A rotting potato can't think.

Someone holds the puppet strings

Union meat cutters make only ~$35k/year?  I'm surprised it's so low.  
https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Union-Meat-Cutter-Salary

Fuck... I haven't read anything that insightful (and depressing) on Arf in a while.  

When profit is up over 300% after accounting for your cost increases that's nowhere close to eating inflation. Tell me you suck at maths without telling me you suck at maths. And ranchers AREN'T selling for more, apparently you can't read either.

If I was a young cow/calf guy I would start processing my own cattle and sell meat locally to grocery stores, restaurants, and individuals.

The Proud Cut in Cody advertises locally sourced beef.

These folks are going that way somewhat although they use a local butcher and just have a bunch of freezers--

Gillette Ranch    

Not affiliated they are 300 miles away

But his knowledge is endless!

Lots of empty words from the potato, no actions against the foreign owned monopoly, only more funds to be unaccounted for and "promises".

I have 4 deer hanging in my garage to be processed this weekend.

There isn't anywhere near enough independent processor capacity or inspection for a big increase in "local" production.  Cattle producers have everything available booked up nearly 2 years out at some lockers.  It's a good problem in a sense that more people are trying to buy and support local, but the industry has been nothing but consolidation for so long, it will take a while for local butchers to get up and going or expand.
I know people who are already working with the USDA, FDA, and state agencies to tap into new funding available from the feds to expand their operation and train 5 more employees.
A few tech schools here in the upper midwest just added meat cutting programs.
The wheels are spinning slow, but some of this funding will actually help out the local independent locker plants.

I buy my beef 1/4 animal at a time, from a lifelong friend that raises grass fed & grain finished cattle in MN.  Since 2019 I've had to reserve my 1/4's 1 year in advance so that he can make sure he's got the proper number of slots booked for processing.

+1

Holding this up as "it's just capitalism, supply and demand, yo!" only helps to fuel the fires of socialism.  We need to stop carrying their water and exonerating the behavior as free-market capitalism.  It isn't.  Corporatism necessarily becomes pay-to-play and there's no "trickle down" impact - politicians get their donations, corporations get their safe places, consumer has reduced choice and increased price.

Kamala needs to take over on this, because she’s an expert.  She’s handled more meat than Smithfield.

She’s seen more wieners than Oscar Meyer.

Everything the Left touches turns to shit

He definitely has the Guano touch.

My thought was buy some equipment and cut up your own animals.  I have a farmer neighbor that had 4 brothers and like 20 kids who all hunted

and they bought a saw and a grinder and processed all their own elk, deer, cattle, and hogs.  And they still do.  As a wintertime activity when

the ground is frozen, you could add a lot of value to your livestock by cutting out the auction barn, feedlot, packer, truckers, and supermarket.

We're not in the British empire anymore...you can safely just say "math" now.

That's a shitty excuse to rationalize *more* intervention.

Meat industry tells Biden to stop 'playing chicken' with their food: Unions tear into president for making them the 'scapegoat' for inflation and insist staff shortages are the main problem


Meat industries tore into President Biden for his plan to tackle high prices in the grocery store, saying that it is a 'solution searching for a problem.'

'While we haven't seen any proposals, for the chicken industry, this looks like a solution in search of a problem,' National Chicken Council President Mike Brown said in a statement.

'The chicken industry is the least consolidated in all of animal agriculture, and the market share of the top four companies has been virtually the same for the past 20 years.'


'It's time for The White House to stop playing chicken with our food system and stop using the meat industry as a scapegoat for the significant challenges facing our economy. This administration should be looking at the chicken industry as a model of success, instead of creating a boogeyman to justify an unnecessary and expensive foray into our meat supply.'

The Consumer Price Index rose 6.8% in November over last year, the fastest increase in 39 years. The cost of bacon is up 21% and the price of beef, 25%. The index for meat, poultry, fish and eggs is up 16% from November last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The White House noted in a release on Monday that four large companies control 85% of the beef market, four processing firms control 54% of the poultry market and four firms control 70% of the pork market.

The North American Meat Institute said the president's 'tired approach' would do little to tackle inflation, as Biden fails to acknowledge staff shortages.





'The Biden Administration continues to ignore the number one challenge to meat and poultry production: labor shortages. This tired approach is not surprising because they have refused to engage with the packing and processing sector they attack, going so far as to hold a roundtable on meat packing without a single beef or pork packer present.'

'Press conferences and using taxpayer dollars to establish government-sponsored packing and processing plants will not do anything to address the lack of labor at meat and poultry plants and spiking inflation across the economy,' said Potts.

'The Administration wants the American people to believe that the meat and poultry industry is unique and not experiencing the same problems causing inflation across the economy, like increased input costs, increased energy costs, labor shortages and transportation challenges. Consumers know better.'

On Monday Biden went after 'middleman' meat processors who he said were ripping off both farmers and ranchers and American consumers.  He held a roundtable with farmers and ranchers from across the country.


Continued

Generally, if you want to sell meat, it has to be processed in a USDA certified & inspected facility.  I do know a few larger cattle producers that have built their own certified & inspected permanent or mobile facilities.
A lot different when it comes to selling vs butchering wild game or domestic animals for personal consumption.

Soooo biden's busy beating off big meat?

Living in Iowa has its positives... the cheaper 80 percent lean hamburger is still $2.50 per pound and gas is still under $2.90 in my town as of last night.

The government (thru regulation) killed the small mom and pop producers back in the 70's.

We live in a world of big grocery.   A huge % of retail beef is sold thru big grocery.   The Big 5 grocery chains in this country have a combined 12,000+ stores.  Over 7K of those stores are Wal-Mart and Krogers.    

Big grocery is not really interested in negotiating with 100's of local "ma and pa" meat processors.  To do so, they would face significantly higher administrative/operational costs.  

And, the local ma and pa meat processors lack the economies of scale to compete with the big 4 processors.   This is both with respect to price and with respect to volume.  Think about the quantity of beef that runs thru the Costco's or Kroger's in some mid-sized metro market.  

Meanwhile, the retail consumer is largely driven by price.  They are not really interested in buying local or paying more to support local ranchers/local processors.  They want cheap, they want it available every single day of the week, and they want a store that is open at least 18 hours a day.  

Consumer preferences have played a massive role in the consolidation of our food suppply chain.    

Wouldn't be surprised if Walmart opens their own processing plant.

They did something similar with milk to reduce the costs.

https://www.fwbusiness.com/news/agriculture/article_54728773-0566-558f-9edb-c26a0c07b67d.html

He will do to food as he did to gas...

The communist's Holodomor II specifically designed for America.

The meatpackers want to bring in cheap alien workers.  

A chicken processor sponsored this Korean guy to come in with an EB3 visa, and cut up chicken.  Then he had a green card, and was free to live/work anywhere in the US he wanted.
https://www.propublica.org/article/who-would-pay-26000-to-work-in-a-chicken-plant

Dog and pony show to try to deflect from how utterly incompetent he and his administration have been on just about every issue since taking office.

And of course the MSM will lap it up like the well trained propagandists they are.

If they have become basically a monopoly through buying out other meat packers, it is the federal government that approves the buy outs.  Now .gov is going to fix shit, yeah right.

Never talk farming in GD.  They’re all experts, despite having lived in the suburbs they’re whole life.  

In reality they don’t even have the slightest understanding of agriculture and farming.  It’s like arguing with a brick wall.

The city boys will get what’s coming to them. I won’t feel sorry.

Do you mean that sometimes the market does things that you or others may deem to be "bad?"

At least it seems like most of us here, including you agree that we don't have a free market (voluntary exchanges of goods and services), that govt. going beyond its legitimate role of protecting rights has caused many of the problems, and that more govt. intervention in the voluntary exchanges of goods and services will further the problems.

A Wal-mart or Kroger's potentially has the scale to own a processor and take 95% of the meat output.   But they will likely be hamstrung trying to sell the meat to the rest of big grocery.  

Part of the challenge here is the lack of branding.   Meat is largely sold based upon grade.  The Certified Angus thing creates some branding, as does some of the "all natural" or grass fininshed ideas.   Still, its essentially a homogeneous commodity once cut, and the only differentiation is grade.  The vast majority of consumer are really indifferent when comparing a choice rib eye from Kroger's vs a choice rib eye from Wal-Mart.  

As a result, its hard to make that choice rib eye from Wal-Mart "special" or unique in the eyes of the bulk of the consumers.   This mitigates against owning a processor.  Particularly when your current purchasing power in the market kinda sorta gets you the lowest possible prices from exisiting processors, with none of the liabilities.

Doubt if Walmart would sell any to any other grocers.  They own around 40% of the food sold in the US, so they could in theory use it all themselves (between Walmart and Sams Club).  Sams does use some higher grades at times that appear to sell well.

Dang it, I knew I should have picked up that close to expiration date 4 pack of steaks "on sale" for $50.

Chicken thighs are retardedly overpriced too. 1.99lb (1.69 on sale) for breasts, 3.29lb for thighs? Dumb.

I don't recall saying any such thing about my prescription for a remedy.  

I am just stating the way it works in the real world not the free-market fantasy people think exists.

They will need an alternative distribution channel.   If they want to sell choice (or better), they still will end up with tons of select.   If only 15% of the cattle grade out select, given their size, thats a bunch of select.  And, some standard/commercial grade.  

To max your profit then, you are probably not going to sell the select steaks/best roasts and then grind the rest to hamburger.   You need a way to max the revenue from that, and from all the rest of the meat.  Neck, for example, ox tails, tongue, whatever.  So, they would have to sell into the grocery market, or to speciality sort of companies that will use all that beef in some sort of product.

"Biden Announces Plan To Beat Big Meat"