Brief by Central Staff
Agriculture – April 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine
American dietary trends are changing, and that should be good economic news for this part of the world.
Although Americans still eat more chicken than beef — 80 pounds per year per capita for chicken, 70 for beef — the demand for beef has risen 6.27% in the past two years, while that for chicken has dropped by 2.59%, according to the University of Missouri.
Cattle still outnumber people in Central Colorado and the San Luis Valley (humans gained the statewide lead in the 1990s), and cattle really outnumber chickens hereabouts.
According to the 1997 U.S. Census of Agriculture, there were 227,192 cattle and calves in this region, with Saguache County in the lead with 46,308 head.
As for “layers and pullets 13 weeks and older,” there were 1,377. That number does not include most of our counties, whose fowl populations were so small that they were omitted from the county data (but included in the statewide total of 3,793,457) to protect the privacy of census respondents.
At any rate, this is beef country, and retail beef prices are at a record high, according to the Wall Street Journal — $3.21 a pound on average for choice cuts. Steakhouses report record business, and red-meat chain restaurants are opening new outlets.
Not that we like paying more for beef, but if the cattle business is profitable, then fewer ranchers will sell out to subdividers.