US - Beef prices hit record highs

[Pathfinder]

Beef prices hit record highs. Four ways to save.

Beef prices are soaring, which can have a greater immediate impact on the family wallet than that of most food items. Switching to poultry or fish, buying less popular cuts, and joining a meat share are a few ways to cope with rising beef prices.

By Kevin Voigt, Guest blogger / April 16, 2014
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The cost of ?all-fresh? USDA choice-grade beef in February reached a record retail price of $5.28 per pound, compared to $4.91 at the same time last year and $3.97 in 2008. That?s the highest price for beef since 1987. The cost of ground beef rose to $3.55 in February, up 56% since 2010.

Years of drought in cattle country have cut the American herd to its lowest level since 1951. And the rising fortunes and appetites for U.S. beef in Asia, especially China, have raised the competition over who will get American steaks. Analysts at Rabobank reckon the growth in global beef demand will continue to come mainly from China, where the domestic production of meat can?t meet rising demand.

And prices will likely remain high as ranchers struggle to replenish herds and as rain levels in ranching states raise questions whether pastures can support an increase, the Associated Press reports.

?We?ve seen strong prices before, but nothing this extreme,? Dennis Smith, a commodities broker for Archer Financial Services in Chicago, told the Los Angeles Times. ?This is really new territory.?

What can you do?

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Full text:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/S...ef-prices-hit-record-highs.-Four-ways-to-save.

 

[Amish Country]

I went to a local livestock auction. I talked to some of the wranglers helping to off load and tag incoming livestock. According to them calf prices, on the hoof, are finally starting to come down. This is a local report and may not be representative of prices across the country. On the other hand I got a second hand report from a local slaughter house that their buyers are having to bid against out of state competition for meat animals at local livestock auctions.

 

[Emily]

[h=1]Louisiana Farmers, Ranchers Brace for Worst Year Since 2008[/h] By Greg Hilburn | June 26, 2015

Flooded fields and fickle temperatures put Louisiana farmers and ranchers in a pensive mood as they gathered here for the Farm Bureau Federation Convention, the state?s largest annual celebration of agriculture.
?I?m afraid this year is a nail-biter and a penny-pincher,? said Franklin Parish row crop farmer Adam Faulk, one of as many as 2,000 producers here.
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Combine the weather with plummeting commodity prices and the lingering threat of bird flu facing poultry producers and Louisiana farmers and ranchers face their most uncertain year since the hurricanes of 2008.
?It started in North Louisiana and rolled its way down,? said Evangeline Parish?s Richard Fonentot, who grows rice, soybeans and crawfish. ?We could all be in a pickle before this year is over.?
?This is one of the scariest years we?ve face in a long time,? said Caddo Parish beef cattle rancher Marty Wooldridge, who saw the Red flood 500 acres of his grazing pasture land and 200 acres of hay meadows...

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southcentral/2015/06/26/373208.htm