Just another Day on the Farm

On a typical feed store run, we double time it out with DH’s drive back from work as it does not make alot of sense to do a extra drive for it, same with the other feed store we use in a different direction, we tend to do that trip every second week and we try and do everything in the town that needs to be done on that day.

This means that I only tend to get to that feed store and see the rising costs there but as DH is having well deserved family time and I am holding down the fort as they say, I was the lucky duck that did all the buying this week and wow, let me tell ya, the prices are going crazy!  I dug out a recipt from last year, and the very same bag of feed that cost 12.99 at the same store last year is currently 20.99

Then in my typically round of basic daily news reading, I came across not one but two articles talking about the coming rising costs of meat, and a sort of tongue in cheek post about the looming coming shortage of bacon..

Now I get the humor, I really do, the fact that the media took the rising higher feed prices that mean that all “sizes” of farmers, tiny, small, med and large scale are all being effected and that they are selling off their animals in record numbers, which means that right now, the market point in fact has a huge glut of animals coming into the processing lines but I have doubt just how much that will be passed on in saving to the current buyers.

What it does mean right now is that folks are selling off their animals at a younger age so they don’t have to carry them over the winter and the related feed costs that come with that, and it also means that some folks are choosing to sell of a portion of their mature herds, therefor reducing the amount of offspring that will be born and raised next year..

That my folks is a double wham, by selling this years “stocker” yearlings early, they won’t be in the sale barns next year, and by reducing the amount of babies born, they won’t be in the sale barns either..

I am feeling the effect in a number of ways, not only in the fact that the feed costs are going up and they really are, but also in the fact that all over Kijji is sheep farmers that are really undercutting the market in costs, I cringed a little last month when I saw the prices come out, they were between 2 or 3 dollars less per pd.. That’s just a plain ouch, remember we had to start feeding hay in July this year along with the pasture.. that means that we are having four months of extra feed costs, even if the prices stayed the same as last year..

But this week, I just started and did a double take, there are local sheep flock owners that are now offering prices as low as 6.50 less per pd then last years average, they are basicly looking to get the same as what they would at the sale barn, which is low at the moment..

The whole point of farm gate sales is that we are cutting out the middle man, the person buying the meat, meets the farmer, has the contact of how and where the animals are treated etc, but it also is to mean that we are able to get more value for our products..

This selling of farm gate prices as low as the sale barn prices, he added in an extra 50 cents per pd to cover his butcher costs is a loss in all ways for that farmer, I guess you can say that its a really good buy for anyone who wants fill the freezer at dirt cheap prices but honestly this farmer is not only not making money, he is pissed!

Clearly he thinks he is being smart, and I guess he is in a way, he is getting the same as a sale barn price, he is getting butcher costs covered and he moving his flock but until his flock sells, there is little to no hope for any of the rest of us to sell or move our own lambs..

Now thankfully I have a waiting list for a number of my lambs but what do I do about the price, do I in a year that I paid hundred of dollars extra to raise them to their finish weight over a normal year, then cut the price? I am leaning heavy towards keeping it at the same price as last year and seeing if anyone wants to “challange” the price.

Back to the main thought though, are you planning on reducing your own protein on a daily or weekly base, are you looking to add in more eggs, or dairy to keep up your proteins, or are you looking at going more for veggie protein sources,  Been learning lots of new rice and bean recipes lately?

Or will we choose to eat less? I know that is a odd thought but I think that is where I am coming down, I don’t know if I want to eat less meat, I raise my own so on a normal year, I really do have a major buffer compared to the average person and I am working on a multi-level plan to make sure we are able to have a well-round diet and ways to low our own feed bills..

Having said that, one of the things that we have been talking about is, just eating less overall, or to be more fair eating less at certian times of the year, clearly at certain times of the year with the glut in our gardens, we are good to have enough of XX as you can possablity eat, a good example right now, want fresh tomato’s o boy, help yourself.

In the spring, want to eat fresh eggs every morning, go for it, the spring laying glut is huge! but what about the rest of the year, we have touched on eating with the season’s at times on the blog and many a post has been on how to save/perserve/store that food for future use..

Do you think that we could just reduce by 5% or 10% or up to 20% of what we typically eat at each meal, there are so many ways to make this happen, we could easily reach that goal of using 10% less food by

a) Reducing the waste that happens in our fridges and freezers?

b) Reducing the amount cooked, and or learning how to be creative in using that 10% of leftovers in the next meals.

c) Reducing the amount of food served on the plate itself, this could include measuring, or using smaller plates, or smaller bowls etc, instead of our supersized dinner wear, go back and looks at your Great or Grandma’s dish set, and see just how much smaller the dinner plates are , the soup bowls or the little dessert dishes..  (by the way I really blame alot of the dinner out for this idea that we should be supersizing our meals) but self-serving at the table is also part of the issue, Dh and I are huge on serving up in the kitchen and then eating in the dining room, this really does help in not having seconds, plus I have gotten to the point that I typically do my best (other then soups/stews/potatos) to only make three meals at a time, one each for supper and one for Dh’s take to work lunch.

d) Figure out how to use that leftover food that you didn’t eat can be used to increase your own ability to either grow your own food (compost) or can be used to reduce your own critter costs, be that figuring out the calories and helping feed your hounds/purrpots, chickens, or raising your own bacon.

For town folks that can do it, I will recommend the backyard chickens, they can eat darn near most anything you would have leftover on your plates, and if you just went but not meat scraps, you have never seen farm hens fighting over a mouse, and while a number of things don’t work so well if you are wanting to serve them raw, just throw it into a bag and into the freezer, then give it a simmer and serve it up as a cooked mush and they will jump all over it.

So let me know what is your plan to deal with the current and coming rising costs of meat?