My wife said she saw something on the news that indicated there was a meat shortage or would soon be one. Anyone hear anything or can you report about your markets?
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I watched one that said because of the Dakota plant, other plants are all doing a super clean and sanitize... So it's more of a timeout to clean than a "meat shortage"...it'll be ok.My wife said she saw something on the news that indicated there was a meat shortage or would soon be one. Anyone hear anything or can you report about your markets?
This is what I've heard.I watched one that said because of the Dakota plant, other plants are all doing a super clean and sanitize... So it's more of a timeout to clean than a "meat shortage"...it'll be ok.
This is what I've heard.
I got my cow from my father and have a freezer that's pretty darn full. I'm guessing it will last us another 4-5 months easily. Worst case we go out back and butcher another?
Then of course just minutes after reading this thread, I come across this on the interwebs - https://finance.yahoo.com/news/meat-supply-threats-grow-first-181155792.htmlMy wife said she saw something on the news that indicated there was a meat shortage or would soon be one. Anyone hear anything or can you report about your markets?
You are correct. There are already at least three pork slaughter plants shutdown due to C-19.There are multiple factors involved. Supply chains for commercial/institutional products are different from those for consumer products. Often in different plants with different processing lines and different packaging and shipping. Toilet paper shortages aren't all because of hoarding - people are also using more at home and less at work/school/businesses. Before now your average household wouldn't consider buying an 80-roll case of toilet paper or a giant-sized roll like those for school/work restroom dispensers. Can you imagine most home cooks with a #10 can of anything? Most also wouldn't buy a whole beef strip - they want it already sliced and neatly under plastic wrap in a foam tray the way nature intended. They also aren't going to buy a 10-gallon bag of milk used in a school cafeteria. You get the idea... And switching plants from commercial to consumer sizes isn't simple - they just aren't setup that way.
When supply chains are described as being efficient, that often refers to getting a product where it needs to be and when it's needed. Usually just in time for expected demands (emphasis on expected) and with timing that's carefully choreographed. That also means there isn't a lot of extra product in the pipeline - you don't have 2 month's supply of (fill in the blank) sitting in warehouses and freezers just hanging around waiting to ship to supermarkets. So when schools stop ordering bulk milk (because cafeterias aren't open) and consumers buy more half-gallon cartons and gallon jugs (because everyone is at home), you wind up with today's irony of dairy farmers dumping milk they can't ship while many store shelves look sparse.
Meat processing brings another set of challenges. Workers are often in very close quarters with each other, and relatively limited use of personal protective equipment to avoid sharing diseases (eg, masks don't work when they get wet). Many processing plants have become COVID-19 hotspots. In some cases, the main method to increase production is to speed up the line, which usually means more people in the same amount of space and can lead to more injuries among workers. Farms also aren't setup to hold animals beyond a certain timeframe. So there's a story last week that millions of chickens in Delaware and Maryland will be killed and never go to market ("depopulated") because of slowdowns and shutdowns at processing plants.
I don't write this to make people nervous. More to acknowledge that a lot of us are seeing (some of us for the first time) just how fragile supply and distribution chains can truly be. We'll get through this, but consumers and producers alike will need to be flexible and adapt.
From what I gather, some of it's to clean, some of it's to add some protections (eg. Plexiglas dividers, handwash stations, etc), some of it's because workers are already sick or plain afraid to risk exposure in close quarters.You are correct. There are already at least three pork slaughter plants shutdown due to C-19.
Time out to super clean? Well yeah I guess...
Not sure why but my 2 local supermarkets are pretty low on meat and have been for a while but the smaller grocery store with a private butcher is still fully stocked. Maybe different supplier. I have a commercial upright freezer I bought a few years ago from a restaurant that was going out of business. Price was good, moving it was a chore. It's pretty full but that doesn't address where we go from here.My wife said she saw something on the news that indicated there was a meat shortage or would soon be one. Anyone hear anything or can you report about your markets?