Pretty well jives with what a couple of my friends in the cattle industry are saying.
The meat packers are bottlenecked at the moment, for a variety of reasons. Cattle ranchers are getting beat because they still have to feed and maintain their herds, but the meat packers aren’t buying.
Some are selling direct to individuals, and small processing houses are handling the butchering.
All in all, I think it’s going to take awhile for that market to bounce back...but it will eventually. As it was pointed out before, the beef that was slated for restaurant industry is showing up in grocery stores, but once that run is dried up, I think beef prices will get pretty high if packers don’t get up to speed in a timely fashion.
Thankfully, we got out of the business of raising meat goats awhile back. I’m just leasing my property for grazing rights, but I’m concerned that might be in jeopardy, if the small timers decide the market will take too long to recover. There’s always the oil and gas market....oh wait....lol