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Will cattle go the way of hogs?
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<blockquote data-quote="Busterz" data-source="post: 674846" data-attributes="member: 7999"><p>I think a couple things differentiate the beef industry that may help somewhat. Cattle can't be raised in confinement as easily or cheaply as chickens and hogs. Once chickens and hogs began being raised to go to a purely grain fed diet with no more foraging it became possible to raise them entirely in confinement. With cattle raising them for at least a part of their life still seems necessary financially, it cheapens the cost of production. I don't think grain prices will get dramatically cheaper in the near future. I think it would be tough/expensive for corporations to get control over enough grass or stocker operations. </p><p></p><p>Another differentiating factor is the one Frankie mentioned, time. Gowing cattle takes much longer that hogs and chickens. And time is feed and feed is money. It makes it less appealing to invest in when the return will be so far out.</p><p></p><p>Its also time some of our antitrust laws were enforced upon the packing industry. I think this has been a problem ever since there have been packing plants (there is a book called Livestock Hotels that is pretty good about the history of stockyards and meat packing), but it might be more important now more than ever to get some diversity of buyers and competition.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Busterz, post: 674846, member: 7999"] I think a couple things differentiate the beef industry that may help somewhat. Cattle can't be raised in confinement as easily or cheaply as chickens and hogs. Once chickens and hogs began being raised to go to a purely grain fed diet with no more foraging it became possible to raise them entirely in confinement. With cattle raising them for at least a part of their life still seems necessary financially, it cheapens the cost of production. I don't think grain prices will get dramatically cheaper in the near future. I think it would be tough/expensive for corporations to get control over enough grass or stocker operations. Another differentiating factor is the one Frankie mentioned, time. Gowing cattle takes much longer that hogs and chickens. And time is feed and feed is money. It makes it less appealing to invest in when the return will be so far out. Its also time some of our antitrust laws were enforced upon the packing industry. I think this has been a problem ever since there have been packing plants (there is a book called Livestock Hotels that is pretty good about the history of stockyards and meat packing), but it might be more important now more than ever to get some diversity of buyers and competition. [/QUOTE]
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Will cattle go the way of hogs?
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