NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — At one butcher shop in The Nations, there’s a challenge that’s become all too familiar: rising beef prices.

Kyle Colvard, the general manager of Bare Bones Butcher, has seen it firsthand.

“I would say this year, in particular, they [beef prices] have gone up a little bit higher,” he said.

Across Tennessee and the rest of the U.S., beef is costing more. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the average cost of a pound of ground beef hit $6.10 in June, a roughly 12 percent increase compared to the same time last year. Cattle herd sizes are the smallest they’ve been in nearly 75 years, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.

At Bare Bones Butcher, some beef comes from local farms and is broken down in-house from whole animals. To meet demand, the shop also sources from outside suppliers. Either way, the price tag keeps climbing.

Nearly every cut is more expensive, Colvard said, which has forced the shop to make tough decisions. Among them, raising prices for customers.

“An increase in prices was something we had to do to — I wouldn’t say to stay afloat, but it’s something we had to do for the business,” said Colvard. “To put the business in the best position.”

The reasons for the price hike are layered. Droughts, feed shortages and ongoing supply chain issues are pushing up costs every step of the process. Yet, the butchers at Bare Bones are trying to strike a balance: keeping prices fair while continuing to deliver quality meat they believe stands out.

“We know it’s hard on our customers,” said Colvard. “We are asking a lot of them to spend what they spend in our shop, so we try our best to keep prices down.”

Unfortunately, butchers like Colvard do not expect prices to lower anytime soon.

“It was a really hard drought year last year,” said Colvard. “You don’t see that effect last year during the drought, you see it down the road, so I would expect prices to continue to go up this year, at least on our end.”