Posted on 06/18/2015 3:56:58 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Bird flu has made the three-egg omelette a luxury item in parts of America, but the other fowl bearing the brunt of the highly pathogenic virus's outbreak is the poor turkey, whose flocks have been culled by 7.8 million so far. The USDA is now recognizing that this could have bad consequences in, say, five months, when a certain holiday occurs on the third Thursday of November.
The federal agency's latest monthly hatchery report is a bit ominous: Reuters notes that it reports a "significant decline" in the May count for baby turkeys, or poults. That number (22.3 million) is 8 percent lower than it was last May. Turkeys born in May or June will be the right age for slaughter in time for Thanksgiving, so these two months are critical. Analysts can't agree on just how bad the news is, but at least one expert tells Reuters that it's clear that, at the very least, "big, whole birds for Thanksgiving are going to be extremely hard to come by." Looks like it could finally be Tofurkey's year.
Left out of the headline, “and sky high prices”
So buy early and don’t wait for a sale.
Well....this year we’ll have duck! Yummmmm...
I have ham anyway.
Turkeys UNITE!!
So now for the first time in memory they are going to make us pay for the turkey?
Outrageous!
I don't know where this guy shops, but my eggs are still pretty cheap. One of the best protein values in the grocery store.
Wild turkeys are so different in almost every way that they’re not really the same bird at all.
When I worked as a chef, my boss shot a few and brought them in for us to prepare.
Good lord, those were some of the stinkiest animals I ever had the displeasure to turn into food, though they did eventually make for a pretty good ravioli with plenty of fresh sage and brown butter sauce.
SPAM - baked with brown sugar coating. Yummie.
Third Thursday? I think not.
3rd Thursday?....that should read 4th Thursday in November...
The ones eating grapes probably taste a lot better than the ones eating creosote or whatever it was that these bastards ate.
I’ve got more than I know what to do with in my back fields. They taste alright, and they eat ticks.
Mysteriously there will be enough turkeys for everyone, they’ll just cost 5 bucks a pound...
The latest report from the USDA stated ending April whole turkey stocks at 200 million pounds, which was a bit above both year-ago and 10-year average levels. Stocks tend to peak around 309 million in late August. I’m not looking for a big shortage. Also, ham stocks are large and hog and pork production look like they’re going to average at least 10% over year-ago levels during the second half. It looks there are going to be lots and lots of cheap wholesale hams around by year-end. The trick is to get the &*()*#$ grocery stores to actually pass the lower cost on to consumers.
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