Do Grass Fed Beef Profits Weather Drought Better?

Tough Times Coming for Grain-Finished Beef

ref: Drought Shrunken Cattle Herd Portends Future Profits

This interesting observation stuck out for me:

"The message for cow-calf producers is to hold onto the cows if possible," Hurt says. "The short-term losses of the next 12 to 14 months will be replaced by large profits in late-2013, 2014 and 2015."

The anticipated "golden days" are based on reductions in per-capita beef supplies, leading to higher retail beef prices, and an expected return to more normal crop conditions in 2013.

While that could revive some optimism in the cattle industry, Hurt was quick to point out that most thoughts of herd expansion would be pushed off until late-2013.

"The exception is for producers in areas of the country that have abundant forages," he says. "For them, buying cows sold this fall from distressed owners appears to be a strategic move."

Last year, many cows were shipped up to Iowa to out-last the dry Texas/Oklahoma weather. This year, the drought was longer and more widespread, so I didn't hear about this being done so much.

Our cows stayed right where they were. When our corn turned out to be a bust, it became forage. Especially since there have been a lot of weeds grow up in between, which need to be grazed down before I replant to wheat this fall. (Far better to maintain our cows and grow our calves than cut it all down. What they don't eat, they stomp - and the biotics living in their manure adds to that mulch-effect.)

The concept is to manage your grazing well to begin with and then convert any other land you have into grazing (or haying - if you can't get cattle to it).

If your cattle are grass-based, not supplement-based, they'll continue to hold their condition right on through the worst of times. But when you manage your pastures, you don't run out.

Our stockpile is weak, but we saw this coming and got our hay put away. And that hay will go over the pastures we want to rebuild (were actually former crop ground). Extra hay stays stored (if we only put out as much as we actually need.)

Related articles

• The Origins of Corn Fed Beef Started With Leftover Ammunition
• California Drought Has Ranchers Selling Cattle
• U.S. Cattle Herd Is At A 61 Year Low And Organic Food Shortages Are Being Reported All Over America
• How to Eat Healthy Beef Cheaply - Buy Wholesale.
• How Does Natural Farming Affect You - and Mob Grazing Data Your Should Know
• Can Wholesale Meat Prices Afford a Beef Ranch?

How to Eat Healthy Beef Cheaply - Buy Wholesale.

Watch Your Wallet: Beef Prices will just continue to go up.

The trick is in getting wholesale meat online, particularly in local markets such as Fulton, Columbia, or Jefferson City. But the reasons have everything to do with how our markets operate.


From a 2012 news report:

Richard Vasquez, Meat Department Manager at Wood-dale Meat Market, laid it out recently:

"Ground beef is at about $2.99 and that's pretty much stayed. It's your higher end steaks that we've seen the high jump in, about $2.00 a pound. One is supply and demand, and the second is the drought in the midwest has a lot to do with it. The supply of cattle, the grain, the corn has a lot to do with it. Everything I'm seeing, at least a 10 percent increase in all proteins."

The last couple of years of drought have been hard on both cattle ranchers and corn farmers. Grass fed beef graziers have only had half of this problem. However, the grass they live on - unless properly managed - is under extreme stress and won't regrow at any speed with lack of moisture and increased heat.

Some solutions are to wean early and reduce calf populations and so reduce the need for grass intake. This of course runs into the problem of shipping calves off to a feedlot, where they will have to be fed higher-priced corn and soy supplements. Which then also means that the lighter-weight beef will be more costly to produce for the market.

"This appears to be a long-term spike because we've seen a reduction in the mother cow herd in the United States, and with that there's no calves for next year so we look to see this to go on for a long time," said Jack Lavers, President, Kern County Cattleman's Association.

Oddly, ranchers are finding it more profitable to export beef to other countries. That gives us additional problems of working to provide the US with enough meat.

"We're actually exporting our own meat to countries like South Korea, Mexico and to Russia. So with all that going on we're playing a little game here trying to make sure the American consumer is getting all the meat they want and it's driving up the costs," added Lavers.

Officials with the beef industry say it usually takes about two to three years to cycle, which means it could be a couple of years before any relief for customers is seen at the market. It's the weather which holds the cards now. While parts of Texas and Oklahoma are on their third year of this drought, Missouri, Nebraska, and Kansas are also seeing extreme conditions continuing from last summer.

All of that means that there is no end in sight for rising meat prices.

[Update: Now supermarket "mystery" ground beef is up to $3.00 a pound here in the Midwest (it's a mystery what's actually in it.) And farmers' market grass-fed sirloin has been above $15 a pound for sometime.]

My own suggestion, as usual, is to Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food.

As you can access wholesale beef online by networking with your local farmer, you can still take advantage of wholesale meat prices by buying in bulk. And that is a solution which will bring you even cheaper meat, regardless of the economics farmer and markets face.

- - - -

And here's some related blog posts which cover this discussion of getting wholesale meat over the internet:

Buying Wholesale Meat Online Posted By : charlie helen | Gourmet

Are you looking for wholesale meat that is only a few clicks away and can be delivered right to your front door? Well it is only a few clicks away. Buying meat online is an option most people do not consider. However, there are ...

Can You Purchase Extensive Meat Online? | Castricum ...

For with much of online wholesale meat portals coming on the site, it is normal that users will prefer to purchase meat online instead than visit the meat store a mile away. How comprehensive meats do costs work? Carrying ...

5 Reasons To Buy Meat Online | Nike Free 1

The age old tradition of going to meat market with your dad to buy that favorite pork chop for dinner or the full blown turkey for Thanksgiving can well be over by the end of this decade. For with a lot of online wholesale meat ...

Should I Buy Meat Frozen Or Chilled? | Meat Gallery Blog

To buy meat online can be a tricky affair, as you can either buy frozen meat or buy fresh meat online. However, chilled wholesale meat has slowly become more popular than frozen meat in cases of buying meat online.

Wholesale Meat : www.ifindwholesalers.com

Hamilton Wholesale Meats allows you to buy meat online. We specialise in supply wholesale beef, lamb, pork, chicken, & a wide range of small goods. Grassfed Grass Fed Beef Meat All Natural Finished Healthy Kentucky ...

Related articles

• Can Wholesale Meat Prices Afford a Beef Ranch?
• California Ranchers Miss Beef Rally as Drought Cuts Herds - Bloomberg
• Producers of grass-fed beef team to sell product
• What is Dry-Aged and Wet-Aged Meat - and Why Should You Care?
• Healthy Pasture Fed Beef Makes You Healthy.
• What Makes Wholesale Beef Cheap to Buy?