Meat prices

Must be bad if Costco has a $75 off at the register sale, 75 freaking dollars. Looks like the one in the middle under the sign is $406.80 at $19.99 a pound, the more focused picture. Holy hell, what is going on. I’m more and more greatful and appreciative that we are in a situation where we don’t have to buy meat. With everything happening with prices I feel for people in different situations. I understand that this fancy meat, but good Lord.




What is happening in other parts of the country and world?



Owl

 

Apparently we're supposed to be quadrupling our imports of Argentine beef to help bail that country out too. Not to talk politics/geopolitics, but I can't imagine that move working out for US ranchers. Time will tell what the effect will be on meat prices in general.

 

I guess we won't be eliminating cattle any time soon just because they are too gassy.

 

That's one of those feel-good ideas floating around that would have to include slaughter to implement. I'm not too worried about either the methane or losing access to beef anytime soon. That would unravel us as a society rather quickly.

 

I just left Costco. I bought a pork butt for pulled pork. It was $38.00. I said to the wife that the prices seemed a bit higher than usual

 

As some may know; my sister and BIL own a private slaughter house not far from me. The buy beef calves feed them and slaughter when prime.. But if you bought calf’s in July just to get them paid 1,000 a piece now have to feed and grain them year. Before you can slaughter and sell… you bet they are scared as hell of cheap argentine beef.. there are very few independent slaughterhouses because inspectors here need office desk etc only in it 4 hours a fortnight.. those are rules to sell to restaurants and grocery stores. Also 1/4 or 1/2 steers. Have in past done pigs deer snd goats

not political but it’s hard when you change rules in middle of the game..

tyson beef or big chains survive but lil ones have hard time.. just likes joes lumber and hardware has hard time when Home Depot moves in next door

 

I've never been one to buy the fancier cuts (like rib eye). I have no idea what prices have been. I guess I'm not sophisticated enough.

I buy meat at my local Shaw's. Costco/Sam's is far away and feeding only 1 person is not worth going to for me. I just buy a roast on sale then cut "steaks" out of it. I do that whenever they have a sale with coupon going on. During the summer I believe I paid around $2.97/pound (had to buy over 3 pounds). Usually they limit it to two roasts per person (it is a digital coupon, so it disappears once used). That can feed me for a month. I haven't bought any meat since August though and looking at the latest flyer Beef bottom round is at $6.99/pound. NY strip is at $11.99/pound.

 

I don't buy much meat in the store anymore. We raise meat chickens, buy hogs off my BIL, and shoot a lot of deer. I'll buy some ribeyes every once in a great while, but they've been too high for me lately. I can afford it, but I can't mentally accept $20/lb when it wasn't that long ago I paid $8/lb.

 

We do a "friends & family operation with our neighbors and we raised 7 steers this year. Next year we plan on 8 because we've been able to improve the pasture enough that we think we can support 8 steers next summer. We buy at 500 to 600 lbs. in late Feb / early March and grain them at 1-1/2% of their weight every day along with rotating them through 9 paddocks of fresh grass every few days. We butcher in late October when they get to 1,300 to 1,400 lbs. We are dreading next spring buying since the prices are doing nothing but going up. We have established most of our "customers" with the quality of the beef as opposed to the price, but with the current upward slope that pricing has taken we are concerned that some of our customers may be priced out since it is a whole years beef that they are buying in one lump sum. Even though it is lower priced / higher quality than at the supermarket, in todays economy not everyone can afford to buy a year's supply all at once.

 

I am ready for my invite to cow dinner Monte...just kidding, but sounds like you raise that meat the right way!

 

If you get stuck with one, let us know, I'm betting a few of us locals would be able to buy out your excess inventory. I know first hand it's top quality!

 

We raise our own much like you do but we wait until the pasture greens up in spring before getting ours (around same size you purchase) and we keep them until Christmas time. We don’t sell though. It’s more of a family and friends pitch in together to do it all including slaughter and butcher.
As for your future price concerns, which are valid, have you thought about reaching out to your customers well in advance to let them know your prices are rising so you have no choice but to pass that on to them? If they are truly happy with the product, and I’m sure they are, this will give them time to budget and not have sticker shock when it’s time to purchase.

 

I call them "customers" but all of them are truly friends and family so they are constantly in the loop of where the pricing is and where it it going. They are all very aware and understanding of the cost's involved. A few of them did share quarters to get into it originally to keep costs to them lower but after eating prime for a while opted in for halves or halves of halves. Most of them are solid "customers" and have no problem with the pricing at all but I just had to chime in to grumble about the prices of beef these days.

My wife always rolls her eyes when I walk through the meat section at the supermarket just to look at prices. Just last night when picking up a Turkey at the store, they had prime rib roasts on sale for 14.99 / lb. and all of them were 6 pounders right at 90 bucks. That makes $900 for 125 lbs. of beef (that's about the yield we get from a half of a half since we do bone in on most everything for that little bit of extra flavor) that includes rib-eyes, filets, strip steaks, sirloins, roasts, and a BUNCH of burger not seem like such a bad deal.

We do have about 3 or 4 weeks in the spring where we keep them in 1 sacrificial paddock (it's kept out of the normal rotation till later in summer to recover) and keep hay in the feeder ring till the pastures green up. We also water them out of the frost free hydrant till the chances of a hard freeze passes so we can get the solar well for troughs and sprinklers running for the summer. We decided not to keep cattle during the heart of winter to avoid the extra work and hassle of frozen plumbing and sloshing through the snow and mud to feed twice a day. I'm not trying to say I'm lazy, but I like to keep the "extra" work to a minimum. All our "customers" are hands off and would rather throw a few bucks at it as opposed to getting a little blood on their hands or poo on their boots.

 

Thanks for the kind words. We like to shoot for quality so we get to experience excellent beef. We can't really afford buy it so we decided to grow it... I find it kind of fun to trade some sweat equity for better quality beef.

 

When I was a kid, dad tried every method of raising beef. That included getting calves that needed to be bottle fed and having cows year round. Having to lug water in the winter was not fun. As my siblings got older and moved out, there were less animals in the winter LOL. Not sure if it had to do with a decrease in labor force or my parents were better off financially. Probably a mixture but after some years, the winter animals all but disappeared except for the egg layers.

 

Yup one of things, checked when I bought my house. Water and electric in barn, they worked.

 

I talked with a gal who is a member of our church and she told me her husband and oldest daughter each got a deer on the opening weekend. She mentioned it was cheaper to fill the freezer with venison than to buy beef.