Impending, possible meat shortages

Shepherd said:
Here is what my cousin, a truck driver, told me is going on.
With the extra $600.00 a week in unemployment, he can make $1,105.00 a week on unemployment.
Now add the normal expense of running his rig, which is parked in his driveway. Now add the cost of his rent/mortgage which he is not paying do to Federal Relief.
He "makes" more money sitting at home unemployed than driving. As a result food is not being picked up and delivered.

Is this caused by a "cabal of evil" as you call it.
IMHO: Yes.
Just another ploy by the Socialists\One Worlders\Globalists who are trying to destroy the country.
But then, I'm a hardcore constitutional conservative conspiracy nut.
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Hard to separate the politics since politics created it, but from a purely economic standpoint, paying people to do nothing, is a disaster for anything other than a very very short time for the initial emergency.
 
Matthew said:
They are both very, very lean pieces and will cook very quickly.

I like to aim for a pull off temp of 137F - that's pretty low, but it will rise to a good finish temp of around 145. Since that's a pretty low temp to pull, make sure to check the temps in several areas before you pull it.

The loin may have a very slight rosy center, but it will NOT be dry by any means.

Tenderloin seems to work best with a quick sear - either at the beginning or the end (reverse sear) to give it a little crusty flavor to the outside. It will also be moist.

Both can be cooked in a smoker with rub, but they won't be in long enough to develop a bark. They will absorb smoke flavor, but not very much because they cook so quicly. At 225, expect a rough time of 45 min on the tenderloin and 90 minutes on the loin.
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Edit:

Oh, yeah - and when the loin reaches 137 and you are going to pull it off, but then get distracted because the brisket is about finished, and there's a basketball game on the TV, and your beer is nearly empty, and then you remember to pull the loin but by then it's 185? Throw it away and start over.
 
denverpilot said:
Hard to separate the politics since politics created it, but from a purely economic standpoint, paying people to do nothing, is a disaster for anything other than a very very short time for the initial emergency.
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Oh yes, a certain high-ranking politician has suggested that "it's time" to do that for everyone. I'll stop there and drop the line of comment lest this thread, too, get locked.
 
Shepherd said:
Here is what my cousin, a truck driver, told me is going on.
With the extra $600.00 a week in unemployment, he can make $1,105.00 a week on unemployment.
Now add the normal expense of running his rig, which is parked in his driveway. Now add the cost of his rent/mortgage which he is not paying do to Federal Relief.
He "makes" more money sitting at home unemployed than driving. As a result food is not being picked up and delivered.

Is this caused by a "cabal of evil" as you call it.
IMHO: Yes.
Just another ploy by the Socialists\One Worlders\Globalists who are trying to destroy the country.
But then, I'm a hardcore constitutional conservative conspiracy nut.
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Not sure how you got there from what I wrote. I agree that paying key people more (like truck drivers), more to not work is a lousy idea.
 
James_Dean said:
Yes it is. My company alone has culled 5,000,000 egg laying hens.
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@James_Dean is that just to slow down production because you don't have enough staff to gather them all each day?

It's unfortunate that there isn't a way to solve these supply chain disconnects we're seeing. There's stores limiting egg purchases due to high demand while you're having to kill off egg layers. :(

James_Dean said:
I don't like POA for all the silly people who think they have an opinion when they should just STFU and learn.
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I'm thankful you're here (and Gaston's :)) to learn from! I've enjoyed listening to what you've shared. Very enlightening.

Sorry all for the tinkling match, but this is the most stressful time in my career, and I'm ****ing ****ed.
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Like Ted and Bill, I was shocked when I read this because I remember the avian flu, and the deep freeze, and some of the other major issues you've had to deal with.

AKiss20 said:
This may be an opportunity for people also to consider trying out reducing their meat consumption a little. Not suggesting everyone jump to vegetarianism overnight, but experiment cutting out meat from one meal or even a day of the week or two. It really isn't very hard and can have beneficial effects on both health, the environment, and even the pocket book.
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I've found that doing Asian-style noodle + meat type dishes, or tacos, is a great way to have great meat flavor while reducing the actual intake of meat. Had some "hot honey Chicken tacos" tonight that were really delicious. Probably had four ounces of chicken total.

I am not at all sad about this revelation. I freaking love tacos, and they're a great way to have great taste while eating healthier.

PaulS said:
I usually keep enough meat for a week, I'll probably stick with that, maybe buy some shotgun shells, there are always 10 or 20 deer nearby, although I've never hunted before, seem like it would be easy when they are always walking right by.
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I've never hunted either, despite it being extremely popular in my home state of Wisconsin - Both of my parents grew up out East - My mom was mostly a city kid and moved to Wisconsin in middle school, my dad grew up on a farm and moved to Wisconsin for grad school, so neither was ever into hunting.

There is enough meat walking through my yard every week to keep my extended family fed for a year. I could hardly call it "hunting" though. Even if I turn out to be a terrible shot, I bet I could get a deer a week without any trouble at all. As long as the Internet stays up so I can learn how to dress it on YouTube, I'll be good. ;)

Chip Sylverne said:
How was it government or management, at the first hint of this pandemic, didn't think to start taking workers temperatures on the way in the door at the start of every shift. How is it food security wasn't even a consideration.
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Well... There were some minor pandemics during the previous administration, which caused them to put some mechanisms into place to deal with such things if they were bigger... But then the power changed hands to someone whose entire MO appears to consist of undoing what the previous guy did regardless of whether it was a good idea or not.

RJM62 said:
They had plenty when I was there Sunday. I also suspect that they have a pretty redundant supply chain because of Walmart's size (where they have a huge advantage over Costco and BJ's).
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Interesting... I recently bought a 6.5 pound bag of chicken from Wal-Mart, but Costco has been completely out of chicken for a month. They do seem to have plenty of fish and beef, though.

James_Dean said:
We have 1500 team members and 60 something locations. The policy changes and procedure development have been constant. Forgive me if this isn't all 100% stated perfectly -

We implemented a $2/hr bonus for all people at facilities in states with shelter in place policies.

Keeping people away if they are at all ill, while removing any fear of economic consequences has bee challenging. We suspended our attendance policy. If you want to stay home voluntarily you can use your PTO. After PTO runs out you either need to produce a doctors not(which you can get through our tele-doc program) or just continue to stay home. If you elect to stay home you would not be terminated, but would be eligible for unemployment under CARES. If you get the doc note for cause we provide pay for two weeks and they you are eligible for our short term disability program. If you get COVID or are quarantined, you first use your PTO and then we continue straight time pay until you can return to work.

We implemented a pre-work wellness check and questionnaire with a temperature check.

We slowed lines down where appropriate and implemented distancing procedures. Those included additional break spaces, physical barriers between work stations, adding additional automation, and crew rotation schedules. Masks are required.

We use backpack electrostatic sanitizer applicators in all plant work spaces on regular intervals.

About 724 other things that I'm leaving out for brevity. All of these things need to have procedures written, checked by legal, cost analysis done, supplies ordered, and approval by regulators. It all takes time, and money. The cost for all the above is easily in the millions.

So far we have only had one positive case. However, due to the nature of the timing it caused us to put 36 other people in quarantine from work for 14 days. 36 people who were gathering eggs after we had a devastating fire last week. We now have testing available and are trying to figure out how to best deploy it. We have both PCR and Elisa which will allow us to group our team members into one of four catagories -

1. Not shedding, and never been exposed. Can be at work, but high risk.
2. Currently shedding, but no detectable antibodies. Early stage infection. Best to quarantine for 14 days.
3. Currently shedding, and detected antibodies. Later state infection. Might be able to return to work with mask per CDC guidelines
4. Not currently shedding, and detected antibodies. Was infected and now healthy. Clear to be at work.

All while remembering that the birds have to be fed and the eggs gathered every day. No exceptions.


This is all easier said than done. It's not rocket surgery, but it ain't easy either.
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Thanks for getting it done. There are all too many people out there looking for someone to blame instead of doing something productive, but the world moves thanks to people like you.

Hang 4 said:
I've worked with many of the larger agribusiness companies, at the highest level of leadership, and have yet to find a plot for world domination. What I have found is people who are very committed to feeding billions of people using the least amount of land, fertilizer and pesticides possible. The yield of an acre of modern farmland is orders of magnitude higher than it used to be. Less water, less land for the same amount of food. This one is a virtuous circle, not an evil one. Everyone wins, abundant food at lower cost to the consumer. @James_Dean, keep doing what you are doing, and ignore Art Rose.
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Absolutely. I got to do some analytics projects in the poultry (meat) industry. One of the most astounding measures was what they call "Feed Conversion Ratio". That is, how many pounds of feed do you have to give a bird over the course of its life to end up with a pound of chicken?

Along with speed of growth, disease resistance, etc the FCR is one of the main measures they breed for. At the time they started doing this, the FCR was around 8:1.

Now? An astounding one point four. So, it only takes 7 pounds of feed and an egg to make a 5-pound chicken. Crazy!

My dad was a dairy science professor, and IIRC the amount of milk they can get from a single cow went up roughly an order of magnitude over the course of his career. Selective breeding, engineering optimum feeds, and changing practices to keep the animals as healthy as possible is what allows this. While "factory farms" are often the ones funding the research, any family farm can take advantage of the increases in knowledge if they choose to pay attention, provided it isn't something that requires heavy investment in equipment (for example, methane recovery systems to fuel farm vehicles from cow emissions).

Shepherd said:
Here is what my cousin, a truck driver, told me is going on.
With the extra $600.00 a week in unemployment, he can make $1,105.00 a week on unemployment.
Now add the normal expense of running his rig, which is parked in his driveway.
Click to expand...

Um... Your friend is making below-average company driver wages as an owner-operator? Sounds to me like he might be the cause of his problem, not the result of someone else's.

That is a significant amount of income for doing nothing, though, so hopefully he's using it as an opportunity to better himself rather than just sitting around and watching TV.
 
Anecdotally, there is no meat shortage at the neighborhood Safeway. In fact pork chops were on sale, so I bought 4. But this is vegan country. No shortage of produce either, though, and I saw them putting out cartons of eggs. TP (Kleenex brand) was being sold in individual rolls, no limit. There were at least 100 rolls on the shelf. I haven't been to Safeway in a couple weeks, and this was my most "normal" shopping experience since lockdown. No line, people not seemingly afraid of each other...
 
Ryanb said:
Am I the weird one for actually liking my steak mostly well done? A little pink is fine, but I prefer it cooked through.
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I prefer slightly warmed over and still mooing. With gogonzola butter.
 
As long as we’re sharing anecdotes - two days ago the meat case at the regular grocery store was technically not empty, but it could not have been more than 5% full. Your choice of stew beef, flank steak, chub and singles of some cuts. There was a single fryer chicken in the poultry case. The butcher case was empty.
 
I went to my local Sams and my local supermarket yesterday. Sams had plenty of beef and chicken, but you were limited to buying one of each. My supermarket had plenty of beef, but almost no chicken. I did not see any signs limiting what you can buy, but I didn't look that close cause I didn't need meat.

My wife and I just put a deposit on a side of beef. We were thinking of doing it anyway, but we figured it would be a good idea in case the meat shortage gets worse.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Well... There were some minor pandemics during the previous administration, which caused them to put some mechanisms into place to deal with such things if they were bigger... But then the power changed hands to someone whose entire MO appears to consist of undoing what the previous guy did regardless of whether it was a good idea or not.
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You were doing so well until you just HAD to say this.
But don't worry. I'm not reporting it. Nor will I comment on it.
 
Plenty of meat at both Publix and Kroger near us. Kroger even had the boneless skinless chicken breasts on sale for $1.99/lb; cheap for Atlanta. The butcher’s case has been empty since right after this COVID mess started.

Kroger did have a limit on 2 packs of the chicken on sale, but they were big ~5 lb packages. I just bought one.

An odd thing is frozen vegetables have been selling out recently. My wife was at the store last week and said some woman was loading up a cart with frozen vegetables. She was waiting, giving social distancing spacing, but finally decided that woman just might get them all, so my wife stepped up and got one package of corn and one of peas.

It still seems like if you don’t get there in the morning you can’t get any TP. What are people needing so much TP for?

I’m hoping the insanity ends soon, but there seems to be too many lemmings for that. :(
 
James_Dean said:
3. Currently shedding, and detected antibodies. Later state infection. Might be able to return to work with mask per CDC guidelines
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Thanks for sharing the data and methods. I certainly prefer it over the majority of articles quoting random people or less random but speaking beyond their knowledge. This number #3 though surprises me. Actively shedding but only a mask is required to return to work. Is there detail that the transmission is well understood now?
 
Listening to CBC Radio Wednesday AM.
Cargill plant in High River Shut down. 700 workers furloughed.
JBS Plant in Brooks Alberta shut down. Between the 2 they process 60% of slaughtered Canadian Cattle.
Quite a bit of the meat is exported to the US through the Sweet Grass Port of entry.
Feed lots have no place to go with fats for now.
Possible opening again next week.
Google Alberta Meat Packers.
These two plants are the hot spots for the covoid virus in Alberta.
 
Obviously the shelf loads right now don't exactly disprove the idea of a coming shortage, but the meat section at the supermarket was as full as I have ever seen it in our 3 months of living here, today. That being said, I try to make most of my meat purchases at the local family meat farm just down the road. This is exactly when you want a place like that, family owned and in business for 110 years, to stay that way. Oh yeah, passed by the Costco visiting the mainland this afternoon......million mile long COVID gathering line at the entrance. No thanks.
 
Sam's Club PIREP, 03 May 2020

There were tons and tons of meat at Sam's Club (Kingston, NY), but a limit of one per item. The "items" were somewhat larger than usual, however. One also could buy as many "items" as one wanted. Different cuts were packaged in enough different ways that you could walk out with a cart full of fresh meat "items" if that's what you wanted to do. I just bought enough to top off my freezer (maybe 15 or 20 pounds).

Oddly enough, I didn't notice any fresh ground beef. They usually have fresh ground beef between 90 - 95 percent lean for a bit over $3.00 / pound. I didn't notice any today, but I wasn't really looking for it. Maybe they just had it in a different cooler than usual.

I did notice the organic (?) ground beef in the pre-packaged squares. I forget exactly what's special about it other than the price. I think they play Mozart to the steers while slaughtering them. Or something along those lines. Some hippie ****.

There was no shortage of frozen meat and poultry (hamburger patties, meat balls, frozen chicken, etc.) and no limits. They were especially well-stocked in their own Member's Mark brand of frozen meats and poultry. Most Member's Mark stuff I've tried has been decent, from blue jeans to olive oil.

There also was no shortage and no limits on deli meats or packaged meats (bacon, hot dogs, and so forth). Again, they were fully-stocked in their own club brand, but also had most of the national-brand stuff in stock.

Eggs and dairy (except for cheese) were low in stock and had limits. Cheese seemed normal and had no limits.

Rich
 
The interesting thing is, I’d wager that under normal conditions, there’s actually a pretty significant meat surplus. The amount of meat that gets thrown away at a given supermarket or goes to waste is probably a lot higher than many people realize.

I always think, if the stupid media would quit broadcasting that there’s a shortage of this or that, which only sends people into a tizzy, than there probably wouldn’t be much of a shortage at all.
 
The grocery store that I go to has plenty of meat. Chicken, sausage, steak, etc. Just buy some spam if you run low!
 
Ryanb said:
The interesting thing is, I’d wager that under normal conditions, there’s actually a pretty significant meat surplus. The amount of meat that gets thrown away at a given supermarket or goes to waste is probably a lot higher than many people realize.

I always think, if the stupid media would quit broadcasting that there’s a shortage of this or that, which only sends people into a tizzy, than there probably wouldn’t be much of a shortage at all.
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Then they would get accused of a coverup!
 
I’m figuring to hit Sam’s either Tue or Wed afternoon for a brisket and a couple pork butts. It’s been almost a month since I’ve been inside, interested in seeing what it’s going to look like.
 
Matthew said:
I’m figuring to hit Sam’s either Tue or Wed afternoon for a brisket and a couple pork butts. It’s been almost a month since I’ve been inside, interested in seeing what it’s going to look like.
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I imagine it's regionally different, but the Kingston, NY club hasn't seemed that different than usual except for the masks and the limits. But as I mentioned, the package sizes were larger and more varied than usual (with the different variants having different SKU numbers, so they were different "items"); so it really wasn't a big deal.

Sam's Club has definitely been the best bet in terms of meat availability around here. I'll buy from farmers when I can, but they tend to slaughter irregularly. Sam's Club, so far, has never been without meat.

Rich
 
I just went grocery shopping today. I was going to go through sams but as I pulled up there was a line outside and someone waving people in one at a time. As they say, ain't nobody got time for that! So, I went to the regular grocery store. Didn't seem like there were shortages of anything. I did notice there weren't any particularly good deals on any of the meat though which is a little odd, usually you can find at least one bargain item.

What I'm thinking is if there is a shortage down the line, I live in a rural area. People have pigs, people have cattle, people have chickens. We have independent butchers and farmers selling directly to the public. It's not an uncommon practice for people to go half and half on a whole cow or pig and have one of the butcher shops package it up. Failing that this is deer hunting central and a lot of us have the tools and the knowledge to do our own critter butchering. Prices might get a little high, blah blah blah... point is we'll figure it out.
 
Went to Costco Monday night, meat cases totally cleaned out. Not one package of chicken, beef, or pork to be found.
 
Bill Jennings said:
Went to Costco Monday night, meat cases totally cleaned out. Not one package of chicken, beef, or pork to be found.
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Aurora, CO ( ‘burb of Denver) also cleaned out of all the above except the lamb and a small amount of pork butt or roast, not sure which.

I like lamb!

Talked to one of the butchers...they got cleaned out over the weekend, new shipment due on Thursday.
 
I had about a 30 minute drive this morning. About half the "news" time on the radio was devoted to the meat shortage. It almost made me want to head to the store and buy whatever I could find.
 
I stopped at my Sam's yesterday afternoon for meat. Will be firing up the smoker on Saturday and needed to load up.

Their meat section:

They had brisket. Not very many, and they were on the small side (10-12 lb vs 15-17 lb). It may be they had been picked over and these were all that were left. Normally, I'd ask one of the meat guys if they had a case or two they could break open for me to look through, but they looked too busy so I left them alone and got a nice 10 pounder.

They had plenty of pork butts. They also had been picked through, but there were still a lot to choose from. For years Sam's sold them as twin packs, then a year ago they started selling them as singles (all cryovac). Yesterday I noticed they were twin packed again, so I wonder if they changed suppliers. The butts were big (insert joke here). Normally I'm used to seeing 7-8 lb each, or about 15-16 lb per twin pack. Yesterday I got a 20 lb twin pack, that's about the largest I've ever seen. All the butts in the case were approx that size so either the normal sized packs had already sold or their supplier was butchering larger hogs.

They had lots of pork loins.

They had lots of beef roasts and steaks.

They did not have any ground beef, chickens or chicken parts.
 
I must be the only person who has never bought anything at a Costco or Sam's. I've only been to Costco a few times, when I went with someone else who was a member and wanted to go.
 
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