Market Update from Hale Ranch Beef
If you’ve paid any attention to cattle or beef prices lately, you already know things are a little wild out there.
The cattle market has changed significantly over the past year, with cattle values reaching levels we simply haven’t seen before. At the same time, the costs that go into raising and selling beef haven’t exactly taken the day off either. Feed, fuel, processing, transportation and pretty much everything else involved in getting beef from our pasture to your freezer continue to matter. And that doesn’t even begin to touch on the international beef market.
For Hale Ranch Beef, that means we’re doing some serious number-crunching before we announce our next sale.
Bulk beef has always been at the heart of what we do
Selling beef directly to families has never just been about squeezing the highest possible return out of every animal.
We love knowing where our beef goes. We love seeing families fill their freezers with beef raised here at home. And we’ve always tried to price our bulk beef in a way that gives our customers excellent value while still making sense for the ranch.
That model matters to us.
But the economics behind it have changed.
When cattle values rise significantly, the starting value of the animal changes before processing, packaging, delivery or any of the other costs associated with direct sales are even added into the equation.
That puts us in an interesting position.
On one hand, we want Hale Ranch Beef to remain an accessible way for families to buy high-quality, locally raised beef.
On the other, we have to make sure the way we sell beef reflects what those cattle are actually worth and remains sustainable for the ranch.
So, what are we going to do?
Right now, we’re figuring that out.
We’re looking carefully at current cattle values, processing costs, our cost of production, pricing, quantities and how our direct-to-customer sales are structured.
That could mean adjusting prices. It could mean changing quantities or how certain beef packages are offered. It could mean making some other tweaks to the way our sales work.
Or it may be a combination of a few things.
What we don’t want to do is quietly make a major change, drop a new price list online and hope nobody notices.
A lot of our customers have been buying beef from us for years. Some of you have quite literally watched Hale Ranch Beef grow with us. We think you deserve to understand what’s happening on our side of the fence too.
We’re not going anywhere
This isn’t a goodbye post, and it isn’t a dramatic “everything is changing” announcement.
Hale Ranch Beef is still Hale Ranch Beef.
We still believe strongly in connecting people directly with the ranches that raise their food. We still want to put great Alberta beef into local freezers. And we still want our customers to feel like they’re getting real value when they buy from us.
We’re simply taking the time to make sure the next version of our sales model works in today’s cattle market, not the market of several years ago.
As soon as we’ve worked through the numbers and decided what our next sale will look like, we’ll share all the details.
Until then, thank you for continuing to support our ranch, our family and local agriculture.
It means more than you probably realize.
