southeastern corner of Wyoming. They are rare to see because they spend their life hiding under rocks, within rocky outcrops, badland scarps, ponderosa pines, and shortgrass prairies according to the University of Wyoming. Since they are so secretive, spotting one in the wild is a rare treat and Wyoming Game and Fish is asking the public to report any sightings for their database. -
The plains black-headed snake is completely harmless because it’s mouth is too small to pierce human skin and its mild venom is for small invertebrates. Due to its secretive nature, it is rare to see one but they are known to be in southeastern Wyoming in the Platte and Carbon Counties. They are very small, secretive, burrowing snakes that spend almost all of their lives underground or hidden beneath rocks and logs, typically only surfacing at night. -
The bull snake or gopher snake is completely non-venomous but does not want you to know that. When threatened, they put on a dramatic show according to the National Park Service. The bullsnake will puff up their bodies, hiss loudly, flatten their head into a triangle and vibrate their tails in dry bush to mimic a rattlesnake. (Matt Rasmussen)
A New Snake & Frog Society
Rasmussen said the new society is trying to educate the community about these fascinating creatures in the Cowboy State that don’t get much attention, such as the skink, a short-legged lizard.
“We’re a group of herpetological enthusiasts who would like to spread the word, educate and do outreach about these animals,” he said.
This outreach includes presentations with live animals, field trips and a conference in November. Wyoming’s reptiles and amphibians remain a mystery, Rasmussen encourages reporting sightings on the app iNaturalist.
“Even if you don’t know what it is, post a picture because there are tens of thousands of experts who will identify that animal,” Rasmussen said. “That’s really important, especially for our herpetofauna in the state.”
He also pointed out that some Wyoming snakes are on the protected list, including the midget faded rattlesnake. They made the list, according to Rasmussen, because people were capturing them and they became popular in among owners who like to keep small venomous snakes as pets.
Rasmussen said awareness is the best protection for Wyoming’s elusive reptiles and he is excited to prove to residents that we don’t have rare snakes, only secretive ones.
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
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