Beef, milk and probably other meat prices
 

Just heard that milk and beef prices will be going way up. The reason is a lot of things sort of happening at once. Of course, this will mean cheese and other meat prices will rise as well.

The supply of dairy cows is at a 5 year low due to the price of milk last year being too low, a lot of farmers weren't making money, or were losing money, so they reduced their herd size. Then Mad Cow came along and we stopped importing cows from Canada, so no new herd growth. Of course, demand has gone up and the result is... more demand than supply so prepare to bleed from the wallet for awhile. The good news is, the farmers who stuck around are going to rack it in!

I'm sure the price of pork and chicken will go up as people who used to eat beef will switch to other meats.

The Mad Cow scare also caused Japan to quit buying our beef, and from what I last read, there are some processing plants here in dire trouble because of this. I think in essence, we exported more to Japan than we imported from Canada, which should at this point be causing a surplus of beef here. I honestly don't understand why we need to import beef from Canada if we're selling beef to Japan. How about let's just eat our own meat? :rolleyes:

On the same note, the farmer who owns the dairy where my hubby works is also into beef cattle heavily. I'm not sure if his profits are up or down on them--I'd like to find out. He did just move a pretty good-sized herd of yearlings out.

And yes, milk prices right now are out of sight! The dairy's getting $15/hundred weight, which is up from $11/hundred weight just a few months ago. I'm sure everyone's noticed butter prices lately! I have no clue how many pounds of butter I bought last summer when it was around $1.50/pound, but last I checked, I still have 8 pounds in the freezer! LOL I'm not saying it isn't true, but I haven't heard a lot about dairies decreasing herd-size, and locally there's always something in the paper about someone looking for permits to start new dairies. I do know my hubby's work place increased their herd by one/third last year.

I wish I'd had that kind of foresight! I only recently figured out I could freeze butter.

LOL Nancy! I was raised on an acreage with our own milk cow. We froze milk and butter for when our cow was dry during gestation. It made the milk sort of funny to drink but was fine for cooking so we didn't have to buy as much milk.

When I used to get milk from the dairy (since stopped because of all of the e coli and mastitis in the milk), I'd take the cream and freeze it then later on make butter out of that and freeze it too. Unfortunately, this dairy isn't exactly the cleanest in the area. The owner should be sorely ashamed. I know it disgusts hubby something fierce.

I have noticed the rising costs as well - my plan? Buy in huge family packs, and freeze in individual baggies. This weekend I did exactly that - I bought a ton of chicken, beef, pork etc, and I figure I will be good for a month or so. When prices get like that, the best solution is buying on sale, and buying big. I learned that a long time ago when living in the Arctic - we didn't always get fresh fruits/veggies or a lot of meats inteh winter, so rule of thumb in our house was to can/freeze anything that could be.

I was estatic the day I learned I could freeze skim milk. Although nowadays, I don't drink it any more. So... what else freezes? Cream? Half and Half?

Nancy, my half-and-half container says you can freeze it. I really don't recommend it, though, unless you have a good homogenization device. ;) As I said, I froze cream for making butter. Part of the reason I did this was that the cream came from those lousy holstein cows, so a gallon of milk only had about a cup of cream. I'd put it into a quart jar, then stick it in the freezer, then the next gallon I'd skim and repeat the process until the jar was full.

The great thing about freezing before making butter was that by the time it thawed, the heavy, super-thick cream was on the top, with a lot of the liquid in the bottom. This is why I don't think it'd be a good idea to freeze half-and-half.

TeresaMay, it's the only way to shop! :) I was raised by a mother who hated grocery shopping and there were times when we went only about every other month. We raised a lot of our own food, and if she needed something like lettuce or milk she'd have my dad stop at the store on his way home from work. I shop monthly except for produce, which I usually pick up every two weeks. And when something's on sale I always buy extra. Generally speaking we have enough non-fresh foods we could pretty much last a month in this house without ever going to a store if we really had to. ;)

Lila...I never use half and half....or cream for that matter...in tea or coffee. But my mom froze half and half for years.

Not sure what brand she bought (probably the store brand), but it looked fine and she said it tasted fine. She said she'd let it thaw in the refridge, and give it a good shaking before first use, then a little shake each time you use it.