When the people of California find out whatever pork that's available costs more, will they be so "hog wild" about the idea?
Are we going to go down the pricing rabbit hole? I've got some really cheap pork from China if that's the race we want to have. Humour aside, I'm a firm believer in supply and demand and if humane conditions ends up costing more at the supermarket, then so be it. But it sounds like them Iowan pigs didn't even make the effort to sell their hogs while the chicken and the cow people adjusted. I know evolution is painful when no one on the production side asks for it. When something works, there's little incentive to change. But change is inevitable, triggered by consumers, or technology or government, or plain old necessity. Making the world's cheapest meat production was a goal of the 50s, but today not only can we get meat cheaper from other countries, but we learned that cheaper is not better, it's not even good, and it can be really bad. It's high time our general meat production becomes more value oriented, like the Nieman Ranch de facto quality meat label in California. It would do us all some good to spend a little more and consume a little bit less meat anyway.
Ph1l and I were about to get on a funny back-and-forth with the quotes on the pig theme, and you broke up the mood. Stop being a cow, lol!
You've probably heard the expression "when pigs fly." A little closer to the ground ... Anyone for barbecue in the bayou?
Been a while since the Ag report had a contemporary blurb relevant to a wide enough audience here, but this week's blurb fits the bill. Interesting. --------------------- INFLATION RAISES ITS UGLY HEAD "Betting on higher prices in 2022 may not be enough. Even if those expectations are fulfilled, profitability may disappear in a haze of skyrocketing input costs. The traditional emphasis towards profitability has tended to focus of price, but in the new times, the input costs may overwhelm the price. Consumers are finding wage gains are running far behind inflationary burdens on living caused by sharp increases in the cost of all goods and services. Some examples: 1. Rental cars up 42% 2. Gas up 42% 3. Used cars up 24% 4. Hotels up 18% 5. TVs and furniture up 12% 6. Food up 10% 7. New cars up 8% 8. Electricity up 5% The profile for inflation in agriculture is worse. Nitrogen and Potassium have doubled. Phosphorus already had doubled. Gas and diesel have risen 50% and are still climbing. Natural gas has reached a 13 year high. Seed, equipment, crop applications, and repairs to equipment, are all sharp higher. This is not to mention the elephant in the room – labor that is largely unavailable, but when found, is extremely costly. Our government officials tell us the rise in prices is temporary and Covid induced. Common sense tells us otherwise. Printing money necessarily comes with attached cost and someone at the end of the line must pay. Too many people in the work force would prefer to take government handouts than go back to work. Young people are attracted to the easy life where government guaranteed loans are forgiven and benefit packages far exceed the wages from a regular job. Those budgeting pro-forma numbers for next year should be warned that price advances for ag products, even if achieved, may not leave a bottom-line favorable margin. The many sink holes for production costs may destroy any hope for profits. Beef producers are faced with rising cost of feed, medicine, transportation, and labor. The high cost of food will be front and center for the Biden administration to control. Beef has been a prime target. Officials have suggested consumers cut back on beef to control climate change. The administration has promised federal assistance to start up beef plants. Targeting help for small operations might pose a vulnerability when times change and those operations find it difficult to compete. There are policy directives that would help. The one area that would help moderate beef prices would be a change in ethanol blend rates yet the administration has failed to act. Supply chain bottlenecks could benefit from a cut back in administration benefit packages that would then send idle members of the workforce back to work driving trucks and filling other necessary jobs in the nation’s supply chains. One senses a lack of experience in matters of commerce in an administration more concerned with appearance than reality. Back home those operating in the real world will soon know that higher prices sometimes only deliver the illusion of an improved bottom line."