No. 1 · September 2026 · From Farm Animal Transparency (FAT)
The semi-monthly note for farms selling grass-fed and grass-finished beef
By Dirk Adams, with the assistance of AI
Farm Animal Transparency (FAT) surveyed 3,849 farms that advertised grass-fed beef on the internet. We found 211 that offered grass-fed and grass-finished beef1 and posted prices on at least 3 cuts of meat. We also found 230 that offered grass-fed and grass-finished beef but did not post prices on at least 3 cuts — many sell only by the carcass or package. The balance of 3,408 farms had a range of other practices. Only 65 of the qualifying farms price by the pound; the rest sell by the piece or pack with no stated weight.
1 Why both words: under federal labeling rules neither word alone settles what the animal ate — “grass-finished” permits grain feeding earlier in life, and “grass-fed” can be a partial claim. Together, grass-fed and grass-finished is the seller’s plain statement that the animal was raised and finished on grass, and that two-word claim is what this survey tracks.
NOTE: To the farms in the 2 groups — this is the first in a series of semi-monthly bulletins on the grass-fed and grass-finished beef direct-to-consumer (DTC) business that begins with what the recent FAT survey found:
211 Qualifying farms · 44 states
230 Partial · claim clean, fewer than 3 cuts priced
490 Say grass-fed and grain-finished
Of 3,849 direct-market beef sellers read, as of September 23, 2026. “Qualifying” = the seller’s own site says grass-fed and grass-finished, nothing on the site says grain, and at least 3 of the 5 tracked cuts carry a public price. No certification is required.
What the beef sells for · three reference prices
A direct seller’s price is read against three yardsticks: what other qualifying farms post, what USDA’s grass-fed benchmark reports, and what the supermarket advertises. First, the five tracked cuts. Farm-direct is the median posted price on qualifying farms’ own websites (September 7 survey pass). USDA is the weighted average in the Q3 2026 National Grass Fed Beef Report (July–September, released September 25).
Median farm-direct price of beef cuts in $/lb, compared to USDA’s quarterly survey of grass-fed beef prices
| Cut | Farm-direct | USDA | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ground beef (80–89%) 50 farms | $10.00 | $10.78 | ▼ 7% |
| Ribeye steak 39 farms | $28.00 | $28.89 | ▼ 3% |
| New York strip steak 40 farms | $24.86 | $26.42 | ▼ 6% |
| Sirloin steak 37 farms | $18.99 | $19.87 | ▼ 4% |
| Tenderloin steak 33 farms | $35.00 | $35.98 | ▼ 3% |
USDA average prices for grass-fed carcasses sold whole, half, or quarter, in $/lb, on three weight bases
Most farms in the survey sell at least some beef by the animal, and that is where the weight basis — which weight the price is quoted on — matters most: the hanging carcass before processing, the hanging carcass with processing included, or the boxed take-home meat. USDA reports carcass prices all three ways; a farm’s “$6 a pound” means something different on each line. FAT’s survey does not yet have enough farm-stated carcass prices to report figures of its own, so the table below is USDA’s benchmark alone.
| USDA Q3 2026 · basis | Whole | Half | Quarter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hanging weight, processing not included | $5.90 | $5.76 | $6.23 |
| Hanging weight, processing included | $7.36 | $7.71 | $7.69 |
| Net product (take-home) weight | $11.90 | $12.39 | $13.30 |
Read against USDA: a hanging-weight price with processing included sits around $7.40–7.70; a take-home price around $12–13. A farm quoting $6/lb hanging with processing included is well under the USDA average; a farm quoting $11/lb is in line with USDA only if that is a take-home price. USDA also reports the pieces buyers pay separately: deposits (whole avg $735, half $449, quarter $262) and processing ($0.57–1.25/lb hanging, avg $0.94, plus a $100–150 slaughter fee). The survey will publish its own bulk median once enough farms have stated the basis — say which weight you mean and it counts.
Source: USDA AMS, National Grass Fed Beef Report (Quarterly), Q3 2026 — voluntary price reporting by 84 producers plus aggregated NC and SC state reports, released September 25, 2026; ams.usda.gov/mnreports/lsmngfbeef.pdf.
Advertised supermarket prices for grass-fed and conventional beef in $/lb, with the farm-direct median for comparison
USDA also reads the supermarket circulars every week. Its Weekly Grocery Store Beef Feature Activity report (AMS 3228) tallies the beef items advertised across 25,521 grocery outlets and now breaks out grass-fed, antibiotic-free and organic lines. These are advertised sale prices for the week of September 25, not everyday shelf prices, so they run low — but they are what the shopper sees next to “grass-fed” before deciding whether a farm’s price is fair.
| Item · $/lb | Grass-fed (ad) | Conventional (ad) | Farm-direct |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ground beef 80–89%, 1–2 lb | $9.07 1,215 stores | $5.75 7,939 stores | $10.00 |
| Ribeye steak, boneless | $35.98 73 stores | $13.35 588 stores | $28.00 |
| Strip steak, boneless | $21.16 663 stores | $15.10 2,568 stores | $24.86 |
| Sirloin steak, boneless | $13.31 298 stores | $8.71 40 stores | $18.99 |
| Tenderloin steak | $32.76 451 stores | $15.97 381 stores | $35.00 |
Grocery = weighted average advertised price, with the number of stores running the ad in small type; grass-fed lines are the “antibiotic-free, grass fed” items (organic grass-fed ground beef advertised at $9.30 in 2,308 stores). Farm-direct = qualifying-farm median. Read it two ways: supermarkets ask 1.4× to 2.7× the conventional price for the grass-fed label, and a qualifying farm’s everyday price lands inside the grocery sale range — under it on ribeye and tenderloin, over it on ground beef, strip and sirloin. The ribeye line rests on 73 stores; treat it as a signal, not a benchmark.
Restaurants. There is no public restaurant price series for grass-fed beef. The nearest thing is the National Restaurant Association’s annual What’s Hot chef survey (hundreds of culinary professionals, October 2025): for 2026 the top trend is local sourcing, and clear menu labeling and cues ranks fifth — the same two things a direct seller trades on. Menu-tracking firms (Datassential, Technomic) count grass-fed on menus, but behind a paywall. FAT will read a sample of restaurant menus the way it read farm sites and report what the word “grass-fed” is attached to, and at what price, in a later issue.
Sources: USDA AMS, Weekly Grocery Store Beef Feature Activity, September 25, 2026, ams.usda.gov/mnreports/ams_3228.pdf; National Restaurant Association, 2026 What’s Hot Culinary Forecast.
Rancher to rancher — I’m Dirk Adams, a 40-year cattle rancher near Wilsall, Montana. Farm Animal Transparency (FAT) is a nationwide, free, public-interest research project on what meat labels claim and what producers actually disclose — free to read, no advertising, ever. The full Grass-Fed Beef Research Series is at farmanimaltransparency.com/fat-research.
Dirk Adams
Farm Animal Transparency