Livestock production is characterised by cyclical fluctuations. Apart from a widely known and documented phenomenon known as “pork cycle” there is also a less known “cattle cycle”, which was presented on the example of the United States. This country has been considered given the fact that it is the biggest world beef producer and that the production in this country is characterised by industrial scale of high level of vertical coordination development. The last factor is often considered as a factor eliminating cyclical fluctuations. The conducted research confirmed that the curves of population, slaughter and beef price are characterised by cyclical fluctuations caused directly by the changes in the profitability of breeding, which are expressed in the relationship between the beef and maize prices. The analysis has shown that in the recent years the role of cattle price weakened and the role of maize price, which has a greater impact on the relationship, strengthened. The knowledge of the cattle cycle mechanism is especially useful when projecting the population, production and prices of beef. Thus these phenomena should be constantly observed.