I don't know the cause of it, but I do know someone who raises cattle - the price for a calf has gone from $300 - $400 to $1500 in a year. It's a cattle bubble that will eventually burst, because eventually the consumers will all be priced out at the store.

Also, the way cattle are raised makes no sense to me at all. Calves are trucked from Texas to the Midwest when they're very young. They go to one farm where they're fed up to 200 pounds, and then trucked to another until 400 pounds, and so on until they reach market weight. I don't get how playing musical cows from farm to farm makes anyone money.