Live cattle futures traded at the CME Group settled at $2.51 per pound on Tuesday, the highest price on record going back to the 1960s, according to FactSet data. Each contract is for 40,000 pounds of live cattle, typically about 30 to 35 head of finished, slaughter-ready cattle.
The contract has jumped more than 25% over the past 12 months as ranchers faced rising costs and slashed the size of herds. Cattle prices ticked down marginally in Wednesday's session.
Cattle slaughter is expected to have tumbled to 2.2 million head in March, down from 2.5 million in the year-earlier period, according to Barclays estimates and data from the U.S. Agriculture Department. Beef production slid by 300,000 pounds to 1.9 million over the same time, the bank found.
The U.S. cattle herd now stands at its smallest since the 1950s, when the U.S. population was half today's size.
Limited supply drove the average retail price of ground beef for hamburgers up to about $6.70 per pound in March, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in its closely watched consumer price index. That was roughly 12% higher than the same month a year ago.
The price of ground beef reached record highs going back to 1984 earlier this year, federal data shows.