And now an important message from your federal government: Put down the cheeseburger.

CattleFax meteorology analyst Art Douglas said a change in sea surface temperatures off the Pacific and Atlantic coasts should indicate a reversal of long-term weather patterns for the U.S., especially in western and Midwestern states still recovering from drought.

It isn’t just supply and demand that spiked cattle prices to record levels in 2014. There happened to be some additional good luck involved.

Prior to joining Purdue University as a teaching veterinarian, Dr. Mark Hilton said his objective as a practicing vet for 15 years was direct and simple: “My goal as a food animal veterinarian is to never see a sick animal.”

The price of oil isn’t just providing some relief to American drivers. Even in countries where filling up the tank is not a regular expense, cheaper oil and gas could throw some savings to those nations’ buying power. With that extra cash, the expectation is to buy more U.S. beef.

The U.S. beef cattle industry experienced its first cattle inventory increase since 2007 this month, as the USDA cattle count showed the number of cattle and calves at 89.8 million head, a 1 percent increase over Jan. 1, 2014.

With one government committee meeting in December, the U.S. beef industry felt a collective tremor with the possibility of the USDA telling Americans to eat less lean beef.

By the time you read this column, the world’s population will grow by another 500 people. That’s just the short term. Looking out further on the horizon, the math really adds up.

If dinner takes more than 40 minutes to prepare, that’s too long for 31 percent of today’s consumers. If it takes an hour, the number jumps to 70 percent of consumers. “And there’s a whole lot of people that want it shorter than 40 minutes, especially on a Monday to Thursday night,” NCBA’s John Lundeen explains of cooking convenience. “They have more time on the weekend.”

First it was the increase in cattle prices that started around 2010. Then came the reduction in price for feed and corn midway through 2013. Now as 2015 begins, we are watching another commodity game-changer as the price of fuel continues to spiral downward.