How High? Will Beef Prices In Minnesota Soar Due To Screwworm?

Fans of beef, you are in your season right now! Smokers running all weekend, neighborhood BBQs, even grilling up some burgers out on the lake, but that might be about to cost you more thanks to an outbreak of a strange-sounding insect, the New World screwworm.

What Is New World Screwworm, & Is It In MN?

If you are scratching your head right now, wondering what New World screwworm's are, you aren't alone. Here's some information from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture about what the screwworms are and how they affect both dairy and beef cattle.

New World screwworm "is a type of fly that lays eggs in open wounds or around the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth of live, warm-blooded animals. When the eggs hatch, the larvae (maggots) feed on healthy, living tissue, causing painful wounds that can grow larger over time. New World screwworm can affect livestock, pets, wildlife, and, in rare cases, people. If not treated, these infestations can cause severe damage and may even lead to death. Only this type of fly spreads this animal health threat."

So is New World screwworm in Minnesota? No, not yet, at least. Right now, Texas is dealing with a majority of the screwworm cases, and on top of other issues like drought, which are causing input costs to jump, ranchers are looking to pass some of those costs onto consumers, which would make beef more expensive.

If Texas's beef prices go up, will Minnesota's go up too?

The answer is maybe. It's not something that is black and white, because beef can be from one state, raised in another, finished in another state's feedlot, and processed in yet another state. So knowing exactly where the beef is coming from is hard to follow.  But the good news is that Minnesota has a large beef industry.  If there is an increase in price in Texas, prices here might go up a little, just based on supply, but there should be more than enough local beef to go around to keep any increase minimal.

If you've bought beef recently, you know just how high prices are; a pound of ground beef averages nationally slightly over $7/pound.

So, could our beef prices go up? You betcha...

But if it happens, it probably won't be because of screwworm, but from some of the many other higher costs associated with raising beef cattle, or any animal, right now, for that matter.

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