Price of Beef??

[GLC]

I think of chicken as expensive. I can get boneless chunks of beef or pork for the same price per lb as whole chicken. Yes, I want the bones for stock, but I don't like to pay as much for bones as for boneless meat.

I get whole chickens cheap (cheep?) at maybe 77-cents on a good day. But parts, especially boneless parts, are very high. They charge a LOT for deboning.

 

[sparrowgrass]

I work with a rancher, and he says on the hoof prices are higher than he has ever seen in his 40 years of raising cattle. A lot of it can be blamed on the Texas drought--those guys sold off their cattle, so there is a general shortage--but lots of the hike can be blamed on high gas prices. If oil prices are high, transport is more expensive, so feed is more expensive, and fertilizer has gone sky-high, too. You don't think of cattle ranchers using fertilizers, but they fertilize pastures and hayfields every year, for good production.

 

[GLC]

And you know, we're going to have a huge hay crop this year, with the way it's been raining. But I don't know how well the cattle ranches can be restocked with the prices so high. So, with high calf prices, shortages of calves, and high fuel, it will take more than cheap hay to get supplies up and prices down. Probably next winter, anyway.

 

[Rocklobster]

I'll tell you this much, if it goes much higher, I will simply stop eating it. Maybe a steak every couple of months but that's it. They can shove it. There is no reason they can't breed more cattle. Its all a matter of politics, economics and greed, as far as I am concerned. They better be careful, if they price it too high, people will stop depending on it for their weekly nutrition and find other alternatives, they may never go back to it.

 

[Steve Kroll]

I'll tell you this much, if it goes much higher, I will simply stop eating it. Maybe a steak every couple of months but that's it.

We've cut back our beef consumption to once a week. For the last couple years, we've been buying 1/8 cow from a local farmer and freezing it. It's a 60 lb box of mixed cuts. About 20 lbs is burger. The rest is steaks, roasts, short ribs, soup bones, heart, liver, and tongue. We try to make it last a year.

 

[Aunt Bea]

I have pretty much stopped the weekly automatic purchase of beef and most other meats. I am certainly not a vegetarian but, I have been trying to only buy things that have a high WOW factor for me, as a treat every few weeks. The purchases I do make are from local producers at the farmers market or small old fashioned butcher shops near my home. I still buy things that are not considered healthy such as bacon, kielbasa etc.. but at least I feel comfortable about how it is being made. My reasons for changing are mostly because of the "yuck" factor with all the talk of pink slime and gross processing techniques used for supermarket meat. The price increase is kind of the last straw. Like Rock pointed out high prices destroy demand. So for now it is back to my hippy days with whole grains, beans and fresh produce.

 

[FluffyAngel]

I have pretty much stopped the weekly automatic purchase of beef and most other meats. I am certainly not a vegetarian but, I have been trying to only buy things that have a high WOW factor for me, as a treat every few weeks. The purchases I do make are from local producers at the farmers market or small old fashioned butcher shops near my home. I still buy things that are not considered healthy such as bacon, kielbasa etc.. but at least I feel comfortable about how it is being made. My reasons for changing are mostly because of the "yuck" factor with all the talk of pink slime and gross processing techniques used for supermarket meat. The price increase is kind of the last straw. Like Rock pointed out high prices destroy demand. So for now it is back to my hippy days with whole grains, beans and fresh produce.

"Whole grains, beans, & fresh produce." BINGO! Or should I say BEAN GO. That's our intended route too. A good strategy & probably a little healthier, & lighter on the wallet.

 

[Rocklobster]

"Whole grains, beans, & fresh produce." BINGO! Or should I say BEAN GO. That's our intended route too. A good strategy & probably a little healthier, & lighter on the wallet.

I have been eating less and less beef as the years go by. I can feel how hard my system has to work to process it. I do like it, but for three reasons, price, quality(not big on the whole commercial farming idea), and my aging digestive system, I can probably do without.

 

[4meandthem]

I have been eating less and less beef as the years go by. I can feel how hard my system has to work to process it. I do like it, but for three reasons, price, quality(not big on the whole commercial farming idea), and my aging digestive system, I can probably do without.

I am the same way. We eat steak maybe once a month and 2 usually feeds 4 of us. If we eat beef 2 nights in a row we all have issues and
don't feel that great. We eat chicken 3-4 nights a week and try to eat fish at least once.

 

[CharlieD]

We've cut back our beef consumption to once a week. For the last couple years, we've been buying 1/8 cow from a local farmer and freezing it. It's a 60 lb box of mixed cuts. About 20 lbs is burger. The rest is steaks, roasts, short ribs, soup bones, heart, liver, and tongue. We try to make it last a year.

Wow, how big is your family.

 

[CharlieD]

There is a farm here in I.G.H. the guy will slaughter the cow or a lamb for you and will butcher it anyway you want, reasonable too.

 

[Steve Kroll]

Wow, how big is your family.

Three of us during the summer months. 60 lbs a year averages out to a little more than a pound of beef a week, so it isn't as much as it sounds.

 

[GLC]

We buy very little beef anymore. Price/quality is most of the reason. Oveer the years, I've had the chance to eat real beef, beef that grew to adulthood and then some on pasture and on what they can scrabble from very tough country. I know I'll never find in a grocery store or meat market anything like the longhorn steer that ran wild along the border and was butchered vaquero style, so all the blood wasn't lost, and then cooked slow. (Sorry. Very far from Kosher indeed.) I could buy a calf next door and put it on my back two acres, but I really no longer want beef that bad. In four years, I figure to be growing 3/4 of our food anyway.

I'm not inclined to pay through the nose for poor meat. I will sometimes buy a small and very high grade cut of beef, but not much more. I buy high quality sausage, lamb, and some pork. And some good salumeria. But our meat consumption is way down. But I also buy more cheese than we used to. I'm kind of working my way through the cheese section at AlmaGourmet. Buy Italian Cheeses - Best Prices on Italian Cheeses

 

[taxlady]

salumeria? That came up as store that sounds like a deli. What do you mean?

 

[Steve Kroll]

A salumeria is an Italian delicatessen.

 

[CharlieD]

I've never been a big beef fan, even less now. But , yesterday I had a lambslUghter, by friend of mine, so we will be enjoying it for a while. The only downside of kosher meat , the back half of the animal is not kosher.

 

[againuntodust]

Prices in Illinois have not gone up noticeably, but I don't go to a butcher or big supermarket. The best deals on meat and produce are found at mexican markets or other 'euro' markets, especially every other week when the meat goes on sale for 1.99lb for ground chuck and 2.99lb for sirloin roasts.

 

[justplainbill]

Seems food costs may be going the way of education and health care costs. Maybe these three have something in common ?

 

[Souvlaki]

7 euros 1 kilo beef in Greece