Coming Up: Bacon and Sausage shortage

oregon woodsmok · #21 09/26/12, 03:04 PM

Smoked and salted meats have a relatively short life in the freezer. I can eat elk that was frozen 3 years ago, but I don't count on bacon or ham lasting more than 6 months in the deep freeze. A lot shorter time in the refrigerator freezer compartment.

So don't stock up too heavily.

Ravenlost · #22 09/26/12, 06:10 PM

Hubby doesn't need bacon anyway and we only eat venison sausage, so I'm not going to worry about any shortage. Plus, I only buy one ham a year. Hopefully I can afford one this year (for New Year's) but if I can't it won't be the end of the world.

haypoint · #23 09/26/12, 08:05 PM

The conspiracy theorists get blown out of the water by anyone that looks at the price of corn and soybeans. We don’t have months of surplus grains sitting around. Supply is very tight. We export a lot of grain. We turn a lot into alcohol. Much is forward contracted and those amounts must be met. The rest gets spread quite thin.
The cost to feed corn and soybeans to pigs will go up. Since pasture raised pigs grow slowly, they are are already more costly to buy. So, as the price for a finished hog goes up, the demand cools off.
That, in turn, keeps the price of finished hogs at or below the cost of production. That triggers a selloff of hogs. Farmers must get out of a business that’s losing money. That increases the supply, for awhile.
If people believe there will be a run up of the price of bacon, they begin to hoard. That uptick in bacon sales creates a shortage and pushes prices higher. If the consumer reads this as proof of a shortage, additional hoarding will take place. This tightens supplies to the point where there are actual shortages. This becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
It takes longer to grow beef, So chicken and pork have been able to supply protein cheaper. But they depend on a higher percentage of corn and soybean. With those prices at record highs, perhaps chicken and pork will be as costly as beef. That puts hay supplies very close to demand. But when 5-6 states get a drought, hay fields produce less and farmers must supplement pasture, hay prices jump, too.
Right now butcher hogs are selling at 30 cents to 50 cents a pound. I doubt you can afford to raise pigs at that price.
But as corn has sold higher and higher, hay ground has been converted to corn ground.
30 years ago, it was rumored that there was a canning jar lid shortage. People stocked up. The stors went through their normal supply quickly. The shelves were bare. As soon as a new shipment arrived, people grabbed them off the shelves. There wasn’t any shortage. Just people wanted to insure they had some, thus creating a shortage. I’d bet you that there are thousands of canning jar lids stored around the country that were bought up during the “Shortage of Canning lids” from 30 years ago.

Soupmaker · #24 09/26/12, 08:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ronbre

why don't people just go to pastured beef and pork and not be feeding them grain and not have to worry about the grain prices??

What do you feed them in the winter?

arabian knight · #25 09/26/12, 08:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soupmaker

What do you feed them in the winter?

Ya really I will be buying all sorts of grain this winter to fatten up my steer for next spring butchering time. Not much grass in the winter, and with hay double the price from last year so is grain. LOL

lonelyfarmgirl · #26 09/26/12, 08:13 PM

This problem has already been addressed and the only answer presented.

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/cou...age-bacon.html

siberian · #27 09/26/12, 09:05 PM

I really like it, yet do not belive the shortage. Will not pay the price, to many other good foods and meals to enjoy.

DaleK · #28 09/26/12, 09:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lonelyfarmgirl

This problem has already been addressed and the only answer presented.

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/cou...age-bacon.html

Nothing like taking advantage of hysteria by gouging...

fordy · #29 09/26/12, 09:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oldcountryboy

Announced on the news today that toward the end of next year there might be a severe shortage of bacon and sausage due to this years drought causing a severe shortage of corn feed.

So you all might want to either stalk up on bacon and sausage or raise yourself several pigs next year.

I'm thinking about raising several pigs and a big crop of corn next summer. Hopefully there want be a drought or a plague of grasshoppers like there was this year.

...............There's enough Extra Pork in Washington, DC too bridge the short fall I'll bet ! , fordy

Paquebot · #30 09/26/12, 09:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ronbre

why don't people just go to pastured beef and pork and not be feeding them grain and not have to worry about the grain prices??

Pastured beef and pork have always ate grain as a natural forage. Barley, grass, oats, rye, and wheat, are all the same. They are all grass. The seeds of grass are just as much a grain as is wheat. Those grains all originated in the same part of the world where beef and domestic pork originated. Grass seeds of any type, fed separately, are no less a part of their natural diet than if fed in hay. Corn is not a part of their natural diet but only due to it being a grass with different hemispheric origins.

Martin

arabian knight · #31 09/26/12, 10:22 PM

Cattle enjoy sweet life amid corn shortages

Quote:

As the worst drought in half a century has ravaged this year's U.S. corn crop and driven corn prices sky high, the market for alternative feed rations for beef and dairy cows has also skyrocketed. Brokers are gathering up discarded food products and putting them out for the highest bid to feed lot operators and dairy producers, who are scrambling to keep their animals fed.
In the mix are cookies, ice cream sprinkles, gummy worms, marshmallows, fruit loops, orange peels, even dried cranberries. Cattlemen are feeding virtually anything they can get their hands on that will replace the starchy sugar content traditionally delivered to the animals through corn.

Cattle enjoy sweet life amid corn shortages - Economy Watch

gilberte · #32 09/27/12, 05:55 AM

BACON!

Soupmaker · #33 09/27/12, 07:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaleK

Nothing like taking advantage of hysteria by gouging...

Who is gouging who?

fatrat · #34 09/27/12, 09:55 AM

Gosh what kind of milk and meat does such a diet produce in cattle, ice cream sprinkles, gummy worms, marshmellows, fruit loops? That's insane!

chester5731 · #35 09/27/12, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaleK

Nothing like taking advantage of hysteria by gouging...

Might as well do it with pork since people are gouging with the price of hay.

Soupmaker · #36 09/27/12, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chester5731

Might as well do it with pork since people are gouging with the price of hay.

How do you figure anyone is gouging with the price of hay?

Still can't figure out how the feeder pigs are gouging.

jwal10 · #37 09/27/12, 03:55 PM

Unavoidable bacon shortage: U.K.’s National Pig Association has everyone worried about the price of pork. - Slate Magazine

....James

Paquebot · #38 09/27/12, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fatrat

Gosh what kind of milk and meat does such a diet produce in cattle, ice cream sprinkles, gummy worms, marshmellows, fruit loops? That's insane!

Cattle have always had a "sweet tooth". In Europe, cows would be fed mangels and carrots to produce sweeter milk. Mixing molasses with otherwise inferior feed will have them gobbling every bite. That's what is being done with some of the poorer haylage around here this year. Doesn't have to be molasses as it can also be corn syrup from ethanol plants. Had one farmer swear that his cattle would eat sawdust if mixed with corn syrup and he's probably right!

Martin

lonelyfarmgirl · #39 09/27/12, 05:06 PM

How people are gouging with the price of hay is by raising the price to double or triple the average because of the drought. Yes its happening, right here in Wisconsin. We are recipients of this kind and friendly act. Why do you think everyone is dumping livestock left and right for bottom dollar?

Wanda · #40 09/27/12, 05:22 PM

LFG The hay is selling for market price. When the market is flooded with low priced hay I never hear the buyers complaining about the price!