GILLETTE — Wednesday afternoon inside Buffalo Livestock Market — one of the local sale barns to ranchers in Campbell County — ranchers were experiencing something they’d never even dared to hope for: a windfall.

With drought in recent years shrinking cattle herds in the U.S., demand for beef is far more significant than the current supply. For the past few years, the price buyers are willing to pay for cattle has been steadily growing.

This year, the prices are stratospheric.

While beef steak prices have jumped about 12% since last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the price of cattle may have jumped more than three times that.

Buffalo Livestock Market co-owner Craig Deveraux said he’d peg that increase over last year at about 40%.

“In any commodity, that’s a jump, 40

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