Average carcass weight in the US is about 1,300 pounds: https://www.nass.usda.gov/Charts_and_Maps/Livestock_Slaughter/calvwgx5.php https://www.nass.usda.gov/Cha

Average carcass weight in the US is about 1,300 pounds: https://www.nass.usda.gov/Charts_and_Maps/Livestock_Slaughter/calvwgx5.php https://www.nass.usda.gov/Charts_and_Maps/Livestock_Slaughte... Live cattle futures as of this comment are $1.91 / pound: https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/live-cattle-price?op=1 https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/live-cattle-... Using those figures, that gives us an average value of $2,483 for a single animal - but value is not margin! The average cost for finishing out a steer last week was $2,249: https://www.drovers.com/news/beef-production/profit-tracker-cattle-margins-near-500-pork-margins-hold-steady https://www.drovers.com/news/beef-production/profit-tracker-... Using that finishing price and the average value according to the futures market, we're looking at a $234 / head margin. A $100 tax would be 43% of that. ... and that margin is split between the feeder and the packer, and discounts the cost of acquiring said cattle (via purchase of a breeding program). Full disclosure here: I'm not a rancher, and don't have extensive experience in cattle. I _do_ come from a family where both my father and sister are agriculture teachers. One uncle that I'm close with owned and operated a meat processing facility for about twenty years before specializing in game animals. I raised cattle for show in high school, and my two daughters have been raising and showing swine for the past couple of years as well. Basically I'm a nerd with an ag background. I can't 100% vouch for the numbers above, as they're based on futures, averages, and estimates. Some years the margin will be twice what it is now, some years it's slightly negative. That's just the nature of agriculture. What I am 100% confident in is that "1/3 of 1%" is not anywhere near an accurate representation of the impact of this tax.