My wife went to the store today and bought some steaks. She was shocked to learn that steaks were almost double what they were a short time back. She asked the butcher the reason for the cost and he stated fuel prices. I guess it's time to start raising some beef cattle.

Just like lumber. The ranchers ain't getting it.

Them there cattle might come up missing. Keep an eye on them.

Fuel prices.... lol! That's a guy with a sense of humor!

The western drought is pushing a LOT of cows into the hamburger market right now, and prices are staying remarkably high. Pairs are selling CHEAP! No water means no feed, and no hay for this winter.

Better hope the South and Midwest get rain, or beef will be VERY dear in the upcoming year or two.

This was at Costco. Can't imagine what beef prices are in the more niche grocery stores.

Finally found a local who knows how to finish off a beef. Won't be buying grocery store beef again.

Well i guess i wont be so picky this deer season

Ribeyes were $15.25 per pound at the meat lab.

I just looked over steaks twenty minutes ago for my wifes Birthday dinner. I would guess double what they were recently . Our local grocer is not cheap by big town standards , but price go up faster dur to end of the supply line

Brisket is very high also

Write uncle joe a thank-you note.

A couple weeks back the packers were making a thousand dollars a head.

We are keeping two freezers stocked with beef and pork, some chicken also. Mostly beef and bacon.We catch it on sale and buy extra.

We butcher our own hogs and beef. I typically cut our hogs for whole hog sausage and buy my pork steaks. Pork steaks were 4.50 lb yesterday. Fook that. Was still able to get whole loins for 1.79 lb. Smoker is loaded up.

That's OK. I've got deer in the back yard all the time.

I bought a Prime grade rib rack yesterday it was 300 last one that size was 220.

watch the Holiday sales. The stores around here had and have sales around Memorial Day, 4th July, Labor Day sometimes fathers day and new years. those Holidays are spread apart enough to load up a freezer when prime cuts go on sale, and simply vacuum seal it up. I have about 6 whole rib roasts either frozen or aging right now, that will last till Labor day if I miss a 4th of july sale.

Was going to be beef today, but, sticker shock, so pork chops in the oven!

LOL.

Yeah, they forgot to double what I get for beef through the sale ring.

In all commodities, the producer always gets the short stick.

You don't think Beijing Biden and all his parasitic sycophants swilling at the trough in the White House are worried about a couple hundred thousand $$$$$ a year for prime Kobe beef steaks and roasts , do you?

L.W.

Was in a high end grocery store this morn getting wife a croissant. Prime fillet mignon was $34.99 a pound. I did not buy any.

And this is the problem.
(obviously)


Retailers and producers aren't getting rich, it's the packers.


Currently there is an effort underway to put an end to the unfair situation.

Feds are getting their noses into the matter.


I forget all the details, was reading about it last week.


https://www.agweb.com/news/livestoc...market-dynamics-and-packer-investigation

Big packers are an organized crime conglomerate.

Govt. sticking their fingers into the free market pie is probably worse.

Just wait... Beef prices start going up on the producer end, and they'll open the floodgates of imported foreign meat.

Around here even the local growers are booking slots for butchering in oct/nov 2023…. Just unreal. We do our own hogs but after we get settled in née place a walk in cooler is in our future. Have all the tools just need my own space. Wife even told me she was glad I booked a bison hunt this fall.. 🥴 almost thought it was a trap. But after the grocery trip yesterday with her I see why she does it. Everything food related is “higher than giraffe puzzy” as grandpa used to say.

It's a mess, and I'm not even going to pretend to understand how it all 'works'.


I do think we were at the bottom of the cycle last year.


Hopefully....lol



I'm just thankful we caught a couple thunderstorms and barring an unforeseen wreck should have a decent dryland hay crop.


We are still holding cattle off of a couple small pastures here at home. Haystack is about gone though!

https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/live-cattle-price

And that's up about .10-.15 from where they sat most of the 12 months?


Richard would know, he sells fats.



I watch the feeder market, it's up a little as well.


They just had a big video contract sale last week, need to check out the results.


Just looked.


https://www.superiorlivestock.com/auction-results#reg-2


Feeder steers are about $200 more per head on this sale than last year. Back to where they were a couple years ago.

$1k for a freshly weaned 500-550lb steer calf for fall delivery is decent money.

I just cleaned out my wallet, the bill for half a beef pushed a grand.

Beef is a premium food.

Grained and let hang for how long? My grand pa supplied top beef to many of the finest restaurants around the South.

Ribeyes were on sale here for $7.99/lb.

Choice grade, Safeway. Canadian.

I bought a few.

How do you know that?
Not disagreeing, just wondering where one outside that industry would find that fact.

I got some Choice NYstrip yesterday at the food lion for 7.99 lb.

Looked decent too.

I had inlaws over and didn’t want to break into my ribeye stash. They would only complain about the ribeye being ‘fatty’ and also they like everything cooked WELL. which is fuggin retarded my opinion.

Well done and ask for catsup every time.


Nope.
NY strips for them.


But still. I mighta/shoulda bought a few more.

They wanted $17.99 for ribeyes in the CeeBee Ragland
NFW

I have not been in an actual grocery store since Feb 2020 so no idea.


High priced, local co-op grocery/gas station has ribeyes for $18-19/lb.

$5-6 burger.


Only meat I buy there is chicken or pork.


And $25 30 packs....





Okay, this is just us here locally, not looking to start any fights...



I'd sell a 1500/lb steer for $1500.
(to a friend...)


Not fancy finished mind you, this isn't going to be extra marbled up fatty, think leaner but still plenty juicy and flavorful.
(shush pervs...)

And no growth hormone weirdo chit, basically organic?


But...


Anyway, local to you buyers don't get mad if you're paying more $$$ on the hoof because I know you are.




1500 pound steer, $1500.

Processing, say $1k.


You're into 500lbs of meat for $2500.

$5/lb.



Wild guess but if you bought the meat in a store it might average $10 and cost $5k?



I did a quick 5 minute mesquite smoke on a top sirloin last night and it was one of the best steaks I've ever grilled.


Duck might have even been impressed.

Flaming bananas foster for the finish

Day One Duck Stuff

$4.50 a pound.

That’ll work Big Jim!

Just got some beef from brother in law. Ended up just of $5.00 a lb. Pretty cheap and awful tasty.

There are a lot of reasons why beef, pork and chicken are record high prices.
Drought and fuel are two of them, but the main reason is labor, or the lack of it.

Just like every other industry, the large beef packing plants had to lay off 80% of their work force when the Covid hit.

Now that we are getting back to normal, those laid off workers don’t want to come back to work when they make just as much or more with the democrat $300 extra un-employment checks.
Some of them got other jobs, but most of them are content to sit at home and collect un-employment when the un-employment is just as big as their old payroll check.

When you have orders for a thousand cases of beef a day, but only have the labor to produce 300, guess what happens ?

Supply and demand.
You sell your 300 cases to whom ever will pay the most, and prices skyrocket.

LOL






Fine meat Conrad, fine lookin' meat....

I’d have a hard time not filling the freezer with those, even if the eye is tiny. That’s still a great price for a bone-in NY.

Eye on left is small but appears to be a genuine porterhouse on the right.

Not impressed. Decent T-bone eye, nowhere near Porterhouse.

They are not all porterhouses on a beef ya numpty.

Location, location, location....

can’t critique it when you only have 4.50lb in it

Let’s not get all ‘sierra vista’ about it.

May I have a 2 inch porterhouse from the chuck please.


Fine, thanks.

Nothin' wrong with beef stew.

Off da same damn cow....

There's been talking about putting in a locally owned large meat packing plant near Idaho Falls. I guess there's just a few big players that controll most of the nation's meat packing and the Chinese own a large share of it.

Some well off local people got together and decided we need a local packing plant to ensure they don't get worked over by the big players. Another industry that consolidated into a few big fascist players that have the literal power to get away with whatever they want.

https://www.eastidahonews.com/2020/...aho-falls-next-year-will-bring-200-jobs/

I joked a few weeks back that we need a progressive tax on business where the big nation businesses pay substantially more tax than local mom and pop ones. That joke is starting to sound more and more like a good idea.

Bb

Mind Blown..............

Chili, anyone?

Or, pepper steak?

Ain't that the truth. Best part is, the farmer I buy from is young, so lots of years left! We're having to book our processing a year out, and that's with the local cutter hiring two guys to help cut and wrap. I little bit shocking to walk in and see the sheriff's deputy in a smock cutting steaks..... but I'm grateful.

Used to be, 90% of the "buy the beef from the ranch and cut it locally" crowd were doing it to pinch pennies. More and more, it's the "farm to table, and I'll pay what I have to crowd". I think that's good for the farmers and the meat cutters, as well as the consumers.

Not just meat is going up.

Everything will cost more so more griping will be forthcoming.

I am thinking on buying a few head to put on the Kline grass i have here.

Makes good beef.

Those are nice steaks.

Nice looking meat, fellas!


Wait....😳

The German dish, Rouladen.

I buy whole NY's, etc and cut and vacuum pack them myself. I haven't bought any since last year. Burger usually comes from friends who have a unlucky cow or bull that needs cut in hurry, I think I have another 6 months of ground beef left. I think I paid 3.50 a pound for the last pile from bull that had a abscess on it's jaw probably from a bad tooth. Bull makes good burger.

We people that raise the beef,we don’t make hardly anything on them,take one to sale they say prices are down,if I didn’t enjoy fooling with them I wouldn’t have them ,just raising them for someone else to make the money off them

I was at Costco , a few days ago. _Pot roast and stew meat were both over $7/lb. Steak damned near $30! I bought 1 pkg each stew and pot.... divided and vac packed the stew at home and that's it. Bought the crap out of chicken and pork.... With 2 blocks of cheese and 4 jars of macadamia nut clusters, the bill was $352.

Caribou in the freezer is less than 2 months away, tho. Gonna chute the chit out of them this year! 35 salmon next week, maybe...

You seen the price on red salmon lately????

I could get lucky on a moose too, maybe.

What the hell is wrong with people? Can't imagine cooking a steak well done. I'd have feed them burger, with catsup. Damn!

Fuel? Lol

Catsup? WTF is that ?

Messed up deal, just like timber. We need to go back to more local options, there just isn't many because the big producers killed of most small meat cutters.

In 20 years if having a Costco membership, I have never bought beef there. I’ve always been able to find much better prices on the same grades and cuts at the local grocery stores. They’re sometimes double on my favorite cut - ribeye.

My wife and I along with our 3 adult kids and their families are eating our way through 1000+ pounds of grass fed beef that we had butchered and vacuum sealed for a little over $1000. Not as good as grain fed heavy beef but pretty good. One of the animals was a 10 year old barren mean ass cow that was slick fat, the other a 600 pound steer that was on feed and grass. On the huge cow steaks I soak them a while in a mixture of tenderizer and baking soda in water for about 30 minutes and grill 'em over a wood fire. Considering the $$$ savings and that our daughter is not reduced to making do with ground turkey we can put up with what tastes a whole lot like the bison meat I've eaten. Not going to pay $10 to $15 a pound for something only marginally better.

Not really messed up. Lots of people are willing to work for free if it means they get to pretend they are a buckaroo. People want to get paid real money to work on a kill floor up to their belly button in blood and gore.

Piggly Wiggly brand ketchup.

😃

Used to come in a big glass bottle.


Looked kinda like those stupid plastic smoker station things. LOOOOOOOOOONG skinny neck, through which very little catsup would flow.

I think you are right. There is something addictive about owning cattle. A person could spend that time and make a lot more money. I bet the average cow herd east of the Mississippi River is less than 50 head grown animals total.

A carboy of catsup.


Catsupurator, stand alone dorm fridge conversion.

I wouldn’t say working on kill floor is real money. I worked the line when I was 20, then got smart and and went to school. That line of work will make you old quick, it was like working out 10 hours a day.

I used think besides groids, my inlaws were the ones that put ketchup on steak and took it well-done.

Then. I met Renegade50.

Same thing.


Could probably cook beef liver to well-done and slop it with catsup and none would be the wiser.

good find

Renegade used to eating schidt food while in da Army

Just glad I bought a 1/4 from the neighbor rancher this past spring for a decent price. Just the two of us. And I got the heart, tongue, and liver thrown in for free. Those are ALL MINE............................and the dogs!

bought beef whole loins at 10.99lb last week,boston butts yesterday for .99lb. making 50lb of sausage today.

Whataburger spicy ketchup from HEB, but only fries tots and meatloaf.

Had some Costco NY strip yesterday. Only Choice, but was $8 or $9 a pound a month and a half ago. Used to buy the tenderloin, then Prime sirloin, but not sure I can force myself to pay those prices now.

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Edison....

Daughter and Son-In-Law also got tired of low prices at stock yards and high prices at the meat counter. Last year they sold 9 steers/heifers off the farm to family, friends, coworkers. Killed 3 per weekend for 3 weekends. Hauled quarters to the processors. Already had customer cut sheets at the processors when quarters arrived. Customers paid them based on hanging weight at the processor. Customers paid processor per-determined cost per pound for cut and wrap. Everyone went away happy.

Yes, they had to line up the customers. Yes, they had people back out. Yes, they had to schedule the open windows with the processors 6-12 months in advance. Yes, they had to arrange the kill man, and cleanup of hides and offal after the kills. But, they about doubled their net-net versus sending same animals through the stock yards. Their are planning to kill 14-15 animals this year off the farm.

Selling straight off the farm ain't for everyone. However, for folks who are not locked into "This is how we've always done it", there are some opportunities to split the mark up with non-producers and keep some of additional profit on the home farm.

I had ribeyes on the grocery list last week. When I saw the high price and low quality I took a pass and thawed out some deer loin. I love venison but I really love a good ribeye and I’m not bashful about paying for a good one. But Im not paying what they wanted for those sorry cuts. Not even a cap to speak of. Probably a result of them skinny azz suburban Karens whining about fat in the beef. Pizzes me off. The fish counter is only another few steps down the aisle.

Interesting. My brother feeds 175-200 head of steer annually. Buys 300 pound or so steers in February or March. He feeds silage and some grain for a few weeks then on grass all summer. He sells them in September at 900 or so pounds. Some years he makes little, some years quite a lot. It’s a market, and it fluctuates. On average, he does just fine. And he eats good beef year round.
Some years I get to help brand and vaccinate the newly purchased steers.

It takes a lot of work to put the beef on the plate.

[quote=slumlord]I got some Choice NYstrip yesterday at the food lion for 7.99 lb.

Looked decent too.



But still. I mighta/shoulda bought a few more.


We had a couple of those Sat evening, also bought 4 extra/wrapped and froze.