Today I saw that scrawny boneless supermarket ribeye steaks were priced at $20 per pound. WTF? The quality was hideous. Of course I walked away. Hope it rots on the shelf. They also had a sale sign for walleye filets but one person bought the entire case. What was really interesting was the farm raised catfish was the same price as the walleye .

As a beef raiser, steer calves bring a lot more than bull calves, ( cutting them can set them back), that bring a lot more than heifer calves. Go in the store and ask for some of the cheaper heifer meat!

Last couple of Wyoming trips, called ahead to a local meat cutter and bought a quarter for reasonable money.

A buddy of mine has a cattle business right outside of Omaha + he tells me that they are losing money right now on beef prices. The grocery stores are still making a profit but once again the rancher takes it in the shorts. Years ago when my kids were still in school I would buy calves from the kids that raised them for FFA. You got a good well cared for calf for your freezer + you helped out the kid.

Decades ago, we raised sheep in 4-H, a similar setup.

Food prices are becoming insane. I raise and put up most of my own. I still look at what stuff is selling for. Again- insane.

The waiting list to have a calf custom butchered is also insane. If you were not a regular it can be a year out!

join costco and buy best quality beef at reasonable prices.

prime steak was $15-16 pound

regular choice steak (as good as prime elsewhere) was $10-12 pound

prices have gone up 20 percent

I am trying to eat less red meat so I always buy quality beef.

Mike

Someone is making a killing selling beef, and it ain't the guy walking around in mud and cow crap. At the West cattle auction last Thursday (near Waco)#1 steers weighing 600-700 lbs. were selling for $1.05-1.25 lb, heifers $1.20-1.40 lb. Usually the other way around. Why, I've got a whole bunch I'd sell for $4.00 a lb .
Local processors are backed up a bit around here, too, but only 3 or 4 weeks.

quote:

posted 25 May 2021 19:22 Hide Post
Food prices are becoming insane.

Yup, not just beef, a bag of oranges is around 7 bucks here.

Grizz

Prices on EVERYTHING has gone out of sight thanks to the new administration's modus operendi.

Eighty percent of the country's beef industry is controlled by just four companies — JBS, Tyson, Smithfield, and Cargill.

They make 90% of the profit on a steer as it goes from calf to boxed meat. They manipulate the market in their favor.

But right now grain is high and going up and there are still repercussions from the pandemic which are difficult to understand totally.

Last year we took a load of cattle to the auction barn, then took them right back to the ranch.
No buyers, because the buyers couldnt find anyone to cut them up.
That was a first, and an unpleasant kick in the shortz business wise.


.

That does sound odd. Processors in the locker plant usually has a high level of employment (easy work, 'kinda ',in A.C. conditions) but now that folks are getting paid to stay at home I can see a problem. That being said, the "Killers" that actually put them down has always been a low percentile. I know in Taylor in the past that they had one "
Killer" that had to go from one locker plant to another in his days work.

when i was about 9 there was a very small family "kill em and cut em" place about 2 miles from our dirt farm. my grandfather made the mistake of taking me once with some goats. the mexicans would run the stock up into a squeeze chute and one guy would shoot it in the head with a .22LR rifle. i begged and whined em to let me shoot one. grandpa said no as i'd probably miss and wound it. the mexicans were excited and convinced him to let me try. you'd a thought it was the super bowl. for all i know they were taking bets. i put the bbl about an inch away from a forehead and popped it dead center. there was a lot of cheering and laughing. made their day. the owner thought it was funny too. grandpa just shook his head and told me to get my ass back in the truck. ever so often he'd tell me "mr. anderson called and wants to know when you'll be back". we never told mom.

I bought sirloin prime steak for $10 a pound at Costco for a bbq this weekend. Can’t complain.

Mike

John, little boys are visious creatures; I know, I was one (still am actually). You are right though, there are some things best not reported to mothers. You know that every time I see a chicken running away the idea is that of an overweight elderly woman hiking her skirts to try + run. No disrepect to the above mentioned females intended, just what it looks like to me.

When it finally rain around here some years ago calf prices skyrocketed because everyone was under stocked and needed replacement heifers. Calves were too expensive to butcher. Some of the custom butcher houses either closed or went to deer processing only. Pandemic meat prices skyrocketed and calf prices fell. Time to custom butcher with no place to take them, or take a number! We seem to swing from one extreme to another!

Live Steer brings $1.20 x 1500#=$1800, Big 4 that Lane mention's in previous post sell's boxed beef for 3.30# this week, approximately $3150 per head, they have costs to operate but many in the industry think the packer is making $1000 plus per head, its not the cattle feeder, backgrounder or rancher profiting on the high retail beef prices

I don't have space to put up even half a beef but even the locals who butcher steers are pretty expensive too. Just bought half a hog from a neighbor. Goes to the abattoir 6 June. Most places around here are over $200 to process a butcher hog.

quote:

Originally posted by Aspen Hill Adventures:
I don't have space to put up even half a beef but even the locals who butcher steers are pretty expensive too. Just bought half a hog from a neighbor. Goes to the abattoir 6 June. Most places around here are over $200 to process a butcher hog.

And here I was whining about $80 to cut up an antelope...

The local locker plant's are charging 95 cent's a pound. 1500# x.635%= 953# hanging beef x .95=$905

Anyway you slice it (sorry) buying an entire calf or hog, etc. + taking it to the locker plant is a good investment. Sure it costs more initially but is much cheaper in the long run. Yes, you do need a freezer + can pay $900.00? in one chunk but then you have a freezer full of meat. When I was raising my 3 boys, they ate like all boy children do + also their friends who came over to eat. I remember at the time that the calf + processing fees came out to about .80 cents a lb. for everything. I admit that was a few years ago but the point is still valid, buying in a bulk lot will save you money. But like everything else, you have to be flush enough to pay it up front.

A beef for the freezer is an investment for sure.

It is indeed;+ as I've said, if you have the money buy what you can + put it in the freezer. The more you buy the cheaper by the pound. I recall that when I was feeding my boys that I ran out of ground before I ever hit the steaks or roasts. REALLY, when you are feeding growing boys supper it better be easy + it doesn't need to be fancy. And even more so when they bring their high school buddies home with then. I would like a nickel for every time I came home to 17 + teenagers hanging out in the house + eating as as only a teenaged boy can do. My only rule was that although all the groceries were fair game, that if you ate the last or saw that the last was going t happen; put it on the list + "Dad" would starte pot of chili

I hope this contrived shortage crap initiates a return to local farm to table. My community used to supply all of it's protein, milk products, and vegetable needs prior to the 1970's.

quote:

Originally posted by Aspen Hill Adventures:
Today I saw that scrawny boneless supermarket ribeye steaks were priced at $20 per pound. WTF? The quality was hideous. Of course I walked away. Hope it rots on the shelf. They also had a sale sign for walleye filets but one person bought the entire case. What was really interesting was the farm raised catfish was the same price as the walleye .

Bob, I agree with you 100%, however, Dorothy, we are not in Kansas anymore. (Soap box here) The age of 'entitlement' appears to override the age of self sufficiency + the morals of our Mothers + Fathers. Those of us who still adhere to that latter mindset are unfortunately diminishing. but enough of the philosophy of 'why', the end result;t is a steak that you can't eat at a price you can't afford. Oh, did I mention socialism?

Even locally raised beef is spendy. There is quite a bit of mark up if you go to the local slaughter barn.

https://east32meatprocessing.c...rvices.html#Services

Yes it is. But at least it stays in the local economy and doesn't go to a corporate farm. It is also not subject to foreign or domestic hacking.

I agree. As I mentioned earlier, I used to support the kids in FFA whose raised their calves. You did spent a bit more but you knew what you were getting + you helped out a kid. Now that my kids are grown + gone I have no reason to buy a whole calf. But it is an idea for those on the lookout. Just contact the Ag. teacher at your local high school.

I just happened to read a Canadian farm paper. Apparently there's a glut of beef in the US, just like milk and we can look forward to a push from the US to allow increased imports, while our Canadian producers can't make ends meet. US Imperialism cloaked as Fair Trade.

Grizz

The reverse happens to us with Canadian syrup Grizz.

I'm planning a few days in Wyoming in September, will stop at a meat cutter in Lyman on the way back for a quarter to put in the freezer.