What's up with meat prices?

[P&R Fan]

Everything is more expensive today, but meat is confusing me. Beef prices are through the roof. Hamburger is about $5 a pound, and if you want a steak you have to take out a second mortgage.
But pork is really cheap. Went to the grocery store today and bought three pork roasts. Really good looking ones, for $1.49 per pound.
Doesn't make any sense to me.
Jim

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Out West, We have had a long term drought.
Cattle numbers are very low as ranchers have been forced to sell off their herds.
And low cow numbers mean higher beef prices. The only solution is more rain out West.
American farmers and ranchers are some of the smartest, hardest working productive people on the planet. Period.
But it's hard to produce agricultural products without adequate water.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...rinking-to-63-year-low-means-record-beef-cost

 

[joeintexas]

Beef prices are sky high now, last month I picked out a couple of ribeyes, I made a few payments and get to pick them up next week! On a bright note, chicken is going for 77 cents a pound here.

 

[ralph7]

If we could keep the corn out of the gasoline and feed it to the cattle, prices might dip a bit.

 

[italiansport]

Fortunately both pork and chicken prices are very low right now and to me they are a good substitute for beef. However I've noticed a pretty much across the board rise in food prices in the past couple of years.
I don't have any idea when this trend will stop.
Jim

 

[photobiker]

I know we were looking to pick up 2 or 3 corned beef briskets, Saint Patrick's Day, for the freezer. Opened up the sale add for one store, $4.99 a pound! I think they were $2.99 a pound last year. We're hoping the other store have a better price.

 

[USAF385]

Well, I haven't bought meat in about 6 or 7 years.....

.... But tempeh goes for about $6.50 per lb, tofu $2.50 ish per lb.

 

[rwsmith]

I don't really expect.....

Fortunately both pork and chicken prices are very low right now and to me they are a good substitute for beef. However I've noticed a pretty much across the board rise in food prices in the past couple of years.
I don't have any idea when this trend will stop.
Jim

I don't really expect it to stop. When they know people will pay whatever price they ask they start to get greedy.

Same with pharmaceuticals. I don't really have to pay
$120 for a 10 ml vial of insulin if I don't want, but......

 

[ky wonder]

as stated previously the drought out west, along with the early blizzard of 2013 in the upper west that literally froze thousands of head of cattle to death,

it takes time to rebuild the herds,

and right now just about every heifer is kept for breeding, where in the past culls were sent to market

sows can raise several litters a year, chickens can lay eggs everyday, but it takes a year for a cow to gestate and get a calf on its on


I feel like we have at least two more years before this turns around

 

[inspcalahan]

The meat is affordable if I don't factor in the price of the fuel....

 

[jrm53]

We raise beef to sell and it is very high, but like ralph7 stated above if we could keep the corn out of ethanol it would help feed prices that we buy every week, but then the corn growers would be hurt. One thing I cant understand is the lean hog futures, I have seen them at 93.00 a hundred and the bacon was cheaper then than now when the hog futures are below 70.00 a hundred weight, also ham was cheaper when the futures were above 90.00 a hundred I just cant see why this is. We had the farm diesel tank filled last month and the price for the off road was about the same as WalMart charges for my pickup but they did deliver the offroad. Also live fed cattle futures are lower by abou 20 dollars a hundred but beef prices have not come down but have gone up. Jeff

 

[cussedemgun]

inspcalahan, GOOD shoot'en

I'm glad to see it wasn't Rudolph

 

[Florida Guy]

The New York Times also wants the ethanol removed from gasoline:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/10/opinion/end-the-ethanol-rip-off.html?_r=0
It's time for this country to wise-up. While a few states are benefiting from corn sales, the rest of us are paying dearly.

On another food topic...
I don't understand the price difference for a jar of mixed nuts vs. unsalted nuts at Costco. The salted jar runs around $15 while the unsalted costs $1.50 more. Go figure.

 

[Onomea]

Well, it is a tough job to get all the salt off the salted peanuts. Costco's gotta be paying illegals at least three fifty an hour do it....

 

[meaneyedcatz]

I'm no rancher but I heard it had something to do with the big storm that happened a few years ago.
It rained long and hard then it snowed a ton. Cattle froze to death.

Now that might be a factor but I'm certain that it is also an excuse to jack it up.

 

[Waywatcher]

We hardly ever eat ground beef anymore, and that's a good thing for our health and the wallet.

When we do, it's a special treat and it tastes all the better!

 

[schgsd]

I've written my legislator more than once about the ethanol thing. We are currently at 10% blend and rumors started about going to 15%.
I am pretty sick of replacing carburetors in the small power tools.

 

[da gimp]

If we could keep the corn out of the gasoline and feed it to the cattle, prices might dip a bit.

Point 1 Ralph, the corn used in producing ethanol is not the same corn used to feed cattle/hogs/livestock.......... it has been bred to produce the highest yield of alcohol......... with little/no regard for protein production/other nutriments. Ethanol remains a good value that scares the heck out of OPEC & the oil producing states.

Point 2, Right now in our county , Saline County Missouri there is about 5,000,000 bushels of last years corn sitting on sheets of poly in huge piles scattered around the county.....this year's (2014 crop)record production crop is in the silos & elevators.. last years crop remains unsold, both here in the USA & abroad..........even though the price has fallen dramatically.

point 3, as stated above, after 2 years of bad drought out west, most folks had to pare down their herds, both the foundation cow/calf herd & the feeder steer/heifer herds that go to market...........it'll take several years for the herd numbers to rebound.........if & when they get adequate rainfall to refill their ponds/lakes and streams....you can make money if you have to buy cattle & feed............ but when you also have to purchase water... it becomes a money losing business real quick.

 

[DeathGrip]

I'm eating a lot more pork and chicken these days.

Beef prices aren't in the budget. I love beef. The last steaks I bought were way over-priced and really sucked ( why do I need a hyphen for over-priced? ) far as the quality goes and it goes as well for the last ground sirloin.

Have you seen the bacon prices? Chicken ain't so cheap either.

It didn't get to cold this year, Iguanas are everywhere. Hmm?

 

[Jinglebob]

Hold on a minute

As a cattle raiser I’m on the other side of this fence. The whole process is complicated but this is the Cliff Notes version. Prior to 2013 we saw a steady reduction in herd numbers due to, among other things, years of drought and steadily increasing feed costs. Many ranchers were forced to reduce their herds, go heavy into debt or just give up and get out. Beef production in 2014 was down 6 percent and it is projected to drop another 1 to 2 percent again in 2015. This will keep supplies tight.

Beef imports are up only modestly from other major import sources including Canada, Mexico and New Zealand. Beef imports supplement supplies of specific types of beef in the U.S. market; particularly lean beef for ground beef production to support the enormous U.S. appetite.

The increase in cattle prices started in mid to late 2013 and pretty much increased throughout 2014. The January 30th, 2015 Cattle Report shows some slight herd expansion but we will have less beef production for sure in 2015. Cattle supplies will be lower for the next several years. It could be 2020 before cattle supplies return to their 2014 levels. Prices in the meantime will continue to rise.