$5 a barrel oil

[fiver]

it wasn't too long ago that if you bought two hogs for slaughter you had to be right there when they loaded them or you'd walk out to your truck and find 6-7 pigs in it.
doesn't stop the in store price from being stupid high though.
other things influence those prices as much or more than the auction price.

 

[RBHarter]

I guess I don't understand why there's a food glut .....oil I get but we gotta eat whether it's at home or on the road .

 

[RicinYakima]

RB, Food glut is regional, here in the PNW, beef is plentiful, pork moderate, chicken hard to find other than frozen. Same with fish, if frozen last year available, nothing fresh. We are a long way from pork houses and transportation costs and availability mean not much gets this far.

 

[RBHarter]

I keep seeing all over , which probably means it happened on 1 farm and is being milked for all they can get out of it , that theyre dumping milk and turning in early fields . We're in sort of a regional hub area where meat should be cheap and seasonal seafood ......

No real shorts but no surplus discounting either . Kills me to pay some of the prices .
Meat on the hoof needs to eat but it doesn't go bad and it'll make more ,if it's grazing it costs less to keep ...... Of course 10% is a lot on 25000 of anything and I get that too .

 

[Petrol & Powder]

The economy is suffering across the board. Now is not a good time to be in the business of selling anything.
People are not working and therefore not buying.

 

[Brad]

Pork producers said much is due to change in restaurants. Seems that 70% of all bacon eaten in US is at restaurants. I bet many pork products are similar.

 

[Petrol & Powder]

The saying, "A rising tide lifts all boats" is just as true in reverse. A shrinking economy harms everyone.

It's not just oil or pork or houses, or anything else. When people are not earning money they don't have money to spend.

It is a fools game to attempt to single out any particular segment of the economy.

The economy was strong before this mess hit and hopefully we will be able to restart that robust economy, but it is going to leave a scar no matter what happens.

 

[StrawHat]

Here in Ohio dairy farmers are pouring out milk because no facility wants it. Schools are a big consumer of dairy and they are closed. Many, if not most, restaurants are closed or curtailed.

A large facility is talking to the dairyman about buying it to make into cottage cheese. It will keep longer than milk and the producer intends to donate it to food pantrys.

Kevin

 

[Ian]

I'm with RB. I don't get the food thing. People here have been buying meat and diary by the 6-8 18-wheeler loads per day for two months out of two grocery stores and I don't have a clue how much walmart has been selling. They had to limit milk to two items per family per day and still are running through a truckload as fast as the vendors can hump it into the coolers and be out in an hour or less until the next truck arrived. I do understand schools and restaurants and contracts and fixed markets and logistics and regional production variances, but our local food stores didn't take but a few days to write some fresh contracts for brands of milk I've never heard of and go fetch it here (they have their own fleet of thousands of trucks) just as soon as the panicking started. So the kids aren't in school....did they quite eating? We have dire shortages and massive gluts going on at the same time and it don't make any sense to me.

 

[RicinYakima]

Ian, I am sorry to say that kids aren't being fed the same quality of food at home as they were at school. Here kids are eating rice, beans and tortilla's at least twice a day. We have a glut of milk and fruit at the moment because it is coming up from the south of the US. The only other stuff they are getting is prepackaged stuff. Full time agricultural workers are working 12 hour days and kids are by themselves here. Sorry to say but that is the way it is here. Ric

 

[Brad]

Packing plants are set up to package food for restaurants, schools, etc. The change to individual sales takes time. Also the restaurants are large purchases, as are schools. Takes a whole bunch of families to buy what one diner would use in a week.

 

[Petrol & Powder]

And don’t forget the assortment of shot glasses won at the nickel toss at the county fair!

I'm with RB. I don't get the food thing. People here have been buying meat and diary by the 6-8 18-wheeler loads per day for two months out of two grocery stores and I don't have a clue how much walmart has been selling. They had to limit milk to two items per family per day and still are running through a truckload as fast as the vendors can hump it into the coolers and be out in an hour or less until the next truck arrived. I do understand schools and restaurants and contracts and fixed markets and logistics and regional production variances, but our local food stores didn't take but a few days to write some fresh contracts for brands of milk I've never heard of and go fetch it here (they have their own fleet of thousands of trucks) just as soon as the panicking started. So the kids aren't in school....did they quite eating? We have dire shortages and massive gluts going on at the same time and it don't make any sense to me.

People didn't stop eating, .....they stopped buying expensive food.

The panic buying is over, the pantries are full and the bank accounts are NOT.

So I don't know what is confusing you but the economy is driven by consumers and the consumers are out of MONEY.

 

[Petrol & Powder]

PEOPLE ARE NOT WORKING AND THEY ARE NOT GETTING PAID.

All of that rush a few weeks ago to buy toilet paper, canned food, meat........whatever; is now over. People are now looking at reduced or NO income and sellers have gasoline, milk, pork, whatever - AND NO BUYERS.

There is no mystery here folks, we need to get our economy going again.

 

[JonB]

I often wondered how deflation could actually happen...Now I know.

 

[Tomme boy]

We have a HUGE new Ocar Meyer plant that just opened. The old one was costing too much to run and had to be shut down every year when it flooded real bad. They get most of their beef straight across the river in Joslin Illinois. I have a friend that is in the medical team at the Joslin plant. He says they are going as fast as they can. They are not turning away any trucks. Going to talk to a few pig farmers this weekend to see about getting a pig or two. One is right next to the old ladies parents farm.