The poor farmers

[Patri]

My brother just told us he bought a pig for $50. A farmer is going to kill 2,000 pigs as he no longer has a market to sell them to since the processing plants are closed. The butcher shops are booked through November, but my brother and his friend can do the work themselves.

 

[Brett]

My brother just told us he bought a pig for $50. A farmer is going to kill 2,000 pigs as he no longer has a market to sell them to since the processing plants are closed. The butcher shops are booked through November, but my brother and his friend can do the work themselves.

having to kill and butcher your own hog --- I'm hoping the pork shortage won't get to that point for me

 

[Eric B]

My brother just told us he bought a pig for $50. A farmer is going to kill 2,000 pigs as he no longer has a market to sell them to since the processing plants are closed. The butcher shops are booked through November, but my brother and his friend can do the work themselves.

It's not that big of a deal if you live in the country and have the right equipment; we raise some hogs on our farm and have harvested a few of our own. Only a couple dozen and they are heritage breed ones, so we aren't having the issues dealing with thousands of them, but the smallish butcher we use is booked out through August, when we're taking some down along with a few beeves. There's a lot of work involved in doing your own; smoking the hams and bacon requires the right equipment as does sausage making and lard rendering, but the results can be great. I've got a decent recipe for scrapple if your brother needs one.

 

[Patri]

I've got a decent recipe for scrapple if your brother needs one.

My in-laws butchered back in the day, and MIL served scrapple for breakfast. They sent home the most delicious meats with us. We miss that.

 

[pedro47]

There is no shortage of meat. There is shortage of humans to process the product. IMHO.

 

[Brett]

It's not that big of a deal if you live in the country and have the right equipment; we raise some hogs on our farm and have harvested a few of our own. Only a couple dozen and they are heritage breed ones, so we aren't having the issues dealing with thousands of them, but the smallish butcher we use is booked out through August, when we're taking some down along with a few beeves. There's a lot of work involved in doing your own; smoking the hams and bacon requires the right equipment as does sausage making and lard rendering, but the results can be great. I've got a decent recipe for scrapple if your brother needs one.

my parents were raised on farms where they kept a few hogs
I know people that keep a chicken coop for the eggs - too much work

Keeping and killing pigs would be too big a deal for me in my suburban lifestyle

 

[Eric B]

my parents were raised on farms where they kept a few hogs
I know people that keep a chicken coop for the eggs - too much work

Keeping and killing pigs would be too big a deal for me in my suburban lifestyle

Completely understandable - I wouldn't do it in the suburbs. On the other hand, I've got a 49 cubic ft freezer in my garage full of meat, so don't have any worries about shortages.

There is no shortage of meat. There is shortage of humans to process the product. IMHO.

Better way to look at it might be that there is a shortage of meat existing in grocery stores as a result of the increased friction in the supply pipeline caused by the reduced processing capacity. There are plenty of livestock that can be processed into meat, but the high throughput meat processing facilities can no longer work at capacity and keep up with demand. As a result, many retail outlets (e.g., Costco and grocery stores) are limiting the quantity that can be purchased in one trip to manage the demand. In addition, some of the demand is going to other sources such as is being done by @Patri 's brother or the regular customers I've got that are asking me for more meat. There is actually considerable information available on the state of the markets and supply chains for agricultural products. See the following for instance for the impacts of COVID-19 on meat production:

http://www.dailylivestockreport.com/documents/dlr%2005-04-20.pdf

http://www.dailylivestockreport.com/documents/dlr%205-1-20.pdf

 

[MrockStar]

Thank you to all the Farmers out there!

 

[Glynda]

Some of our local restaurants are selling boxes of meat and vegetables from local farmers while they have been, or still are, closed. It's a source of revenue for the farmer and restaurant.

 

[Eric B]

Today's Daily Livestock Report is an even better synopsis of what's going on with the meat supply chain.