Zarathustra said:

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Aggie4Life02 said:

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F the FDA

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More like the USDA. Purposefully creating bottlenecks and barrier to entry for small processing plants.

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I hear this a lot, but the private folks I've dealt with certainly don't charge less for their locally raised and processed meat

Cattle prices have stunk it up for a few years now. It's extremely hard to make a living on cattle and has been for a long time. Cattle producers know this already and those that aren't prepared to lose a little money get out pretty quick. Most cattle at auction comes from very small and part time operations. Most of those trailers probably only carrying a few calves.

Someone addressed a lot of it in the comments though. Lot of sale barns didn't have a sale for the 4th of July. Ranchers are needing to get calves out of the pastures because they are losing grass with the drought (this is absolutely important because you have to keep your herd fed on next to nothing or you'll be spending money on supplements, which are awful expensive), etc.

I'm not into the doom and gloom just yet. Lines like that are not unheard of at sale barns because a lot of the smaller ones have closed over the past 20 years or so.. When I see that every week for a few months, that's when you start worrying.

Zarathustra said:

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Aggie4Life02 said:

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F the FDA

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More like the USDA. Purposefully creating bottlenecks and barrier to entry for small processing plants.

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I get it, blame the govt on everything, it's easy.

Or is the barrier that it's hard for small processor to make any money when people will go to HEB and buy far cheaper meat than buy a calf and take it to small processor and pay a lot more. How many small processors would you need to replace the meat provided to one heb? Oh and those same processors need to provide chicken and pork and beef.

Look at deer processors, have they gotten cheaper? They're not regulated by usda, so why are their prices sky high too?

Facts are processing isnt cheap to operate and your customers will drop you the minute HEB is a little cheaper.

Also most people don't have room for half calf or whole calf, unless the small processor now want to become a meat market, which requires even more money staff and regulations etc

Now I think we can discuss is it good to have all the processing in one or two companies hands, that's the problem or potential problem

Quote:

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Or will we be seeing new names on mail boxes soon?

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Tell them: learn to code vegan.

Sid Farkas said:

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Quote:

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Or will we be seeing new names on mail boxes soon?

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Tell them: learn to code vegan.

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That's the endgame.

La Niña is expected to start up again this fall, when we usually get our fall rains and provide some drought relief. 2011 is going to look like the Garden of Eden once 2022 is done.

Emory had 3,495 head yesterday / today... just got their market report.

$0.70 per # on 500# heifers = $350 a calf.

When hay is at $100-$150 a bale, and you need 3-4 bales to feed the cow through the winter...YIKES!
You still need to pay for vet expenses, bull expenses, protein supplement, mineral, etc.
Plus the cow depreciation costs (check that pair price relative to the $0.25 slaughter cow price).

That doesn't even cover overheads (land, labor, etc.).


You must manage very effectively to break even. You won't do that with $350 calves.

B-1 83 said:

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Zarathustra said:

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Aggie4Life02 said:

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F the FDA

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More like the USDA. Purposefully creating bottlenecks and barrier to entry for small processing plants.

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I hear this a lot, but the private folks I've dealt with certainly don't charge less for their locally raised and processed meat

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It's the simple concept of volume and supply / demand along with the fact that the meat cuts must be sold ahead of time instead of on demand like retail meat. (Rancher is playing feed lot, salesman, and distributor)

To sell meat in small volume is not worth it for the rancher unless you can get a premium for the meat.

The small processor has to charge more for slaughter just to cover break even costs. They don't hardly make anything for cattle slaughter. All their profits come primarily from deer season because that demand is so high paired with super high volume, along with the important fact that they aren't competing with large processors for that market (and it is largely not regulated to the degree cattle are)

Remove the barriers to selling frozen beef cuts via a retail method and you'd see tons of mom and pop ranchers diving into retail sales. And with modern freezers and monitoring technology you'd likely see no difference in the frequency of contaminated food / food borne diseases.

In 2020 we are living with rules that were important in the 1910s but are largely irrelevant with modern storing methods and tech.

Tom Doniphon said:

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Uhhhhh..... stocker cow?

What's the difference between that and a heifer? I mean, I know what a heifer is.....

Pretty sure the difference is Slaughter cows are going straight to slaughter &
Stocker cow is a cow that might be going to be breedstock
Maybe based on buyer maybe based on Auction mans opinion

Stockers are typically thinner, been weaned a while and running on grass / pasture, and ready to gain weight either on better forage or grain.