The meat has never been more expensive, due to supply shortages, but there's a big squeeze on profits.

With US beef prices soaring to record highs, you might think that South Dakota cattle rancher Eric Gropper would be celebrating.

Yet while the cost of the meat in US supermarkets is now 12% higher than it was a year ago, a rise more than three times the rate of general inflation, Gropper says that he and all the other beef farmers aren’t making any more profit than usual.