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LUFKIN, Texas (KTRE) - The Pineywoods Cow Congress meets every year, giving cattle ranchers help with common issues like diseases and invasive grass prevention. On today’s agenda, Texas A&M’s Dr. David Anderson shared his economic outlook for the beef industry at Sunny Hill Ranch in Lufkin.

“I’m pretty optimistic about cattle prices for the future. We’ve got fewer cattle in the U.S, we’re producing less beef, and that means higher prices,” says Anderson.

Anderson says also because of higher costs throughout the whole beef industry supply chain, beef costs in stores are rising.

Also impactful are dry conditions like what East Texas saw last summer.

“We’ve had a lot of drought conditions around the country. That has cut into our herd; ranchers had to sell off cows,” says Anderson.

According to the USDA, beef prices rose by 0.8 percent in April.

While the demand is still there, Anderson says cattle ranchers will need the calf supply to meet it.

“That calf that was born this spring. It’s going to be two years before she has her first calf. So, increasing beef production is kind of a long way off,” says Anderson.

According to today’s USDA Cattle Auction summary, stocker calves sold four to five dollars higher than last week.

Anderson says he hopes his outlook puts rising costs into perspective for ranchers.

“Do I expand, do I hold back some of those calves? This should give them some information they can use in that planning process for what they’re going to do on their ranch,” says Anderson.

Anderson notes that the cattle loss during the panhandle fires did not directly impact beef prices, and he expects prices to continue to go up for calves through 2025.