Beef prices stabilizing after sizzling hot summer

Those who love a good steak may soon love it a bit more. The price of beef is falling and expected to continue dropping after hitting record breaking prices this summer.

The gradual drop in beef prices can be seen in grocery stores and speciality meat shops, like ACME Meat Market, where the price of a steak is slowly returning to palatable levels.

"Things have settled down here in my shop, price wise," said Corey Meyer, ACME Meat Market owner, while cutting up slabs of beef.

"People carry on, still buying beef, if anything they're filling up their freezers for winter."

Retail beef prices skyrocketed earlier this year, climbing as drought hit parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan driving up the price of feed for the cattle. The prices are slowly stabilizing after jumping by 15 percent during the summer.

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"We've seen prices go up, way up, we've seen prices come down.

"It's just sort of the nature of the beast," said Meyer.

Still, the recent and dramatic jump in the price of beef has kept some consumers from buying steak regularly.

"When you're looking at a couple of steaks for thirty bucks if you want to get a decent steak I mean we have a family of five at home," said Rocky Deluca who said this summer he's eaten more chicken, turkey and pork.

"I mean it's nice to barbecue it's nice to get outside and do that but it gets quite pricey when you're feeding five."

Deluca said his family has gone from eating steak about once a week to once a month.

Butchers CBC spoke with said they've seen customers switch to cheaper cuts of beef because of the rising cost.

"Not everyone has to eat the prime rib dinner every night right so we sell a lot of ground beef," said Meyer.

"Here in Alberta beef is still king."