What in the Sweet Baby Jesus is going on? Meat prices.

[in. pred]

local joint, tbones 5.99 sales, ribeye 8.99, roasts 5.49. maybe i better stock up.

 

[JckDanls 07]

local joint, tbones 5.99 sales, ribeye 8.99, roasts 5.49. maybe i better stock up.

I would at those prices ...

 

[SmokinEdge]

I haven’t payed less than 2-2.50lb for pork butt for a while now.

 

[DougE]

I haven’t payed less than 2-2.50lb for pork butt for a while now.

I like my home made sausages, but these current pork prices are kinda cutting into my sausage production some. While maybe not in the same league as what I make, I can buy pretty good sausages already made. No work involved other than cooking. Something has to give with these prices.

 

[hoity toit]

Looking at the "Sale" ads and am seeing ribeye $20.99/lb Sirloin $12.99/lb. Have i been in a cave or is everyone seeing these rates

I await deer season and plan to fill all my tags this year.

 

[tallbm]

I await deer season and plan to fill all my tags this year.

I'm glad my freezer is pretty well stocked. Only taking 2 deer this year vs the 3-4 I normally take.

I will be really tempted to take a 3rd animal if a good 200-225lbs feral hog shows it's face. I normally like them a little smaller but if I'm only going to grab one I want it to have more yield to it for the work I put into processing it. Plus I grind it all anyhow so no need to worry about older tougher meat.

Feral pork tastes amazing!!!


On a side note. My local Tom Thumb (owned by Albertsons these days) was running a weekly digital ad coupon for a discount on 2 pound blocks of cheese, unlimited quantity. The store had 10 blocks of colby jack that had 50% stickers on them. The deals stacked so I got em and wound up paying $1.34/lb. I got all 10 blocks for a total of 20 pounds of nice good block cheese! Into the freezer they went! hahahhaha


A few months back a similar deal happened and it caused me to buy this:

Amazon.com: Norpro Stainless Steel Potato Grater, 1-Pack, Silver: Coarse Grater: Home & Kitchen

Online Shopping for Kitchen Utensils & Gadgets from a great selection at everyday low prices. Free 2-day Shipping with Amazon Prime.

www.amazon.com

I wanted a cheese grater that did BIG shreds but would lay flat in my drawer. This thing is made for potatoes and completely delivers on shredding blocks of cheese. I am very pleased with it to get that big rustic shredded cheese :D


I'm all set for a few months of cheese again :D

 

[cptnding]

While I think hatched-egg-to-slaughtered-chicken is under a year.

I worked for several years at a company that supplied the poultry industry. The majority of chickens are slaughtered at 6 weeks old. Roasters at 10-12.

 

[thirdeye]

Just looked at a picture of chuck roast I bought at Sam’s in 2020 at 3.49 a lb now 9.97 a lb almost triple in 5 years.

My Sam's has Chuck Roll in the walk-in for restaurants that grind their own burger. You just have to ask. These are in the 10# range and boneless so easy to portion or grind yourself.

I worked for several years at a company that supplied the poultry industry. The majority of chickens are slaughtered at 6 weeks old. Roasters at 10-12.

Modern science...

 

[schlotz]

I would love to go back into cattle because I used to love raising them but just can't afford to get back into it and I would have to run such a large heard to be "comfortable" and even though we still have a lot of the land it isn't enough without renting and the land prices are getting absolutely ridiculous. Just can't live on 65-100 head of mature cattle with a family of 4 anymore. How some think they can get into it after watching too much TV is beyond me. I even still have the hay mower and rakes plus tractors that are good enough, just need to get a new to me hay baler.
one upside is we can kind of take off whenever we want and not have to worry about animals besides the hunting dogs. I still get to help our pasture renter with his cattle so is some ways I get my fix without the risk.

No question it's a lot of work not to mention the requirements including land to sustain a herd large enough to provide an acceptable income plus the additional acreage to provide enough hay. There does appear to be a workable niche though, at least in this area. The daughter & husband plus their 3 young children run a very successful Wagyu herd (all purebred/fullblood). Financially they are very astute when it comes to their total costs vs profit. After a certain period they ship their yet to be processed heads to a large site for final feeding out and then processing. This allows their land to maintain a year around breeding base and hay production which they supplement with the 11 acres we have here for hay. They sell direct via a few well established year around Saturday morning markets in the area. Business is very good, they have a number of repeating customers. She's says they've found that people are willing to pay a bit more for luxury steak than high grocery priced subpar beef. Yeah, definitely is niche market but they've found a solution that works.

BTW: you definitely need to know what you are buying because just the label of 'Wagyu' does guarantee much.

Wagyu - know what you are buying

Our daughter & her husband are in the business. They are continually educating potential customers regarding Wagyu and how it can vary. Instead of resurrecting an old 2021 thread where I posted this as a comment. Here is some Wagyu information that is good to know before reaching for the wallet...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

 

[dls1]

Brazil, Mexico , Australia, New Zealand are the biggest importers on beef along with Canada.

Question is, why do we need to import what we can clearly raise or produce here. This is where politics come to play. That is a big part of the problem. And it’s not one side or the other, it’s both of them over time.

In the past,Canada and Mexico have historically been dominant suppliers of beef to the US, largely due to their geographic proximity and the complementary nature of their cattle and beef industries. They've also benefited from the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), though I don't know what the status of that agreement is with the ever changing tariffs.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the type of beef these 5 countries are exporting to the US, which, for the most part is trimmings for the production of ground beef. Brazil is an exception in that their exports to the US are mostly whole cuts.

And, as you mentioned, politics can play a roll in the issue as we've seen with the recent 50% tariffs placed on Brazilian beef.The tariffs were not based on economic issues but were politically motivated, in response to what the current US administration called the "politically motivated persecution" of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who attempted 2 coup d’ etats following his defeat in Brazil’s 2022 Presidential election. He was indicted in 2024, found guilty of all charges, and convicted in late July of this year. On 8/6/2025, the US put a 50% tariff on many Brazilian imports

The 50% tariff was also imposed in addition to an existing 26.4% tariff on imported Brazilian beef, bringing the total tariff on Brazilian beef to 76.4%. While hundreds of exemptions were made for other goods, beef was not excluded and was among the items most heavily impacted.

 

[normanaj]

St.Louis ribs $2.99/lb and top round roasts $4.99/lb.Around here that's cheap and I went big this morning.

Matter of fact one of those top rounds is going to get smoked tomorrow for roast beef sammies to bring into the track Sunday.

 

[chopsaw]

St.Louis ribs $2.99/lb and top round roasts $4.99/lb.Around here that's cheap and I went big this morning.

That's a good price for both . Top round makes great roast beef . I just bought a bottom round flat subprimal and broke it down . Paid $5.19 . A week later they were $5.69 . Checked just now as I'm sitting here , $5.39 . Never used to move that much in a short amount of time .
I'd be all over $4.99 .

 

[normanaj]

So I had to go back to the grocery store as I forgot a couple of things before we head up to the track tomorrow. I happened to notice that Perdue roasters were on sale for $1.69/lb and thought to myself what the hell kind of sale is that but I took a closer look and noticed many were incorrectly marked at .69/lb. We have a lot of chicken in the house.

 

[Up_In_Smoke]

Not meat, but 2 weeks ago Kroger Honeycrisp apples were $5/lb.
Yesterday they are $8/lb.

Highway robbery.

 

[in. pred]

1.49# honey crisps here last week.

 

[Up_In_Smoke]

We just stopped at Walmart and their Honeycrisp was $1.77/lb.

 

[normanaj]

.99/lb at the orchard here.

 

[Brokenhandle]

If you all were closer you could have as many honey crisp apples as you wanted for free. Our tree is loaded... so much that two of the branches broke .

Ryan

 

[sandyut]

Not meat, but 2 weeks ago Kroger Honeycrisp apples were $5/lb.
Yesterday they are $8/lb.

Highway robbery.

Trader Joes sells Cosmic Crisp apples for $1 each. Kroger come out about the same.

 

[sandyut]

local joint, tbones 5.99 sales, ribeye 8.99, roasts 5.49. maybe i better stock up.

Where do you live? I would buy them out at that price.