With hamburg meat @$8.99 lb and a limit on how much you can buy,it got me thinking about years ago when there was a beef shortage.
I asked the butcher and he said because of the drought out west.I said but that was 2 years ago.He said it takes about 2 years from home on the range to home on your range.Because of raising,butchering,processing, and the aging process.
And back then there were no buying limits like today.
So it makes me wonder about not being able to get beef after a matter of weeks or even a few months.

Much of the commercially packaged meat is imported. We have 4 corporations controlling the import of meat. USDA stamped meat does not equate to USA raised meat. It is imported and inspected. The slaughterhouses are for the feed lot business of meat production. The ranchers out west have been hung out to dry. This is why producers of meat are euthanizing their animals. Closed slaughterhouses means there is no place to send the animals. Ranchers don't have the luxury of corporate contracts which literally is bankrupting them trying to ranch pay taxes and make a profit.

I swear it doesn't taste as good as years ago

The only thing I know about years ago was I ate our farm raised beef.
This whole Wagu thing is a sham big time.
Years ago we raised beef like this but no one seems to remember.

My question isn't Where's The Beef, but Who's paying those ridiculous prices?? When prices go sky high like this, there's no way I'm paying them.

I like the ground grass fed beef, 85/15. It’s been a couple of weeks since I bought any. It wasn’t more than 5 something a pound then.

I rarely eat meat but last week I made vegetable soup and hubby said he wanted ground beef in it this time. When he went to get it and discovered it was $8.99 per lb. he decided he could do without. Suited me just fine!

First off there is NOT a beef shortage! Yes there's been a burp in the supply chain dues to Covid and the fact that ranchers aren't even breaking even because of the big packer monopoly keeping the purchase price unnaturally low. The packers however are making huge profits.

If you want better tasting beef at a better price look into buying a steer direct from the rancher and having it processed locally. Here in Kansas the meat you will receive works out to roughly $4.50 a pound. (That can be more or less depending on if you're buying grass fed, corn fed, organic etc.) Been a lot of years since you could buy a good steak for $4.50 a pound much less burger.

Ranchers have an opportunity to cut out the big packers.
I wrote about this some time ago.
With the internet all things are possible.
It is a tool and people should use it.
Especially if people want a better quality product.

Last time I shopped ground beef was $4.99 / lb.

3 to 4 something a pound here too.

My dad and a neighbor split and butchered a grass fed steer. Handy having a neighbor with well fed beeves. We used to run a few head when I was a teenager. They were a total pain in the neck, trees falling on fences, they’d get out. Stupid stuff like that all of the time. We had to feed them in the winter and they would trample you to get at the feed. Made a few steers out of them and that’s a pleasant procedure, not, to witness. Polled a few and got a liter of blood in my face when they sawed the horn too deep. Good times! Don’t like any livestock, horses are even worse, it’s not if they are going to hurt you, it’s when. All that stuff needs to be a passion and you have to know what you are doing to make it work.

Vegetables are a lot more tame and less likely to gore you or toss you off their backs.

@karstopography, yeah I used to have a horse. Horses are just accidents looking for a place to happen. It got to where I felt like I was working just to pay the never-ending vet bills and for fence repair!
We never raised beef, but my husband got a brilliant idea several years ago to get a few piglets. One would have been enough for us, but a couple of neighbors chipped in so we ended up with 3 to share. OMG and I thought the horse was bad. The ultimate incident that led that to be a once-in-a-lifetime event was when we were rounding them up to take to the butcher and one of them charged my husband, knocked him completely down and trampled him. We marked that one as ours and I laughed every time we had a pork dinner. Tasty revenge. But never ever again.
My DIL was telling me yesterday she heard there is a place not too far away that raises their own beef and you can order it to be cut however you want. We are going to go check it out soon.

we are fortunate to have some local sources for grass fed or mostly grass fed beef. we have purchased from mennonite farmers
burger for $3.00/lb. price went up $3.50 the last time we bought. the owner of the feed and seed raises cattle and sells burger
$5.00/lb. he sells me soup bones at cost 50 cents/lb. he is a good guy. he gave me a couple packages of beef short ribs for nothing,
and gave me a deal on some meaty bones. just finished off the last of the soup made from the meaty bones. mmmm mmmm good.
my wife keeps telling me we should raise a pig. i keep saying i'll probably get attached to it, start taking it for walks like the dog.

what we do raise is meat birds each year. we get about 25 cornish cross cockerels, feed them for 7 to 8 weeks, then send them to
freezer camp. the chickens get to be in the 7 to 8 lb range. good for a meal for three people for a couple days, then soup with the
left overs. any excess or troublesome roosters that hatch out from our laying hens also get added to the freezer or fed to the dog.


keith

It takes one whole rooster to make one thousand cans of Campbell's chicken noodle soup.

I went to the grocery store today and I saw the 93% ground beef that I would normally buy for $4.99/lb for $10.99/lb today.

Luckily we do not use much beef and I bought 4 packs a few weeks ago and that will probably last all summer.

I didn't think to check the price on steaks but I'll bet it was outrageous.

I could easily never eat beef again, or anything else they price gouge like that! The stuff can sit and rot in the store!

Yea, it’s nothing like that here. Maybe there are not as many sales as before, but a day or so ago I paid $5.15/ pound for organic grass fed 85/15 ground beef. Choice sirloin strips running $10 something a pound. I didn’t buy any, just happened to notice. That might be about a dollar or two over normal.

Pork still cheap, so is chicken. 1/2 a Boneless pork shoulder was $1.69/#. Boneless, skinless chicken breast, less than $2/#

This week our side of beef will be in the local locker being processed. After paying for the beef and the processing, cutting and wrapping we will be paying an average of about $5/lb. We know who raised and fed the animal and the locker people who are getting it ready for us. We all are happy with the way this is transpiring. Our local grocery store prices have not jumped as much as the rest of you are experiencing. Being close to the meat plants helps a little.