Politics

[rookhawk]

As a random cattle topic, I learned an interesting thing from the local dairymen. If you run a large dairy, you have data to show milk yields per cow on the dairy farm these days. You definitely do not want to make more low-yield dairy cows, but you also don’t want to throw away a mediocre yield cow needlessly.

For years now, they’ve had sexed semen so you can extend the dairy yield while ensuring that you can produce angusXholstein steers as offspring from your poorest performing dairy cows.

They are now doing HolsteinXweygu steers which I’m eager to try. Waygu is far too rich to eat as a side of beef, but a tough old Holstein DNA mixed with a tiny 800lb Waygu would probably be the best eating 1200lb steer money could buy. I’m eager to try a side of beef from this cross, a perfect solution to the dairy industry while also giving justification as to why an ungraded steer should be worth $7 a pound hanging.

Anyone tried a dairyXwaygu steer yet?

 

[Ray B]

When I was in the wholesale meat business we processed three breeds as beef breeds: Angus, Black WhiteFace, & Herefords. BWF were cross Angus/Hereford. Meat was very similar between them but the fat was different. Angus was opaque off-white. BWF was opaque white. Hereford was translucent white. It was interesting because all three types came from the same feedlot. The killfloor also suffered through the occasional lot of Holsteins- gangly tall things with thin hides that were difficult to separate from the carcass.

 

[Russ16]

With just about every retailer charging a 3% transaction fee it can add up and makes me mad to have to use a CC for a small purchase. I like to show cashiers the phrase on the bills “ good for all debts public and private” then I walk out without buying anything pretty often.

None of my retailers charge a transaction fee. I always have a few hundred bucks in my wallet just in case but I will carry the same cash for months on end. I use the card because it earns me airline points that I use. I’ve don’t the math and I come out ahead.

 

[spike.t]

Russian submarines looking dangerous...unlike their surface fleet

https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/russian-nuclear-attack-sub-strike-arctic

 

[spike.t]

When I was in the wholesale meat business we processed three breeds as beef breeds: Angus, Black WhiteFace, & Herefords. BWF were cross Angus/Hereford. Meat was very similar between them but the fat was different. Angus was opaque off-white. BWF was opaque white. Hereford was translucent white. It was interesting because all three types came from the same feedlot. The killfloor also suffered through the occasional lot of Holsteins- gangly tall things with thin hides that were difficult to separate from the carcass.

This sounds like a nasty bug.....any idea on implications on usa beef herd?...Read somewhere it was at its lowest numbers in years

US plans to fight flesh-eating screwworm outbreak with flies and dogs

The insect, which has been found in America for the first time since 1966, is a growing concern in the southern US.

www.bbc.com

 

[Altitude sickness]

Doubling the supply takes 4 years, minimum. The problem is beef is like tobacco…if you price it too high for too long without an ample supply, people lose their addiction.

I like a steak as much as any man, but I will never pay $7 for ground beef. It isn’t that good. Pork and chicken at $1 a pound is a better value. The real danger is when beef outprices lobster, crab, and lamb which it has. Luxury food is cheaper than beef!

A collapse will come. The only thing keeping beef special is its timeline to rebuild herd numbers.

In my area, they are so overrun with hay they throw it away moldy in round bales after three years. There is less need for hay than there are animals to feed it.

This week I bought prime brisket at Sam’s Club for $4.88lb. Yet the local market demands $7 for ungraded ground beef and an average of $9 a pound for a side of beef. It’s a terribly overpriced, low quality product. The math doesn’t math at all.

I started a rambling post on the beef supply and where the margins are at. My Son in Law farms and also has, depending on time of year 100 ish cow calf pairs. So 100-200 head. He does his own Artificial Insemination and egg flushing. And runs a bull for mop up duty.

He has an established customer base and doesn’t gouge them. But the producers costs have skyrocketed since Covid. He sells directly to the consumer. And uses a small family owned slaughter and packing facility which helps with his margins.

AI gives a good breakdown on each segment of the beef market. So your “beef” with high prices is the processor’s and retailers. As often is the case the producers have huge costs and lowers margins.

“In the conventional beef supply chain, retailers generally capture the largest overall gross margin per dollar spent by the consumer, while slaughterhouses (packers) extract the largest net profit margins. Growers take on the highest production costs, though their share of the final profit fluctuates.
A breakdown of who holds the leverage and profits in the industry reveals the following:

1. Slaughterhouses (Packers)

• The Structure: The slaughter segment is an oligopoly controlled by "The Big Four" (Cargill, Tyson, JBS, and National Beef), which process roughly 85% of US grain-fed cattle. [1, 2]
• The Profits: Because of their concentrated market power, processors buy live cattle from growers at lower prices and sell wholesale beef at higher prices. During market bottlenecks, they can generate massive net margins.[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

2. Retailers

• The Structure: Supermarkets, large grocery chains, and food service operators.
• The Profits: Retailers typically maintain steady margins. Because they dictate final consumer prices, their gross profit in dollars from a single steer is often the highest in the chain, as they pass along overhead and labor costs.

3. The Grower (Ranchers & Feedlots)

• The Structure: Cow-calf operators and backgrounders raise calves, which are then finished in feedlots before going to slaughter.
• The Profits: Growers assume the most significant risks, including volatile feed costs, weather, and healthcare. Although producers' farm-level share of the retail dollar can spike, growers have the least control over final pricing and generally experience the narrowest profit margins.

Note: Growers who bypass the traditional supply chain to sell direct-to-consumer bypass the slaughter and retail middlemen, retaining the highest possible margins for their product, but they assume the processing and marketing costs themselves. [1, 2, 3]

 

[Accidental Villain]

Russian submarines looking dangerous...unlike their surface fleet

https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/russian-nuclear-attack-sub-strike-arctic

Holy heck...yeah.. Just look at most of their Black sea fleet, conveniently converted into submarines..
Guess its all part of bunker Vlads 3 day special military op plans..

 

[spike.t]

Fk me even the Libyans are pissed off with illegals.....

Hundreds protest in Libya outside UN agency against undocumented migrants

Protesters accuse the UN of settling undocumented migrants in the country, a claim the agency rejects.

www.aljazeera.com

 

[WAB]

Atrazine rate on sorghum

 

[WAB]

Sorry guys. Googling and AH’ng at the same time. Corn is sprayed, soon time to hit the sorghum.

 

[skydiver386]

Seems like the gravy train ran off the tracks with Wayne and his buddies.

Ex-NRA chief Wayne LaPierre loses appeal of $4 million corruption penalty

A Manhattan jury in 2024 found that LaPierre spent NRA donor funds on designer Italian suits, private flights and insider contracts.

courthousenews.com

I haven't been an NRA member for years specifically because of Wayne and the NRA leadership. I may join again in the future, but for now other gun rights organizations get my support.

 

[Tbitty]

Seems like the gravy train ran off the tracks with Wayne and his buddies.

https://courthousenews.com/

I haven't been an NRA member for years specifically because of Wayne and the NRA leadership. I may join again in the future, but for now other gun rights organizations get my support.

Do you have a link to an article? That link juat goes to a homepage

 

[skydiver386]

Do you have a link to an article? That link juat goes to a homepage

There, fixed it.

 

[PARA45]

Seems like the gravy train ran off the tracks with Wayne and his buddies.

Ex-NRA chief Wayne LaPierre loses appeal of $4 million corruption penalty

A Manhattan jury in 2024 found that LaPierre spent NRA donor funds on designer Italian suits, private flights and insider contracts.

courthousenews.com

I haven't been an NRA member for years specifically because of Wayne and the NRA leadership. I may join again in the future, but for now other gun rights organizations get my support.

I've been a life member for a long time. But I'm done giving them anymore $$, not until this sh*tshow is fixed and they (NRA) get back on track.

 

[Hunt anything]

I've been a life member for a long time. But I'm done giving them anymore $$, not until this sh*tshow is fixed and they (NRA) get back on track.

I’ve also been a life member for years, I will give them absolutely nothing any more. Their flyers and mailers go straight in the trash.

 

[Aaron N]

As a random cattle topic, I learned an interesting thing from the local dairymen. If you run a large dairy, you have data to show milk yields per cow on the dairy farm these days. You definitely do not want to make more low-yield dairy cows, but you also don’t want to throw away a mediocre yield cow needlessly.

For years now, they’ve had sexed semen so you can extend the dairy yield while ensuring that you can produce angusXholstein steers as offspring from your poorest performing dairy cows.

They are now doing HolsteinXweygu steers which I’m eager to try. Waygu is far too rich to eat as a side of beef, but a tough old Holstein DNA mixed with a tiny 800lb Waygu would probably be the best eating 1200lb steer money could buy. I’m eager to try a side of beef from this cross, a perfect solution to the dairy industry while also giving justification as to why an ungraded steer should be worth $7 a pound hanging.

Anyone tried a dairyXwaygu steer yet?

Me neighbour down the road has a dairy and produces waygu Holsteins. We bought half a beef this winter, and I was surprised how well a Holstein could be finished. But I wasn’t about to pay the premium for waygu though.

 

[deewayne2003]

This sounds like a nasty bug.....any idea on implications on usa beef herd?...Read somewhere it was at its lowest numbers in years

US plans to fight flesh-eating screwworm outbreak with flies and dogs

The insect, which has been found in America for the first time since 1966, is a growing concern in the southern US.

www.bbc.com

I’ve given several lectures about the New World Screw Worm.

What makes the NWSW so nasty is they attack living tissue and lay their larvae; the best way to combat it is by releasing sterile males that break the breading cycle.

Problem is these sterile males have slightly smaller wings and natural selection takes over and their not as effective as they once were.

The last known outbreak on USA soil was on an island in the Florida Keys… they had to release millions of sterile flys to get it under control.

The NWSW is within 150mi of the Texas border and that’s why we have all beef imports from Mexico shut down; hence the sky high beef prices and when the prices are high people will sell and thus the record low herds follow record high prices.

 

[AJ Peacock]

My cousins raise Black Angus and Waygu / Black Angus-Waygu mixes. We get a steer every other year. The 1/2-1/2 cross I believe is called F1. I prefer the Black Angus taste over the F1 cross. The marbling is marginally better in the F1, but the taste of his Black Angus is unbelievable. We won't get a cross again. He DNA tests every calf that his the ground (and has for many years), so he can build a better herd. I drive 2000+ miles round trip every other year to get the meat in Colorado.

AJ

 

[deewayne2003]

As a random cattle topic, I learned an interesting thing from the local dairymen. If you run a large dairy, you have data to show milk yields per cow on the dairy farm these days. You definitely do not want to make more low-yield dairy cows, but you also don’t want to throw away a mediocre yield cow needlessly.

For years now, they’ve had sexed semen so you can extend the dairy yield while ensuring that you can produce angusXholstein steers as offspring from your poorest performing dairy cows.

They are now doing HolsteinXweygu steers which I’m eager to try. Waygu is far too rich to eat as a side of beef, but a tough old Holstein DNA mixed with a tiny 800lb Waygu would probably be the best eating 1200lb steer money could buy. I’m eager to try a side of beef from this cross, a perfect solution to the dairy industry while also giving justification as to why an ungraded steer should be worth $7 a pound hanging.

Anyone tried a dairyXwaygu steer yet?

Holstein actually has some of the best marbled ribeyes of any breed, problem is these consumer doesn’t want a 6oz ribeye.

I’d like to get my hands on the Holstein Wagyu cross as I’m sure it will be amazing.

I have a buddy with a Wagyu operation and often receive meat to cook at charity fundraisers; the Wagyu is different to cook with 20% less cooking time on the briskets due to fat content.

 

[Altitude sickness]

A few of my Son In Laws cattle. And a few of mine out on pasture. They get fed hay, corn silage and corn during the winter months. And the taste is noticeably better than Walmart type meat.

It’s always entertaining hearing first timers, eating small producer beef compared to feedlot and the big 4 processors quality.

Save yourself money and find a local “small producer” it helps him. And your taste buds and wallet will thank you. Make sure it’s handled and processed correctly and you will be a happy shopper and eater.