Beef prices going up????

[Traxion]

I haven't researched farm slaughter. I need to ask my beef guy how he does it. The actual kill occurs in his property. The meat cutter then hauls the carcass to the locker. Does that change anything?? If I saw the animal via video would that count?

Ultimately a lot of this comes down to folks not having the facilities and equipment to do their own on site processing. So you’re stuck right away. There’s legit food safety concerns too. And the time to do it. Tough onion to peel.

 

[KDM]

IMO, fear is the driving factor as to why on farm processing has been diminishing year over year. The buyer is afraid of getting tainted meat. The producer is afraid of getting sued. The govt. is afraid of losing control. However, most people have no fear of processing their own deer/elk that was gutted on dirt, in the grass, dragged to the truck with an open body cavity and exposed meat, flung in the back of the truck without covering, driven home exposed to wind, dirt, and exhaust, hung by a steel gambrel (probably not cleaned from last year), left there for a day or two while the cat chewed on the brisket. Then the skin is removed where hair gets on much of the meat. After which, quite likely, the carcass is quartered up with a sawzall blade last used to cut the hydraulic hoses and a rusty piece of conduit. This whole process is finished up by placing the quarters on an unsterilized table/countertop where the smaller pieces are removed and placed into unsealable ziplock bags and chucked into the freezer. Where exactly does "food safety" fall into this process? Fear is overrated and greatly influenced by context.

 

[Rowdie]

I'd think a clever lawyer could think of legal ways for average Joe to get parts to his shop.

Can he rent loaders and someone to operate it? Can he hire someone to help him? That would open other doors for producers.

 

[lunkerslayer]

Grass vs grain

 

[Rowdie]

 

[Rowdie]

 

[KDM]

Are the big 4 meat packing plants under investigation for the same price fixing/gouging? Things that make you go.....hmmmmmm.

 

[Rowdie]

I think there's laws preventing this no?

 

[Traxion]

Trump met with one of the owners of JBS not long ago. He’s playing both sides. The challenging part of this is the cattle industry still wants to see food safety as paramount. And without solid meat lockers to process the product safely, it really doesn’t matter. Ever small shop I know is booked out months. My beef guy buys out almost 16 weeks of processing from his locker. And he’s one guy. There just isn’t the capacity out there to handle direct marketing imo.