# Chicken &beef prices about to skyrocket



## Utahnprepper (Jan 29, 2013)

Cnn says based on this crap happening on march 1 will result in chicken, beef, pork, and eggs will go up in price. Get ready and stock up your freezers.


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## swjohnsey (Jan 21, 2013)

What's happenin' March 1st?


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## Utahnprepper (Jan 29, 2013)

Government spending cuts. Effecting govt employees, including health inspectors, forcing not as much food to get to stores forcing prices to go up. I will try and get a link


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## Utahnprepper (Jan 29, 2013)

No link. Cnn money section. Title is 7 spending cuts that you will feel.


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## MetalPrepper (Nov 25, 2012)

Well if CNN said it it must be true.....


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## Utahnprepper (Jan 29, 2013)

Metalprepper dont be an ass hat. Im just givin info that I heard.


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## MetalPrepper (Nov 25, 2012)

I used sarcasm...you just jump right in with rudeness.....I was just pointing out that CNN is main stream media, they are gas lighting you .....drink that Kool-Aid!


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## CapnJack (Jul 20, 2012)

I don't know. I wouldn't be suprised, but I stocked up for the supposed hike in bacon prices a couple months back, and the prices seem to be right where they were before. I am due for a meat stock up anyway, though, so I'll stock up a little extra. Can't hurt.


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## labotomi (Feb 14, 2010)

MetalPrepper said:


> I used sarcasm...you just jump right in with rudeness.....I was just pointing out that CNN is main stream media, they are gas lighting you .....drink that Kool-Aid!


Did you offer anything other than sarcasm (which in this case was itself rude)? Anything to dispute the claim? I didn't see any political slant to the article so I'm going to have to agree with Utahnprepper's assessment.

I'm not sure how a lack of inspectors would lead to less meat getting to market. It's not like they inspect every chicken that comes from every processing plant. Unless they actually shut down plants due to lack of inspectors, I'm confused as to the correlation.


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## mma800 (May 7, 2012)

Fox reported this a few days ago saying the cause was the drought. I didn't hear a mention of a relation to sequestration.
Sure happy I bought that side of beef when they reported the same story last fall!


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

CapnJack said:


> I don't know. I wouldn't be suprised, but I stocked up for the supposed hike in bacon prices a couple months back, and the prices seem to be right where they were before. I am due for a meat stock up anyway, though, so I'll stock up a little extra. Can't hurt.


Yup. I stocked up on bacon too. Canned it all to leave room in the freezer for other food. I have noticed bacon has gone down in price here. 

We are moving in a few months so I am at odds with buying more meat. I know I'll have to can it all before we move. I am not loading up our coolers for the 2 hour drive in the moving van!


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## PackerBacker (Dec 13, 2012)

labotomi said:


> I'm not sure how a lack of inspectors would lead to less meat getting to market. It's not like they inspect every chicken that comes from every processing plant. Unless they actually shut down plants due to lack of inspectors, I'm confused as to the correlation.


Processing plants can't run, legally, without an inspector.

Your basically correct that they don't inspect every chicken but without them they can't butcher any.

I don't expect any real problem here. Either an exception will be made for these inspectors or some sort of end run on the regulations or the inspectors will be paid directly by the plants etc.


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## labotomi (Feb 14, 2010)

PackerBacker said:


> Processing plants can't run, legally, without an inspector.
> 
> Your basically correct that they don't inspect every chicken but without them they can't butcher any.
> 
> I don't expect any real problem here. Either an exception will be made for these inspectors or some sort of end run on the regulations or the inspectors will be paid directly by the plants etc.


Thanks, never worked in the food industry and didn't know every processing plant had to have an FDA inspector.

So... if there's an inspector in every processing facility, why do we commonly find ones that have to be shut down due to multiple health violations? Why doesn't the inspector notice these things before they become egregious?


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## PackerBacker (Dec 13, 2012)

labotomi said:


> Thanks, never worked in the food industry and didn't know every processing plant had to have an FDA inspector.
> 
> So... if there's an inspector in every processing facility, why do we commonly find ones that have to be shut down due to multiple health violations? Why doesn't the inspector notice these things before they become egregious?


IDK Really.

I'd guess that because they inspect the carcass more than the facility. :dunno:


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

Please, don't get me started on inspectorsvract:, we are in Canada but trust me it is terrible. Half the rules are on how big there office is etc, etc. Average home would fill a binder with violations yet the "proper" way is often a lot less pleasant. 
Most of the regulations are written to make it nearly impossible for small plants to compete, let alone farm gate sales, inspectors will openly tell you they hate working in the small ones, perks aren't nearly as nice


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## biobacon (Aug 20, 2012)

well im working on the grow it, grind it, grill it myself thing. I have a long way to go. I sure wish Mrs Biobacon wasn't allergic to wabit.


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

Socialist media propaganda. They support an repeat whatever obummer wan'ts. He wan'ts more spendin, tryin ta buffalo folks inta think this gonna be big. Drop in the hat compared ta what they spend ever year. 

I wouldn't worry much bout that causin a raise in food prices much. Another drought year an were gonna see some damage!


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## mpguy18 (Sep 7, 2011)

Do not see chicken pricing rising. Do see a slight increase in pork, and beef steadily rising for a while going forward, but only single precentage points at a pop. None of this has anything to do with the guberment sequestration crap. Its a function of last years draught, use of corn for bio, and the culling of herds/flocks. 

Chicken pricing has flatlined. When you cull a flock, they can be replaced in 90 - 120 days. Pork is close behind, as they will use 120-150 day old stock. With beef, that is a much longer timetable. With the draught and bio fuel use of corn, when a herd is culled, it can take 2 - 3 years to rebuild. Many a rancher had to cull their herd by 50% or more. So it will be a while before beef prices flatline or reduce. That is if everything stays normal. Or... "We're from the governmet, and we're here to help" comes into play, then we're all screwed.


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## Cabowabo (Nov 6, 2012)

I don't believe Sequestration will happen. It hasn't happened every time they have threatened it in the past and I don't think it will happen this time. Watch for a last minute deal to make sure the Federal Gov. keeps spending at record levels.


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## Riverdale (Oct 31, 2009)

This sounds like milk and bread disappearing before 'snowstorm' 

Panic buying *will* create shortages.


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## SouthCentralUS (Nov 11, 2012)

May be a beef shortage after all.

http://ww2.cox.com/today/news/national/article.cox?articleId=DA4L4GFG0&moduleType=apNews

Some feedlots, meatpackers closing after US ranchers sold off cattle amid widespread drought

02-24-2013 10:05 AM MST |By ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press

In this Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013 photograph, Randy Cree picks up a bale of hay while feeding cattle on his farm near Big Springs, Kan. Years of drought are reshaping the U.S. beef industry with feedlots and a major meatpacking plant closing because there are too few cattle left in the United States to support them. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner) 
WICHITA, Kan. (Associated Press) -- 
Years of drought are reshaping the U.S. beef industry with feedlots and a major meatpacking plant closing because there are too few cattle left in the United States to support them.

Some feedlots in the nation's major cattle-producing states have already been dismantled, and others are sitting empty. Operators say they don't expect a recovery anytime soon, with high feed prices, much of the country still in drought and a long time needed to rebuild herds.

The closures are the latest ripple in the shockwave the drought sent through rural communities. Most cattle in the U.S. are sent to feedlots for final fattening before slaughter. The dwindling number of animals also is hurting meatpackers, with their much larger workforces. For consumers, the impact will be felt in grocery and restaurant bills as a smaller meat supply means higher prices.

Owner Bob Podzemny has been taking apart the 32,000-head Union County Feed Yard near Clayton, N.M. It closed in 2009 when a bank shut off its operating capital in the midst of the financial crisis, and Podzemny said he doesn't see reopening after struggling through Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

"There just are not that many cattle in this part of the country no more, and it is not profitable to bring them in and feed them, so it is shut down," Podzemny said.

He's now feeding a few cattle in another feedlot, buying them at about 450 pounds and growing them to 800 to 850 pounds. He then sells them to others who bring them to the typical 1,200- to 1,300-pound slaughter weight.

"It is making a little money now on just growing feeders and selling them as feeders rather than finishing them all the way out," Podzemny said. "We do what we got to do to survive, you know."

Cattle numbers have been falling for years as the price of corn used to feed animals in feedlots skyrocketed. The drought accelerated the process, but many feedlots were able to survive at first because ranchers whose pastures dried up weaned calves early and sent breeding cows to be fattened for slaughter.

But now far fewer livestock than normal remain on the farms. And, ironically, if it rains this spring and summer, even fewer animals will go into feedlots because ranchers will hold back cows to breed and rebuild their herds.

Texas, the largest beef-producing state, has been particularly hard hit with a historic drought in 2011 from which it still hasn't fully recovered.

"Most of the bad news is in Texas," said Dick Bretz, an Amarillo broker who specializes in selling feed yards and other agribusinesses. "That is where I see most of the empty yards, that is where I see most of the interest in selling yards and where I see the least interest in buying yards."

He recently dismantled a 7,000-head feed yard in Hereford, Texas, for a new owner who had bought it for the land, not the business. The previous owner had lost the property to foreclosure, and the facility was in very poor condition and would have cost too much to repair, he said.

When corn prices first spiked to $8 a bushel nearly four years ago, about 70 big feed yards went up for sale in the High Plains feeding area that includes Texas, Kansas, Colorado and Nebraska, Bretz said. Today, there are 10 and 15 feed yards for sale in the region, mostly in Texas. Bretz said he knows of 15 more that are empty, three recently dismantled and two others now being torn down.

Feed yards typically employ one worker per 1,000 head of cattle, so even big ones may not have more than a few dozen workers. But they supply meatpacking plants, which have much bigger workforces, and feedlot closures could herald greater unemployment to come.

Cargill Beef, one of the nation's biggest meatpackers, temporarily closed a slaughterhouse in Plainview, Texas, earlier this year, laying off 2,000 workers. The operation had been one of four meatpacking plants in the Texas Panhandle, and the annual economic loss to the region is estimated at $1.1 billion _ a "major chunk of that economy," said Steve Amosson, an economist with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service in Amarillo.

Cargill is moving what business remained at the plant to slaughterhouses in Friona, Texas; Dodge City, Kan.; and Ft. Morgan, Colo. That will allow those plants to run near capacity and more consistently give their workers full paychecks with 40 hours per week, spokesman Mike Martin said.

"By idling, we are retaining both the plant (in Plainview) and the property for potential future use," Martin added. "And the hope is that at some point some years down the line, the cattle herd will be rebuilt and there will be a need for additional processing capacity."

Most experts estimate the cattle feeding industry now has an excess capacity of between 20 and 25 percent, CattleFax market analyst Kevin Good said. The meatpacking industry has an excess capacity of 10 to 15 percent _ even after the recent closure of Cargill's Plainview plant.

Given the cost of transporting cattle, most of the nation's feed yards and slaughterhouses are in the big cattle-producing states of the High Plains. While the industry has been gradually shifting north from Texas into areas that are expected to more rapidly recover from the drought, businesses in Kansas and Nebraska are struggling too.

In southwestern Kansas, Lakin Feed Yard manager Steve Landgraf said his operation is down to 75 percent of capacity and he expects it to be less than half full within the next couple of months. For every two animals now going out of his lot for slaughter, only one is coming into it.

With a capacity of 15,000 head, the yard now employs 14 people. But with normal attrition, Landgraf anticipates he'll be down to 10 or 11 workers by spring, and he may reduce their hours.

Still, with little debt, Landgraf says he's in a better position than some.

"Some people are probably going to go broke because they aren't going to have the occupancy," he said.

___

AP Writer Betsy Blaney contributed to this story from Lubbock, Texas.


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