My wife said she saw something on the news that indicated there was a meat shortage or would soon be one. Anyone hear anything or can you report about your markets?
Impending Meat Shortage?
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Buckeye smoker
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I watched one that said because of the Dakota plant, other plants are all doing a super clean and sanitize... So it's more of a timeout to clean than a "meat shortage"...it'll be ok.
This is what I've heard.
I got my cow from my father and have a freezer that's pretty darn full. I'm guessing it will last us another 4-5 months easily. Worst case we go out back and butcher another?
That's a dilemma I don't have.
Then of course just minutes after reading this thread, I come across this on the interwebs - https://finance.yahoo.com/news/meat-supply-threats-grow-first-181155792.html
Conflicting stories out there. I would believe there might have been a shortage, but with all of the food service for schools k-12, and colleges, not to mention all of the restaurants that have been closed are only serving take out, Demand is cut way down. There may be enough to around.
It has been in the news for awhile. Supply is great but slaughter houses are shutting down due
to the virus. Yeah plenty of supply by no one to process.
Schools and restaurants meat is packed and processed a little different then the average household consumer.
It is the same for veggies as well. Guy in Idaho told all the locals to come get as many spuds as
they could haul.
Time to get serious.
Horns Out!
to the virus. Yeah plenty of supply by no one to process.
Schools and restaurants meat is packed and processed a little different then the average household consumer.
It is the same for veggies as well. Guy in Idaho told all the locals to come get as many spuds as
they could haul.
Time to get serious.
Horns Out!
Right after the Final Four Basketball Tournament was supposed to end I read a story that there was a glut of chicken wings since the bars were closed for the entire tournament and and there were no final four parties at home. Somehow I doubt this will equate to lower prices to the consumer.
mooncusser2k
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There are multiple factors involved. Supply chains for commercial/institutional products are different from those for consumer products. Often in different plants with different processing lines and different packaging and shipping. Toilet paper shortages aren't all because of hoarding - people are also using more at home and less at work/school/businesses. Before now your average household wouldn't consider buying an 80-roll case of toilet paper or a giant-sized roll like those for school/work restroom dispensers. Can you imagine most home cooks with a #10 can of anything? Most also wouldn't buy a whole beef strip - they want it already sliced and neatly under plastic wrap in a foam tray the way nature intended. They also aren't going to buy a 10-gallon bag of milk used in a school cafeteria. You get the idea... And switching plants from commercial to consumer sizes isn't simple - they just aren't setup that way.
When supply chains are described as being efficient, that often refers to getting a product where it needs to be and when it's needed. Usually just in time for expected demands (emphasis on expected) and with timing that's carefully choreographed. That also means there isn't a lot of extra product in the pipeline - you don't have 2 month's supply of (fill in the blank) sitting in warehouses and freezers just hanging around waiting to ship to supermarkets. So when schools stop ordering bulk milk (because cafeterias aren't open) and consumers buy more half-gallon cartons and gallon jugs (because everyone is at home), you wind up with today's irony of dairy farmers dumping milk they can't ship while many store shelves look sparse.
Meat processing brings another set of challenges. Workers are often in very close quarters with each other, and relatively limited use of personal protective equipment to avoid sharing diseases (eg, masks don't work when they get wet). Many processing plants have become COVID-19 hotspots. In some cases, the main method to increase production is to speed up the line, which usually means more people in the same amount of space and can lead to more injuries among workers. Farms also aren't setup to hold animals beyond a certain timeframe. So there's a story last week that millions of chickens in Delaware and Maryland will be killed and never go to market ("depopulated") because of slowdowns and shutdowns at processing plants.
I don't write this to make people nervous. More to acknowledge that a lot of us are seeing (some of us for the first time) just how fragile supply and distribution chains can truly be. We'll get through this, but consumers and producers alike will need to be flexible and adapt.
When supply chains are described as being efficient, that often refers to getting a product where it needs to be and when it's needed. Usually just in time for expected demands (emphasis on expected) and with timing that's carefully choreographed. That also means there isn't a lot of extra product in the pipeline - you don't have 2 month's supply of (fill in the blank) sitting in warehouses and freezers just hanging around waiting to ship to supermarkets. So when schools stop ordering bulk milk (because cafeterias aren't open) and consumers buy more half-gallon cartons and gallon jugs (because everyone is at home), you wind up with today's irony of dairy farmers dumping milk they can't ship while many store shelves look sparse.
Meat processing brings another set of challenges. Workers are often in very close quarters with each other, and relatively limited use of personal protective equipment to avoid sharing diseases (eg, masks don't work when they get wet). Many processing plants have become COVID-19 hotspots. In some cases, the main method to increase production is to speed up the line, which usually means more people in the same amount of space and can lead to more injuries among workers. Farms also aren't setup to hold animals beyond a certain timeframe. So there's a story last week that millions of chickens in Delaware and Maryland will be killed and never go to market ("depopulated") because of slowdowns and shutdowns at processing plants.
I don't write this to make people nervous. More to acknowledge that a lot of us are seeing (some of us for the first time) just how fragile supply and distribution chains can truly be. We'll get through this, but consumers and producers alike will need to be flexible and adapt.
You are correct. There are already at least three pork slaughter plants shutdown due to C-19.
Time out to super clean? Well yeah I guess...
mooncusser2k
Well-known member
From what I gather, some of it's to clean, some of it's to add some protections (eg. Plexiglas dividers, handwash stations, etc), some of it's because workers are already sick or plain afraid to risk exposure in close quarters.
I was just at my local Smart Food Service (formerly Cash N Carry) and they are rationing meat
1 package per customer. Whole primal's cryovaced that sort of thing. No ribs No loins, a few briskets and others assorted non favorites. I am pretty well stocked so I just picked up 5 lbs of
Hebrew Nationals (repacked into smaller portions) and the pellets that I was after. Got 100 lbs
of assorted mix that should last me a couple months.
1 package per customer. Whole primal's cryovaced that sort of thing. No ribs No loins, a few briskets and others assorted non favorites. I am pretty well stocked so I just picked up 5 lbs of
Hebrew Nationals (repacked into smaller portions) and the pellets that I was after. Got 100 lbs
of assorted mix that should last me a couple months.
mooncusser2k
Well-known member
We visited a foodservice supplier recently too. They were limiting meats to 1 package of each type unless you are a business. It was late in the day and they still had a bunch of beef, while pork was a bit sparse. Maybe regular consumers (non-business) were coming in and buying all the ribs, etc.
Buckeye smoker
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Location Is probably a factor also*
Gotbbq
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Not sure why but my 2 local supermarkets are pretty low on meat and have been for a while but the smaller grocery store with a private butcher is still fully stocked. Maybe different supplier. I have a commercial upright freezer I bought a few years ago from a restaurant that was going out of business. Price was good, moving it was a chore. It's pretty full but that doesn't address where we go from here.
@mooncusser2k , you have an excellent grip on the issues at hand, refreshing to see. Another "hole in the bucket" that fits what you noted is the packaging, e.g. plastic and glass containers for consumer size stuff, are having difficulty keeping up with the shift in demand/supply.
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My honest guess is that supermarkets get their meat from processing plants, which I believe most are shut down due to the virus, while most meat markets process their own meats and get them directly from the farmers. My local supermarkets are always out of everything too but my local butcher shop always has everything in stock.
In Minnesota I have seen numerous ads from farmers on facebook saying that they need to sell their hogs for as little as $100 each, buyer finds their own processing and pays processing of course, because the corporate processing plants are shut down. They are saying that they either need to get rid of them by a certain date or they will be killed and buried because they can't afford to keep feeding them with the plants being down.
Sad if that is true, which I am assuming it is. Otherwise I don't know why they would be charging so little for them. I just wish I had the freezer space for one or two hogs. Maybe time to buy a 3rd freezer....
In Minnesota I have seen numerous ads from farmers on facebook saying that they need to sell their hogs for as little as $100 each, buyer finds their own processing and pays processing of course, because the corporate processing plants are shut down. They are saying that they either need to get rid of them by a certain date or they will be killed and buried because they can't afford to keep feeding them with the plants being down.
Sad if that is true, which I am assuming it is. Otherwise I don't know why they would be charging so little for them. I just wish I had the freezer space for one or two hogs. Maybe time to buy a 3rd freezer....
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