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Bacon

I bought 20 (12 oz) packages this week on sales at $1.99 per pack. It has been being about 3.70-3.80 per pack. I had bought some 10# boxes or bulk bacon for about $26 per carton, but they were uneven on the cut thickness. I even priced whole slab bacon (I have a commercial meat slicer) and that was going to cost about $112 per slab or about $4 per lb. on special order.

It historically has had ups and downs in price but recently it has stayed high. Pork in general is higher than normal compared to beef.

Here is the reason. Much of Texas and some surrounding states are in such a drought that they are selling off their herd stock. We sold all of our 3 weeks ago. I can only remember my family doing that 2 times in my lifetime. Short term, lower beef prices. Long term higher, heaven only knows what it will cost to replace breed stock.

Pork is normally volatile on price because the hogs can have 3 litters a year and with the number of pigs born from each litter the number can increase very fast. What is keeping them high now is the high price of grain. Where beef can be range fed and avoid that high price feed, but this year the drought has eliminated the grazing.

The critical part from here on out this year is the winter pasture. Normally there is a lot of wheat planted for winter grazing, but there is no moisture to bring that up now. If we do not get sufficient moisture to plant wheat by mid November this could be a real disaster. The recovery could be very very painful and expensive.

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On the bright side my garden is producing lots of fresh okra, squash and some blackeyed peas. The tomatoes and peppers look good, are bloomingb but not setting any fruit.