According to the 40th annual American Farm Bureau Federation’s Thanksgiving dinner survey, for a meal that will serve 10 dinners, the cost will be 5% less than last year, which is the third year in a row that the price has declined. The meal includes turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls, peas, cranberries, a veggie tray, and pumpkin pie with whipped cream, and costs $55.18 or about $5.52 per person. This survey is conducted during the first week of November, so some supermarkets may have special pricing during the next few days that may lower the cost of some of the items on the menu. According to the survey, the cost of the main event, the 16 pound turkey, is down 16% from last year, due in part to a larger supply of turkeys, because most turkey flocks in the U.S. have recovered from the avian influenza outbreak that decimated many flocks during 2024. Also, half of the ingredients in the survey declined in price, including dinner rolls and stuffing, while the cost of fresh vegetables, sweet potatoes and some veggie trays increased by as much as 61% more than last year. The increased prices are partly a result of natural disasters that have affected crop production in some parts of the country.
We often assume that the cost of living is similar no matter where we live in the U.S., but the American Farm Bureau analysis of the cost of a Thanksgiving meal revealed regional differences. They found that the cost for the meal was most affordable in the South, at a penny over $50, followed by the Midwest at $54.38, the Northeast at $60.82, while it will cost $ 61.75 in the Western U.S.
Since I’m talking about Thanksgiving dinner, a Successful Farming Magazine article by Chelsea Dintereman brought out these interesting factoids, related to dinner rolls. Flour in the U.S. comes from about 50 million acres of wheat grown annually. Chickens on average lay 301 eggs per year, Dairy cows produce six to seven gallons of milk per day, and we produced a record of just over 1 million metric tons of butter last year.
It looks like the price of beef in the U.S. may be headed down, in reaction to a white House announcement that the 40% tariffs imposed on Brazilian agriculture products in mid-April would be cut and made retroactive to November 13th, when the tariff rate will revert back to 26.4%. This means that beef import volume will likely pick up since Brazil is the largest beef exporter in the world. That’s good news for consumers, but a bit of a sharp stick in the eye for U.S. cattle producers.
On the China trade front, the country has been slow to follow through with its agreement, made at the end of October, to purchase 12 million metric tons of soybeans from U.S. farmers. Last week, for the first time since the agreement was announced, China booked almost 1.6 million tons of soybeans for delivery in the near future but so far, there has been no indication of when or if additional sales will be made, which is of concern to many farmers who are facing low return on both corn and soybeans.
Texas hat maker, Manny Gammage wrote, “Quality is like buying oats: if you want good clean oats, you have to pay a fair price. If you want oats already run through a horse- Well, that’s a little cheaper.
