We may be a ground beef nation but steaks still put the sizzle in wholesale beef prices and underpin fed cattle prices. That’s what occurred this spring, as beef cutout values responded to aggressive retail featuring of steak items for the Memorial Day weekend and throughout June.

Exports are a key contributor to the economic health of the U.S. beef industry. They allow the industry to maximize the value of certain cuts and by-products that have a much lower value at home. And they provide a counter-balance to the domestic market. The result is that exports boost cattle prices.

How much Americans spend on beef and how much they buy is how the industry determines domestic beef demand. Because all wealth to the industry comes from consumers, demand trumps everything else. This will be especially important the next two months as supplies of market-ready cattle start to increase seasonally.

The gutter press appears to be alive and well in America. How else can one describe the appalling media disparagement of lean finely textured beef (LFTB) and Beef Products, Inc., (BPI) one of the two companies that make it? I’m not a conspiracy theorist.

I ’ m a great fan of Costco, especially the way the warehouse chain sells beef. From the moment I see the giant “USDA Choice” banner above its fresh meat case, my pulse quickens as I anticipate finding a great beef deal. True to form, a visit last week produced not one but two terrific buys (although one wasn’t in the fresh case).

Industry leaders have rightly focused on the shrinking U.S. cattle herd as one of the industry’s biggest issues. While a smaller herd means higher prices for cow/calf producers, it means small or negative margins for everyone else in the beef chain. And it’s not healthy for only one sector to be making money.

Cattle producers the world over are great survivors. The beef industries in most of the major beef-producing countries have endured everything from BSE to drought to floods in the past decade. These and other calamities forced some producers out of the business.

Food safety is the beef industry’s second most critical issue after demand. In fact, the two are inter-connected. So no one will quibble with the need to spend whatever it takes to make beef as safe as possible. But an examination of the years after the Jack-in- Box E.

Americans still love their beef. But they’re not eating anywhere near as much as their parents. This seems a contradiction, but the dramatic decline in per capita beef consumption over the last 35 years has little to do with preference. It’s all about available supplies.

This should be the best of times for beef producers. National herd numbers have fallen each of the past four years, yet domestic and global beef demand has improved steadily since the end of the 2008 recession. The U.S. has reclaimed its position as the world's leading beef exporter.