EMY92 said:

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I figured they would be rising with the demand now.

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Beef is the one thing I can find at the grocery store. Never can find chicken and not much pork.

SWCBonfire said:

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Total numbers are still down... yields are way up. Better genetics means we get more beef from fewer animals that convert feed more efficiently.

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Very true, farmers and ranchers today produce more with less than ever before (about 262% more production with 2% less input according to Texas farmbureau)

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Agriculture becomes a side hobby and the main means of income is from a job or another business. This has always been true to some extent, but the discrepancy between the "day job" and what is produced from agricultural income grows greater and greater as time goes on.

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Unfortunately I agree with this too. I work with several row-crop and ranching operations in central Texas and a lot of them have second jobs. I work for guys that are also: school teacher, firefighter, soil scientist, CPA, crop insurance salesman, county judge, and more.

Texags group buy? Go directly to yiu ranchers!

Can we make it happpen?

A) And I know I've talked about it before, I suggest reading "From Dirt to Soil", by Gabe Brown - if nothing else, he talks about farming from the perspective of maximum profit, rather than maximum production - which is an attitude the entire Ag community needs to adopt.

B) Small food, and farmers, and restaurant chains, need to find better ways to work. There's not enough profit for anyone, once the Mega-Corps get involved. Admittedly, being dependent on restaurant chains isn't the greatest, in the current situation, but this, most likely, will never be repeated. I doubt there will be enough money to repeat this, the next time a plague develops in China/We might be much more aggressive about cutting them off.

C) Now, admittedly, some in dairy have done this well, and some have not - and, dairy farmers are more comfortable with machinery, etc - but I think there's a shortage of small USDA licensed processors. I looked for one in SC, and the only one I could find, processed 10 steers per day, and had to switch if they processed a bunch of chickens, etc.

After working & moving some cattle with an old man recently he asked me how many was my total count. while fiddling with the falling down gate that was mostly held up by brush he said:

don't worry, some day you'll own a mess of cows & be poor as me.

In Dallas area stores are cleaned out of Chickens and pork with the exception of pork ribs, beef remains on the shelves.

I think demand creation for the home environment was worse than anyone thought.

We are a start to finish grass fed beef farm. Our beef is delivered to houses in the Houston area. We aren't a massive ranch as we run a little over 125 head so we still call it a farm.
As others have stated above, finding a USDA processor to butcher small farm raised cattle is difficult. We have been using the same USDA processor for the last few years. If they close down, we will have a 4 hour drive to get our cattle processed.
Selling USDA inspected, butchered beef has steadily increased in demand for us over the last few years. This year is absolutely crazy. We can't keep beef in stock and are selling future orders before the steers are taken to butcher.
There are very profitable niche markets in the beef industry for smaller farms. On a farm our size, a cow/calf operation is not profitable for us. We know a lot of people don't like grass fed beef but we also know there are a ton of people who love it. Our market is for the people who want grass fed beef, want to know who's raising the cattle, want to know what the cattle have eaten and know the cattle are hormone/antibiotic free.

OK, so how do we address that? I grew up in a family that had steakhouses/my father was involved in commercial beef production - still have some family in it.

Is there a reason why home cooks are afraid to tackle roast beef/Stewed beef, etc, but are willing to cook chicken?

Is beef usually sold in sizes too large for their family's to easily eat?

A lack of "easy" youtube videos on how to make roast beef/chuck roast, etc?

Could it be seasonal?

Should we try to push things like beef salad, and beef pies?

(I have other reasons for pushing this, aside from a support of family/the beef industry. I think one of the best things for our ecology, would be to get SE Asia off ocean-based protein, and over to beef. Russia alone, should be able to produce staggering amounts of it.)

Good grass-fed beef is excellent. It might be like people who claim to not like "dry-aged" beef, when their exposure has been to some piece of rotten filth, aged in individual cuts by an idiot, who failed to trim off the oxidized meat.

People are "turned off" by large cuts of meat. My mother has to leave the room when we prep and slice a brisket.

Also, I love meat and bbq/smoke/grill, but I just don't want to bother with most roasts. I'd rather make a great cheeseburger.

Also, chicken has been very well marketed and people LOVE their boneless skinless chicken breasts. There are lots of people my age who won't eat meat on the bone if you can believe that. When I serve chicken thighs lots of people are uncomfortable with the skin. I have a sibling who only eats ground turkey. I don't get it.

So... smaller cuts of beef, about the size of a boneless/skinless cut of breast? Maybe top round? Any vegetable oils which taste good with beef? (Used PAM in college. Not good with beef)

Ag folks don't think that way. I referred to a steer, once, as looking delicious*, and a city friend of mine started laughing. Thought it was bizarre to look at an animal, and think about how it would taste.

*might have had a bourbon or three

Pork breeders have bred for everything except flavor - commercial breeders and show breeders alike.

I agree pork is way to lean cause all about muscle. They should look how the steers a done. Steer you want nice finish throughout with reasonable muscling. When I buy a show hog from a local kids project, I feed one out and put a lot of finish on it before slaughter it.

Sir, I have great respect for your ability to serve a specific consumer need. I am thankful there is room for all of us in this market. Personally, I and many others prefer grass fed, Grain Finished beef! May we all be thankful for all of God's many blessings! Gig'Em!