Farmers Are Starting To Destroy Their Pigs After Factories Close


 
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JimZ said:
Im sure people could figure out a way to butcher the pig if necessary in lieu of waste. This seems like a problem that could get solved if enough attention is applied.
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Yep, plenty of you tube videos on that. Some good knives and a meat saw, heck reminds me of when I lived in the back of the yards.
My dad and uncles cutting up some primal cuts that fell off the back of a truck.

Tim
 
This is a tough article to read. It explains the realities of the situation for farmers.

www.reuters.com

Piglets aborted, chickens gassed as pandemic slams meat sector

With the pandemic hobbling the meat-packing industry, Iowa farmer Al Van Beek had nowhere to ship his full-grown pigs to make room for the 7,500 piglets he expected from his breeding operation. The crisis forced a decision that still troubles him: He ordered his employees to give injections to...
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com
 
About 40 years ago a couple of friends and I would go every winter to a local hog farmer and buy a couple of live hogs in the 250 lb. range.
We'd slaughter, field dress, and cut them in half, then take them to a Kroger butcher with his own processing plant he had set up on his farm. He would age, cut and package to order.
That's when I first got into curing and smoking my own bacon and hams, he didn't offer that service.
 
Looks like they’re going to use the NDA on meat plants, keeping them open. I don’t think this will be as bad as we have been thinking.
 
Chris Allingham said:
This is a tough article to read. It explains the realities of the situation for farmers.

www.reuters.com

Piglets aborted, chickens gassed as pandemic slams meat sector

With the pandemic hobbling the meat-packing industry, Iowa farmer Al Van Beek had nowhere to ship his full-grown pigs to make room for the 7,500 piglets he expected from his breeding operation. The crisis forced a decision that still troubles him: He ordered his employees to give injections to...
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com
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That's depressing as all hell.
 
Looks like The president spoke with the representatives of the meat processing industry yesterday urging if not telling them they need to stay open. I hope this problem is soon rectified.
Tim
 
Do processing plants run 24/7 under normal circumstances?

The trick will to keeping the workers 6' apart. An article I read said that doing so would cause the lines to operate more slowly, because they were designed for the workers to be closer to each other.

But if the lines are going more slowly and the plants don't already have 2nd or 3rd shifts, could this be an opportunity to get everybody back to work? We'd almost certainly see higher prices because of the increased costs, but it beats wasting the animals.

I'll bet we see a permanent impact on processing plant design. Maybe there'll also be a shift toward having more but smaller processors so that if an individual shutdown is necessary the supply takes less of a hit.
 
Well unless something is done to get some separation and sanitizing it's starting to sound like the workers won't come back.
 
Lynn Dollar said:
I think this may be in my future

Local cattle producers selling beef straight from the farm as more plants shutter
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That could be good for a lot of people. I'd love to have a reason (and perhaps easier access) to support local farmers. It would move a lot of jobs around, but I don't think it'd eliminate any. The hardship would be on the consumers, who would likely pay more. May or may not be a bad thing though, as we might be getting a product that's better for us.
 
JimK said:
That could be good for a lot of people. I'd love to have a reason (and perhaps easier access) to support local farmers. It would move a lot of jobs around, but I don't think it'd eliminate any. The hardship would be on the consumers, who would likely pay more. May or may not be a bad thing though, as we might be getting a product that's better for us.
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Yep, I'd like to do this, covid or no covid.
 
Also, if there's a cattle producer who can't get his beef to market because the processor is shut down, he might be willing to take a steep discount, which would be better than nothing.
 
Lynn Dollar said:
Also, if there's a cattle producer who can't get his beef to market because the processor is shut down, he might be willing to take a steep discount, which would be better than nothing.
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Lynn, unfortunately, somebody still needs to kill, hang, dress out and ultimately butcher said critter. You may find a local butcher, but I'll bet in short order, they're gonna be busier than a one armed paper hanger with the itch.
 
JKalchik said:
Lynn, unfortunately, somebody still needs to kill, hang, dress out and ultimately butcher said critter. You may find a local butcher, but I'll bet in short order, they're gonna be busier than a one armed paper hanger with the itch.
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My understanding is local producers will take care of that, do what Creekstone does, which really, Creekstone is a local producer here. They're just 2 hours north of me on the Kansas / Oklahoma border.
 
Might as well add this story to the pile.

www.yahoo.com

Tyson Foods Helped Create the Meat Crisis It Warns Against

(Bloomberg) -- John Tyson, the billionaire whose family business reigns as the largest meat processor in the U.S., took out ads in national newspapers to complain about a “breaking” food supply chain.No one would argue that supplies aren’t an issue right now. Even Donald Trump is invoking the...
www.yahoo.com www.yahoo.com
 
We have 2 local processors close by. One in Seward IL and one in Clinton WI. I did a minor stock up at Costco and Sam's. Got a whole prime strip loin and whole prime tenderloin and 2 packages of boneless beef shortribs at Costco. One package of pork tenderloins, one package of catfish fillets, and one package of loin pork chops at Sam's. I processed the strip loin yesterday into IIRC 18 approx 8oz steaks cooked 2 last night wife vacuum sealed the rest into packages of 2. I will freeze and seal the short ribs and pork chops tonight. Oddly I could not find whole chickens at either place so no risotto and Jewish penicillin for awhile (chicken soup). I process a whole chicken to parts and use the backs, wing tips, and other bits of scraps into stock i.e. Jewish penicillin :D I use that stock when I make risotto as it's so much better tha buying stock in a box
 
JKalchik said:
Lynn, unfortunately, somebody still needs to kill, hang, dress out and ultimately butcher said critter. You may find a local butcher, but I'll bet in short order, they're gonna be busier than a one armed paper hanger with the itch.
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My butcher was trying to do hanging meat and unfortunately there wasn't a market for it and he went back to boxed meat. He has the knowledge so I could see it happening if push came to shove.
 
Rusty James said:
I could have posted the direct link to this story, but there is a paywall at the Post.

https://michaelsavage.com/the-indus...eres-why-some-store-shelves-are-empty-anyway/
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That version is incomplete, here's a link to the full story.


The story discusses how difficult it is for the supply chain to pivot from commercial food products for restaurants to consumer products, saying "Now, a 50-pound bag of flour or a 48-ounce tub of sour cream doesn’t have many takers at Kroger or Safeway."

My local organic food store, which I rarely shopped at in the past but have been going to lately for convenience and smaller crowds, did something really smart. They broke open those 50-pound bags of flour from their bakery and portioned it into 4-cup plastic containers from the deli with a limit of 2 per customer. Each container is enough to make a loaf of no-knead bread or a batch of cookies with some leftover flour. (y)
 
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