Posted on 10/17/2021 12:04:49 AM PDT by blueplum
Like other ranchers across the country, Rusty Kemp for years grumbled about rock-bottom prices paid for the cattle he raised in central Nebraska, even as the cost of beef at grocery stores kept climbing... Federal data show that for every dollar spent on food, the share that went to ranchers and farmers dropped from 35 cents in the 1970s to 14 cents recently.
It led Kemp to launch an audacious plan: Raise more than $300 million from ranchers to build a plant themselves, putting their future in their own hands....
...Crews will start work this fall building the Sustainable Beef plant on nearly 400 acres near North Platte, Nebraska, and other groups are making similar surprising moves in Iowa, Idaho and Wisconsin. The enterprises will test whether it’s really possible to compete financially against an industry trend ....
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
A new dangled rural Co-op!!
*fangled
Low beef prices?
Have they been in a grocery store lately?
But as usual, it’s the farmers who are getting screwed over.
I’d buy privately from a farmer any day of the week if I had a source.
There are 4 packers that are over 80% of all slaughter capacity with two being Brazilian companies. CBOT cattle futures tell the story of what farmers are getting paid. https://www.macrotrends.net/futures/cattle
Farmers getting squeezed. Consumers getting squeezed. Entry barriers erected by our Congressional and bureaucratic “betters” prevent small guys from competing. Much like pharma, packers have many many lobbyists and the graft runs like the Mississippi.
Those are the facts.
PS click on 5 or 10 year price histories to see the cattle price trends. As a single year goes on futures prices go up as risk leaves the market. You will see the trend in what farmers are getting paid is sideways.
High prices caused by would-be monopolists interposing themselves between producer and consumer.
Dairy farmers have them and it sounds like ranchers may need them too.
If only it was would be. 4 companies control it.
The “Big Four”—Tyson, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef—purchase and process 85 percent of beef in the United States.
In the past 20 years, a revolving door has swung between the meatpackers’ biggest lobbying firm, the North American Meat Institute, and the USDA.
Packers own “feeder cattle” that they place with ranchers or their own feedlots. And through “forward contracts” and exclusive purchasing agreements, ranchers sell at prearranged prices to the packers, divorced from supply and demand. This creates “captive supply” for the packers, increasing their control over how many cattle they purchase and at what price.
JBS and National Beef are Brazilian companies and JBS’s parent has a sordid history of collusion, bribery and other illegal behavior.
Normally, they would kick the big corporations’ butts.
But we live in a kleptocracy, where politicians write rules to ensure big donors thrive while smaller upstarts have a difficult road.
The regulations for meat processing are numerous and the documentation requirements are ridiculous.
These farmers are going to find themselves making the best meat in the nation but unable to afford the compliance costs.
Maybe good old Omaha Steaks will invest!
Read the complete article before commenting. The “low price” is what the Rancher/producer is paid. They just want to cut out a bunch of the middle men. Most especially it would be nice to get rid of the Futures trading.
We finally found a great local meat source in north Connecticut, picked up our first 10 of 60 pounds yesterday.
Not the cheapest prices, but competitive - natural and ethically-produced.
Slaughtered just a few miles away in Mass. - keeping it all relatively local.
We have over 400 head of dairy. If we have cull cows it’s difficult to get them butchered. They often go into compost.
We are right now setting up an on farm butcher shop. It’s real tempting to also set up an on farm cheese production facility. And pasteurizer, yogurt production, ....
Farmers getting squeezed. Consumers getting squeezed. Entry barriers erected by our Congressional and bureaucratic “betters” prevent small guys from competing. Much like pharma, packers have many many lobbyists and the graft runs like the Mississippi.
—
This.
Grocery store chains like Publix have butchers in every store - maybe another option in these crazy times would be to sell directly to the grocery stores...
Wouldn’t it just kill them if Trump steaks returned!
Which State? I am looking for a local direct beef source cutting the crooks out.
Post 9-
Great summary.
I would add the concentration of power is also on the retail distribution side of the equation with only small number of grocery outlets. Those stores also demand a “fixed” price and a specific delivery volume to fill their pipeline.
Bad weather and other catastrophes may ding the flow of live cattle or boxed beef, so the swings in prices are for the marginal supply. Think of it as the “last mile” in the food chain.
The small independent rancher and the individual consumer get whipsawed and beat-up by the monopolies and oligarchies. Since you gotta eat to live, the rascals have “you” captured.
We are setting it up after harvest season. Pennsylvania.
We will not sell to the public.
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