Anyone worried about the "meat shortage"?

Like Rodney would have said," My wife's been complaining about a "meat shortage" since our wedding night."

 

Prayers are with you and the rest of the farmers in the country as you were hit with two hard years in a row
A little woods time or trigger therapy is good for the soul. Stay safe!

 

Funny you should mention that. Everytime I go through the self-check at work, when it says, "Thank You for shopping at Walmart" I reply, "Like I have a choice...."

I know I do have a choice, and actually buy just as much of my groceries at Nilssen's, the local grocers. But it gets a smile from those nearby checking out.....

Or that field corn is tasty.......

 

I am not real worried. Hopefully the mess will result in a lot more smaller and less centralized slaughter operations.

 

^ I live in rural Ohio and there’s two family run processing plants within 10 miles of me.

way back when this insanity was getting started I thought we’ll go get some bulk hamburger because we changed or diet over the winter and were low on beef.

I showed up at a plant that we got last year’s pig processed at, on a Saturday morning and there was a line. This place was out in the sticks(on dirt road) and typically Saturday is the day we pick up what we bought and had slaughtered.

yeah smaller places may not suffer from the bug directly but the supply chain is still threatened by panic buyers.

 

I use the Waffle House barometer. if they're open, all is good. if they're closed, start to worry.

 

In my area Waffle House and Huddle House both are closed. Most other restaurants are either fast food (drive-through only), or the better ones went to curbside and/or delivery. Now that things are starting to loosen, the one I know opened the dining room has reduced their seating capacity to half... social distancing and all. I'd say waitstaff probably got reduced too.

To me, this looks like a good time to set up a chuck wagon and some picnic tables for some open air dining.

I think the general rise in unemployment is more worrisome then the more particular bottleneck at the bigger meat processors. I've heard several different sources say we need to source our domestic meats locally rather than rely on the big centralized supply chain. I wonder, though, whether the jobs will remain lost or be rearranged.

Remembering that this is the hunting forum, am I the only one that anyways misses wearing camo to blend in at the Waffle House?

 

The restaurants here have been closed for dine in service for about six weeks, so supermarket supply has generally been stressed by more people cooking at home. Costco and Sam's Club have recently started quantity restrictions on meat purchases, but the supermarkets seem well stocked without restrictions. That usually indicates that people are buying in bulk and stocking up.

 

There was plenty there, today. Getting ready to freeze a pile of fresh round, beef steak for lots of meals.

 

the ones near me have had pick up orders since day one of the panic. they didn't close for even one day.

 

When I drive by one of those big slaughterhouses it reminds me of the word "institution." Such as a penitentiary, hospital or university and even though I'm a college graduate I really don't like the word "institution." I'm too much of an animal lover to forget what is going on there. I hope ibob is right and it results in more smaller and less centralized slaughter operations. But I do like the angus beef.

 

There is a place I go out to lunch now and then. one of the gals taking orders in the parking lot said their business is up since the lock down. Based on the lines I see there I would agree.

 

Meat shortage, what meat shortage?

There's government beef running all over out back!!

DM

 

While all my buddies were horn hunting last year I was filling the freezer. Between my son and I we put up 6 white tails and I got some black bear in an organized hunt.

We've been feasting through all of this.

 

I agree but I'm not hitting my venison reserves until I have to. The guy down the street with the beef operation I will likely become a customer. Not spending money on any other sort of recreation, so..., I'm likely to buy a 1/4 side of beef from the guy. He's likely to need the business too, as he supplied several top-end restaurants in the DC area, and they aren't buying as they were in December.

LD

 

Yeah, just felt like backstrap last night and have to eat it before my daughter comes and takes it. I still have a lot of elk and venison left.

 

I don't recall loosing much weight in college living on Peanut Butter.....

-kBob

 

How did you train them to come into the porch?

 

Nope, meat is out there. I am more worried about a freezer to store it. Mine is on last leg.

 

You shoulda tried Ramin noodles. I was unbelievably skinny when I graduated, 160 lbs and 6 feet tall. That's why I retired. Jobs are fattening.

 

Don't get it. I was in the store the other day and both the fresh meat counter and the regular meat coolers were stuffed full. I think it's possibly regional and just as possibly intentional.

Beyond that, there are plenty of fish in that big blue thing a few blocks away.

What's the old saying, "Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and feed him for life".

 

I never understood why folks would go for Ramin Noodles. When in the service (before college) some folks got me to try Ramin noodles and up on the side of a German Mountain in a cold rain I cursed them soundly, and was so glad I had tossed a crackers and jam C rat can in my gear.

When things got really tight in college the Day Old Bread store was my beacon in the storm.

-kBob

 

When I was in I'd buy a case of Ramen noodles at the PX before FTX's; I'd squirrel them away in the tool box on my Deuce, and at a week in the field I'd trot them out and sell them; after a week of MRE's $1 for a square of ramen seemed a bargain to them.

 

Actually, field corn IS quite tasty. Just not directly.

Once it has left the field, it needs some post-processing by a critter of some sort which turns it into meat.

 

My relatives preferred to process the field corn that didn’t get fed to cows, hogs, and horses by having the grist mill grind it, put it in a vat with equal part of sugar and water. After 2- weeks, they’d light a hardwood fire by the dark of a new moon, on a secluded creek bank.
Added new meaning to cash crop, if you didn’t drink too much...

Both of my parents grew up living off the land during the depression. Farming, foraging, hunting, fishing, fabrication. Much of that legacy got passed on to my generation. I’m not hurting for anything. My wife thinks I’m a hoarder, till times like now...

My wife and two daughters are nurses. Two of the three are actually laid off! Nobody is having elective procedures, and my wife, a school nurse hasn’t worked since Mar.7. Still getting paid due to being a contract government employee.
I’ve got a satisfactory stash of loading components, and several tons of scrap lead to include 200lbs of Linotype. And yes, I shoot deer in my backyard and live 1mile from the boat ramp to a 27,500ac impoundment on the Chattahoochee River...

Strange times!

Thomas Malthus actually predicted such an event over 200yrs ago. Aldo Leopold, father of modern game management demonstrated the occurrence of Malthusian events in wild animal populations. We’re not so advanced after all that we’re not still subject to natural phenomena.