Did people stop eating meat?

[the big wheel]

Talking with the neighbor and the prices farmers are getting for their cattle and hogs in the tank yet at the grocery store going up?
They can’t keep feeding them for nothing on the verge of losing their herd. Agristability didn’t work again for them. Why isn’t this in the news? What’s going to happen when so many more are out of rhe business? We buy from them direct but they say on farm where they are with no local processor just doesn’t work not enough volume especially if the next guys do it also. Can’t someone come up with a processing plan of more smaller ones located throughout the province?

Wouldn’t that have been better money than irrigation?

[Blaithin]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-meat-sales-farms-regulations-1.5667783

Who knows if this will change much here. I know butchers that will allow sale of on site kills and ones that won’t. Hopefully now the ones that won’t, will as well, so there are more choices.

Not sure many farmers will go in for their butcher license. I would think they would still need inspected/approved facilities for handling on site. I can butcher chickens fine but not sure my chilling in cold water in a cleaned out water trough would be sufficient even if I was licensed Lol

[malleefarmer]

You guys ain’t allowed to farm kill your own stock for your own personal use? Not for sale or sharing with friends etc own use 100%

[Blaithin]

You guys ain’t allowed to farm kill your own stock for your own personal use? Not for sale or sharing with friends etc own use 100%

Yes, we can farm kill anything for ourselves. We aren’t allowed to sell it to others. It may even be as strict as milk and we aren’t allowed to give it away.

Works great for those of us with livestock. Less good for the strictly arable guys.

[jazz]

Maybe wheel didnt notice that Beyond Meat stock is up massively in the past 6 months even after its initial taste crash last yr.

The powers that be didnt let that company go out of business. An entirely inferior product that customers turned their noses on now here being pushed in our faces anyway.

[burnt]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-meat-sales-farms-regulations-1.5667783

Who knows if this will change much here. I know butchers that will allow sale of on site kills and ones that won’t. Hopefully now the ones that won’t, will as well, so there are more choices.

Not sure many farmers will go in for their butcher license. I would think they would still need inspected/approved facilities for handling on site. I can butcher chickens fine but not sure my chilling in cold water in a cleaned out water trough would be sufficient even if I was licensed Lol

Well it certainly would go over better if that danged grumpy bull wouldn't blow snot into it when he comes for a drink...

[Blaithin]

I’ve got goldfish in my trough. They love snot.

[Sheepwheat]

Yes. More butchers would be a real benefit. Lots of direct marketers are opening up their own abbatoirs. Our future plans probably include one of our own.

I’m not sure though how you get more ppl to jump at the art of butchery? Either you love it or not. Tax incentives? Equipment cost shares?

Direct sales absolutely boomed when Covid hit. Friend of mine tripled his sales of ground beef... If your’e on the right side of the sales counter, things can be pretty lucrative.

Great point and great questions.

[burnt]

Not sure that I want to get a butchering license at my age, but if Ontario would go this route, I am certain that it would be a big uptake.

It now costs around $700-$800 to get a beef processed in town - that was before our local butcher shop mysteriously burned a month or 2 ago.

My son got his heritage pork butchered there at the measly cost of 1700 bucks for 6 hogs. He lost 5 of the 6 in the fire, only one customer had picked his order up.

And our 2 sons that raise roasting chickens paid $7/bird last week to get their chickens processed at the nearest plant.

$7.00 to get a chicken butchered?? The plant does thousands in a day and you book your chickens in one year in advance.

I want to be wrong on this, but it appears that there are unfriendly interests embedded in government that are working to create an environment that makes livestock farming untenable.

They do not care if it takes a generation or 2 to reach their objective. Nihilism is ugly and determined.

[sumdumguy]

$7 to get chicken done? I can buy a chicken at Save On for $7. I used to pay $1/ bird at Weyburn to get chickens done. I took them home in a cold water tank. I thought $1 was rich. Tell me, how can a frozen turkey sell for $1/ lb when a day old costs $8?

[jamesb]

When the covid closures of the meat plants started , the shortcomings of our current meat processing system really became evident. Short term shortages in the store had lots of people filling freezers. For years we have bought local beef. Costs around $4.00 per pound cut and wrapped. It has been the case for years that the local abattoir is maxed out in processing capacity. There is less butchers around now than years past. Only a few want to do it. In my parts lots of guys are hamburgering whole beef and selling it local for a good prices very quickly for a good price. Sides of pork are around $2.50 per pound all in. Have a side of lamb for $175.00 cut and wrapped coming soon.
If there is true desire to source more local meats then the smaller processors can fill a demand.

[Sheepwheat]

Son pays 4 buck a chicken, daughter 10 buck a turkey. I thought those were fair prices.

It is rare to find someone who enjoys butchering poultry! I kind of like it. The first ten maybe... lol

[dalek]

Even the Amish charge $5/chicken here under the table. Local abbatoirs are booking beef/pork/lamb this week for next May.

[TSIPP]

When this Covid lockdown first started a lot of people were scared we would run out of food, all I told them was nobody will starve in Saskatchewan as we export approximately 90 percent of our food, just might have to change our diets a little.

[Sheepwheat]

We are fortunate to have a young very good butcher nearby. I booked lambs yesterday for next week. It is rare that we have to wait more than two weeks to book.

Very fortunate.