Quiet day, not much news...but here's an interesting discussion over at another board> =)

Grocery store Really Low on Meat - Y2K Prep Discussion Group http://www.michaelhyatt.com/discuss/ubb/Forum8/HTML/000548.html

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), January 12, 2000

Answers

I have two jobs, one of which is Exec. Director of our local county Cattlemen's Association. My cow/calf producers just sold more than a 1000 head to buyers at their Annual County Sale. They had no problem with shipping by truck to the stockyard. I can't speak for feedlots and processors or for other areas of the country.

The stockyard operator did say at a meeting that in the region, in December, they were seeing at least 2 small ranchers a week fold up and quit the business. Until recently, prices over the decade have been the pits and regulation is strangling the small operator.

A speaker from the California Beef Council last fall said that there was an inexplicable surge in market demand for beef. He felt that part of it was due to a resurgence of weight loss diets relying heavily on meat and recenty nutritional studies that have shown beef comparable to other sources of protein for fat, cholesterol, etc.

-- marsh (siskfarm@snowcrest.net), January 12, 2000.

---tip 0 the ten gallon to the beef ranchers! Pass the A-1, and hope ya'all can get your ducks-er-mooers in a row and figger out how to get quality beef to the consumer, with family farms, a truly GOOD THING.

-- zog (sirloin@salad.potato), January 12, 2000.

We did our part for the beef industry - prices up here in Alberta are really high and we made money on our 4 steers....even on the one who jumped the fence and had to be babysat by the neighbor two miles away.

We didn't inoculate, vaccinate or marinate our beeves and they did just fine for us....and the volumes are high as well. I agree it probably has something to do with the lean beef required for dieting, but I am told most of the meat is headed south of the border - are there more fat people down there???

-- Laurane (familyties@rttinc.com), January 12, 2000.

We(hubby and I ) sell lean, clean, chemical free beef. This is from steers that we own from birth to processing. This past fall we sold about 11,000 lbs(live weight), i.e. ten steers as processed beef. As people become more knowledgable about the processes(and incredible dangers) of commercially produced beef, I feel that the organic and chemical-free beef market will expand expotentially. We can't claim to be organic because there are no sources of organic grain around here. On the whole, however, we generally finish our our steers on green oat pasture. But if the weather did not cooperate, we would need to use grain for the last month or 6 weeks. At any rate, our customers have told us that it is the best beef they have ever had...and that is really satisfying to know that your efforts have had a good result. One of our customers yesterday said they had T-bone steaks that could be cut with a fork(music to my ears!).

-- jeanne (jeanne@hurry.now), January 12, 2000.