Last year’s drought saw a mass pre-emptive harvest - our local supermarket was having BOGO steaks for weeks. We stocked up some, but have pretty much used them up. I plan to go out and restock sooner rather than later - this can’t be good for prices.
Sec Vilsack was just on CNN saying that there would be little effect on the price of meat and poultry since only a small amount of the price of commodities actually goes to the farmer.
He is clueless. While it is true that the farmer sees little of the price of beef or pork or chicken compared to the grocery store price, if the pastures have dried up and a hefty chunk of corn is going to make ethanol, the price to the farmer of corn and other grains can go sky high. The farmer then has the choice of paying the price or selling the livestock which we will see now and in the coming months as those trying to hang on, gradually give up.
Then after so many beef cattle have been slaughtered, it will take two years - after the corn emergency is over -to get the national herd back up to what it was and the price of beef back to where it was before the drought - or it will just stay high as we get used to the new normal.
Most of the USDA budget goes to food stamps (80%), so who cares about the farmers anyway. It’s not like they are important in any way. Everybody knows food comes from the grocery store.
I don’t think the second map is any more accurate than the first. I doubt we’ve had more than 1/16 of an inch of rain since mid May in south central Michigan. Lots of rain in some places here but just a few miles away, nuthin.
There’s plenty of water here but it needs to fall out of the sky rather than be pumped out of lakes, ponds, and streams.
Farming is one of the riskiest businesses out there. You can do everything in your power to control all the variables, except for the most important one, weather. Should be interesting to hear from the anti farming posters on this one.
It's going to get expensive later.
Hmm, I remember FDR actually pushed for destroying crops and livestock to drive up prices. Wonder if dear leader looks at this the same way.
I don’t suppose we could ever consider curtailing ethanol production temporarily or shipping less grain to foreign dictators to sell to their people at a profit.
Ground Chuck @ Kroger was close to $5 a pound today. ($4.69 and higher) Don’t think I’ve ever seen it that high. I am surprised that the drought is affecting meat prices already, though.