Various boxed beef cuts in the United States traded lower on December 17, 2025 versus a day earlier but prices might generally remain high long-term.
Live cattle markets saw futures slip by $0.85 on the 17th versus the 16th, to $230.3 a hundred pounds (cwt). Boxed beef cutouts meanwhile eased due to daily load counts increasing to 170 versus 119 a day earlier.
Choice cutouts lost $2.79 to $356.09 per cwt while Select cuts decreased by $2.67 to $346.43/cwt, according to the National Beefwire.
Primal ribs shed over ¢24 day-on-day, to trade at $604.44 per cwt, while loins dipped from $459.78 to $455.83/cwt.
Flanks lost nearly ¢1 daily to $162.99/cwt, whereas chucks and briskets eased daily pricing by $2.13 and ¢33 respectively.
The day’s only gain was from round cuts that increased from $284.25 to $286.37 per cwt, perhaps reflecting lowering weekly cattle slaughter.
In the week ending December 17, official cattle slaughter figures in federal markets lowered to 118,00 head, versus 123,000 a week before.
The U.S.’ annual cattle slaughter volume up to mid-December 2025 was down 6.9% year-on-year, to 28.25 million head.
Short-term Price Dip
Counting on the slaughter downturn, experts maintain prices will remain high for a while, despite the current lull.
The ease this week reflects reigning market factors such as the removal of Brazil’s 50% tariffs, which reinstated international beef imports.
Gaining South American supplies explain why beef rates retreated even after Tyson Foods significantly reduced its packing facilities in Nebraska and Texas.
Speaking of Texas, ranchers here are railing against declining market prices in the Brazil tariff reduction context, reports Independent UK.
They expressed their frustration with President Donald Trump for using import measures to tame domestic price volatility.
In May 2025, federal beef prices hit a sharp $5.98 a pound or 16% up year-on-year, then clocked $6.31/lb in August.
Measures to ease these highs have previously included upping beef imports from Argentina and of course effacing tariffs for Brazil.
Despite rancher antagonism, farmers are apparently receiving at least 53% of supermarket beef producer rates, vis-á-vis at least 37% in the 2019-24 period. This trend could spill into 2026 when experts belief rates will remain as high as they were this year. Such historical bits on prices of beef cuts in the United States form the topic of the following statistics.
United States Beef Cuts Prices Statistics
Beef cuts in the U.S. go under the trade term ‘boxed beef cutouts’ to represent price value per carcass portion. As such, prices have evolved quite much in the past 15 years ending 2025 due to both market factors and inflation. The below tracking sample combines data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for August 4, 2010 and the National Beef Wire for December 17, 2025:
- Primal ribs: $238.56/cwt (August 2010) versus $604.44/cwt (December 2025).
- Primal chuck: $125.45/cwt (August 2010) versus $296.71/cwt (December 2025).
- Primal round: $138.77/cwt (August 2010) versus $284.25/cwt (December 2025).
- Primal loin: $237.18/cwt (August 2010) versus $455.83/cwt (December 2025).
- Primal flank: $91.74/cwt (August 2010) versus $162.99/cwt (December 2025).
What were the highest steak prices in the U.S. for the decade ending 2025?
From 2000 to date, steaks were historically cheapest in January 2000 at $3.85 a pound and costliest in September 2025 at 12.26.lb. The following interpretation of data by Macrotrends gives a glimpse of the highest 2015-25 periodical prices:
| Month-and-Year | Price [per pound] |
| September 2025 | $12.26 |
| August 2023 | $10.75 |
| November 2021 | $10.22 |
| June 2020 | $9.52 |
| May 2015 | $7.73 |