Ok. here is how I feel about the industry in general. I apologize again to those producers who are doing their best. Perhaps this problem is a golden opportunity for you.
First of all, the “low grade beef†I am talking about has nothing to do with cuts. I buy half a hanging cow from a local farm and split it with some extended family in the fall, so I have an idea what the cuts are. I am talking about animals that have been slaughtered in plants that are running at such high speeds that the meat has very high fecal bacteria counts that can and are killing people. I am talking about sick and paralyzed animals being processed, the very kind of thing that has caused this latest problem in the beef industry. I am talking about very unsafe conditions for the workers in those plants causing such incredibly high disability and turnover rates that the workers are guaranteed to be low skilled low paid and unhappy. Cattle eating feed made from reprocessed meat, and pumped full of growth hormones and antibiotics to make up for an unnatural grain diet grown in unnatural chemically blighted soils.
Read “Fast Food Nation†by Eric Schlosser, and get back to me about how safe the food supply in this country is! He tells the truth about what the all American meal is doing to the world.
We are in a time of very low inflation (deflation at times) and I SURE aint worried about the short term effect of higher beef prices -what about some lower health care costs if you want to talk about a positive impact on our economy. This is a great time to invest in the only real future American meat producers are going to have - naturally raised, humanely slaughtered meat at a much higher short term cost. Thank God for the possibility of change. Mark
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To wish a man, an industry to go broke over a few indiscretions is pretty low.
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Cowboydoc,
I'd like to point out that the actual "contracting" of the mad cow is not the result of any indescretion! The cow in question that came from a dairy farm not too far from my area was raised by a fine couple who loved farming and did everything "right". They fed their cows approved food in an approved manner. They did NOTHING wrong!
I can't comment on the downer cow thing.
My home province of Alberta is really feeling the now double hit. The cow last year and now this one in the US that originated in Alberta. These are good people working hard in a noble venture. "Indescretion" implies they knew they were doing something wrong or made a mistake. The "mistake" that they were making was the same one being made by thousands of farmers across North America before the feed ban was in place.
Weel looks like the prices are starting to slide, 10 to 12 cents a pound on feeders this week in Lexington but weigh cows are holding steady after the inital fall, according to dad but I haven't check yet myself. How is the market elsewhere? I wonder if the prices will hold? I can make it on 80 cents for weaned steers but anything less and I am losing badly. Especially with the fert. cost expected to rise. Just glad I sold off the replacements in the fall.
Guys I didn't mean for this thread to get vicious. I know care if anyone eats beef, pork, chicken or gamma grass. I do care about rasing my cows in a way that I feel like I have a quality product for people to eat and something that I wouldn't care to eat myself. My cows eat grass and hay and get grain when weaning either to replace the other cows or finishing to eat myself. Just tell me what you want to eat and I will try my best to give you a quality product. I can't just jump in and jump out over night.
Here's me letting off a little steam. Americans want a cheap source of food. Because they want everything else cheap. Since they want everything else cheap the businesses leave to make it cheaper for the Americans. The Americans NEED everything cheap because they have no jobs because the businesses have left to give them what they wanted. The Americans look for any excuse to pay less because they have to.
In my county I can only name three people who farm that are younger than forty. When the older guys leave the business look out. There will be no one left to teach them. There is no text book to tell you how to farm because one piece of ground is different that another five miles away. It's a very localized thing. I could give you the land and the machinery and the livestock free and clear here and you would still go broke! Let alone make minimum wage and pay the taxes. It is going to get scary alot sooner than I thought in this country. I dreaded it for my boys but I fear in the next twenty I fear it for myself. I know this bse thing will pass but in the big picture I don't see it getting any better. In the area of food production in this country their is different times ahead and very little of them will be good. I know, little guys don't amount to anything in this business. But I know that in the beef industry Kentucky ranks 8th in the nation and 1st east of the Mississippi. That's with an average herd size of only 26. So there's several other little guys here besides me. It's easy for us to go out but stupid for any of us to jump in, things are starting to get lonley for us echo boomer's here. Supply and demand, the Atkins demand may be here but I fear it will have to be supplied by Wal-brazil beef. The pork and chicken industry has already been taken over by the large companieswho can afford a loss over a long period of time just to consolidate. Sooner or later everyone will have to eat right! The nature of beef though has made this change go slower because of the amount of grazing and feed involved has made this more cost effective to hand it over to the private sector and just deal with the control of the finishing and processing aspect of it as long as we can supply cheap animals to get to that stage.
Sorry I guess I am taking this a little too seriously. I better get in the bed so I can go take Buster through the thickets tomorrow before rabbit season goes out. A little rabbit meat might be a nice change of pace when I begin eating 50 calves this fall to get out of this slump. Things may not be so bad after all.
Well, I just checked and the prices went back up 10 -15 cents on light weight stuff. I would not do well dealing with paper stocks and roller coasters.
I wished I had saved that energy in the last post tfor the next down turn.
Patrick, I still am optimistic the mad cow will go to anger management and this whole thing will get back to normal.
It is the "normal" part that is hard. Just a look at the "related Links" at the top of the pages shows the competition for every aspect of beef prodution.
Also in Washington, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) said it has found prohibited animal tissue in feed from six Canadian animal feed companies since the mad cow discovery last month. The discovery is significant because it may help investigators trace the source of infection.
I doubt very much the farmers will come out of this unscathed. They rarely ever do. [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]
Despite its rhetoric, the USDA doesn't seem to be doing a good job of implementing procedures to ensure testing for BSE. This week a cow in Texas went down and showed signs of a CNS disorder and wasn't tested, http://www.softcom.net/webnews/wed/c....RJre_Ey5.html , and a few weeks ago a company in Kansas which requested permission to do 100% inspection so that it could resume exports to Japan, a very lucrative market, was refused permission.
It doesn't inspire confidence when the USDA cannot follow its own minimal inspection guidelines and is refusing to allow companies to put in place testing procedures requested by their customers. Hopefully, the USDA will start to get its act together soon and stop sticking its head in the sand on this issue.
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