So please tell me, who's getting rich on the cow?

[burroughs85]

I was at the Commissary delicatessen today at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. I was surprised to see deli roast beef at $15+ a pound! I get 7% lean ground beef at Walmart for about $5.50 a pound more or less. Who is getting fat in the beef industry? I think I'm in the wrong racket. I remember when I could buy Porterhouse for $5 a pound along the California coast in 1997. Does some deli beef executive or cattle baron zoom around in a fancy jet or what?

Imagine $15+ for deli beef in the tax-exempt military exchange in bum-f__ Oklahoma, not California.

 

[Lee VanRoss]

Some of the packers seem to be doing ok

 

[Son of Butch]

I was at the Commissary delicatessen today at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. I was surprised to see deli roast beef at $15+ a pound!

Local Wal-Mart super center was out of eggs for 3 weeks.
Today the same eggs I bought last year for 99 cents a dozen were $4 dozen.
Seems bird flu and easter have conspired to put egg prices through the roof.

 

[burroughs85]

I still get generic eggs at Wally's for under $2.00 a dozen and a half carton.

 

[burroughs85]

Some of the packers seem to be doing ok

Packers, that link along the product flow from the cow barn to the deli is sucking the rich sweet cream off the whole deal?

 

[burroughs85]

I remember when I could buy ANGUS Porterhouse for a paltry $5 a pound along the California coast in 1997. The pig people don't seem to be ripping us off as bad as cow folk. I can get good deli ham at Wally's for just under $4.00/pound. Chicken farmers are even cheaper. A pound of Wally chicken skinless breast about $2.10.

 

[greybeard]

who's getting rich.....?

Evidently, from the number of time it has been mentioned in this thread and the maple syrup thread just today, it's walmart

 

[SBMF 2015]

Packers, that link along the product flow from the cow barn to the deli is sucking the rich sweet cream off the whole deal?

The short answer is; Yes, the packers have the largest profit margin.
But it's the same in every industry. Every time a product is refined the price goes up. Your deli roast beef costs more than a roast in the meat counter, which costs more than a side of beef, which costs more than a live steer. Every time you are value there is a price increase.
A gal of gas costs more than a gal of crude.

 

[BFE]

Wal mart. Buy local. Someone will sell you eggs from their backyard flock for $2. Buy from them.

Go to the closest meat locker and buy a bundle. Won't be any higher than Wally and much better quality. Can't complain about the big boys making all the money when you choose to bypass the locals in their favor.

 

[backhoeboogie]

I don't have pink and green muppet hair. I just don't fit in at Walmart. I cannot believe you folks still go there.

 

[Ky hills]

Bottom line it ain't the cattle producer, it's not the feeders, The retailers are having to pay more for the products and thus pass that on to the consumers. That leaves the packers being the ones that are making money on both ends. I will never understand why even some on here will always make excuses for them. They are destroying the industry and agriculture as a whole by monopolizing as much of it as they can. Which is and will be causing more expense to the consumer.
If current events don't make it clear, I don't know what will, our food supply is a national security issue if there ever was one. We should be raising and producing as much of our food as we can and no foreign owned companies should have anything to do with it. We should only be importing what we need to make up the difference. The industry model needs to change and go back to the local levels as much as possible. There are so many added links to the chain and added transportation that it is not sustainable.
The family farm is becoming extinct fast. That is not good for local economies, and if the monopolies had not been allowed to interfere, many local economies and small farmers may have been thriving today or at least still going.

 

[BFE]

Amen brother

 

[simme]

This is supposed to show how the money has been split historically between cow-calf, feeders, and packers.
1996 was not good for cow-calf. 2014/2015 were very good.
1998, 2015/2016 were bad for feeders.
Looks like historically, packers have had lower margins than most sectors, but are making up for it in the last few years.


Here is also some information from the North American Meat Institute - might be biased, but info non the less.

 

[Ky hills]

The packers should have the lower margins based just on common sense and logic that they move the volume as nearly a whole and have possession of the animals and product the least amount of time.

 

[alacowman1]

I don't have pink and green muppet hair. I just don't fit in at Walmart. I cannot believe you folks still go there.

Ran in ,and out Sunday before the big crowd ,for some work jeans..took me longer to check out than to find them.the only cashier had a line, so it was self checkout .

 

[Logan52]

We need more years like 2014.
But, on second thought, then every body and his brother got into cattle or expanded their herds. That may be why we are where we are now.
That was also the peak of the nurse cow action around here and lots of dairy cross steers were sold at really high prices. I think I sold a Charolais cross steer out of a Jersey heifer for over 2 dollars a pound.
What goes up must eventually come down.

 

[tex452]

I have family that were in the packing house business.
They did very well.

 

[1982vett]

I was at the Commissary delicatessen today at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. I was surprised to see deli roast beef at $15+ a pound! I get 7% lean ground beef at Walmart for about $5.50 a pound more or less. Who is getting fat in the beef industry? I think I'm in the wrong racket. I remember when I could buy Porterhouse for $5 a pound along the California coast in 1997. Does some deli beef executive or cattle baron zoom around in a fancy jet or what?

Imagine $15+ for deli beef in the tax-exempt military exchange in bum-f__ Oklahoma, not California.

Yeah...in 1997 (35 years ago) dam near everything was cheaper...

 

[Lee VanRoss]

I would encourage anyone interested in the cattle market to check out the (Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act) sponsored by
Senators Charles Grassley (IA) Deb Fischer (NE) Jon Tester (MT) and Ron Wyden (OR) or even to contact them at their Washington DC
or home state offices. It also can help to make and maintain a good line of communication with your own US Senators and Representatives.
From what I can gather from my communications Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) is on the menu and open for input .
It is, in my opinion, critical to our survival as an industry, our home grown product be labled as such.
Likewise all foreign (read Non USA) be accurately labeled as to the country of origin regardless the stage of production or processing.
I also find it interesting that two of the four Senators represent border states and I have little doubt at least one is well informed on the
opinions coming across these pages. This is not the time to set on our hands!

 

[Rafter S]

Yeah...in 1997 (35 years ago) dam near everything was cheaper...

You might want to check your math . . . or your calendar.