Is the Beef Industry Killing Elephants or Cattle?
UT ag economist explains why it is important to consider more than cow inventory when discussing cattle markets.
October 21, 2025
by Andrew Griffith, University of Tennessee
The title of this article is not meant to be distasteful, but it is meant to catch a person’s attention. No, the beef industry is not killing elephants. However, live slaughter weights are averaging more than 1,400 pounds (lb.), which is about 10% of the size of a mature elephant.
As the industry works through the lowest beef cattle inventory since 1951, beef industry participants have combated the lower number of cattle by growing them larger in the feedlot. This article will outline how cattle slaughter weights have changed over time, as well as how beef production has changed over the years. Hopefully, this information will balance some of the storyline of a smaller beef cattle herd.
The point is cattle inventory is not the only variable in this equation, as beef markets are extremely dynamic.
To begin, the weekly average live weight for slaughtered cattle at the time of this writing was 1,414 lb., which is 21 lb. heavier than the same week one year ago and 58 lb. heavier than the same week in 2023. Thus, slaughter weights have increased 4.3% in two years. This compares to cattle weights of 1,335 lb. in 2014 when cattle prices were at record levels up to that point. Thus, it is clear cattle feeders have really been pushing cattle to heavier weights the past couple of years.
This may be enough information to put cattle weights in perspective, but more historical weights may drive the message home. For instance, the average slaughter cattle weight the same week in the year 2000 was 1,228 lb. — almost 200 lb. lighter than today.
The increasing weights in and of themselves fail to put the issue into full perspective. Consider the quantity of cattle being slaughtered on a weekly basis exceeds 500,000 head. This means there was more than 10 million lb. additional live weight for the week we are considering in 2025 compared to the same week in 2024 and closer to 30 million lb. more than the same week in 2023. This provides a little more perspective, but it does not get down to the brass tacks of it. This means it does not take as many cattle to produce the same quantity of beef.
Maybe the easiest thing to do is simply discuss beef production. Total domestic beef production in 2025 is estimated to be 26.4 billion lb. This compares to 27.1 billion lb. of beef production in both 2023 and 2024. Despite reduced cattle slaughter rates in 2025, the increased weight of cattle is staving off large production declines. Again, to place these values in a historical context, fewer cattle today are producing more beef than in 2014 when beef production was 24.3 billion lb.
Despite this plethora of information, it still does not fully address why beef prices and cattle prices are so strong. One would also need to consider beef imports and exports, the quantity of domestic and international beef consumers, and beef demand in general. All of these factors influence beef and cattle prices.
The point is cattle inventory is not the only variable in this equation, as beef markets are extremely dynamic.
Since this article has focused on the supply side, it is important to make some observational comments. The first is that the market cannot grow cattle to be the size of elephants anytime soon. The industry may be able to add more pounds to a carcass, but both production and marketing challenges will be faced if animal weights continue to increase.
Second, the cattle industry does not need as many cattle as it had some certain number of years ago. The quantity of cattle is important, but it is not the end all and be all.
Lastly, cattle producers will grow the herd when profitability is sufficient to do so. The market is probably there, but how quickly will the industry retain females to grow the herd?
One last thought is that this is not a difficult concept. If it were a challenging concept to understand, this author would probably be doing something else for a living. A little bit of critical thinking to go along with data can be revealing.
Editor’s note: Andrew Griffith is professor of ag and resource economics at the University of Tennessee. [Lead photo courtesy University of Tennessee.]
Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA, Vol. 17, No. 10-B
Topics: Business , Management , Meat Science
Publication: Angus Beef Bulletin
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