2021 Western Drought

[ovrszd]

$2.40 + .50 processing.

Wow, your processing is dirt cheap!!!!

P.S. Oh wait, when I quote a price per pound it's total cost divided by the pounds of packaged beef in the freezer. Sometimes that get confusing. For example if you paid $2.40 p/lb for a hanging carcass that only produced about 65% packaged meat you actually paid more than $2.40.

Not saying that's the deal here. Just clarifying, I divide total cost by pounds of packaged meat in the freezer.

 

[ponytug]

Funny, as a kid I remember the yearly steer going into the butcher costing more per pound than after processing because of the value of the hide, bones and tallow. It didn't make sense to me then. That sure isn't the case in my neck of the woods today.

Local cow/calf operations are already gathering and selling steers now, instead of the more usual May/June. Not much growing hereabouts.

All the best,

Peter

 

[jyoutz]

If every quarter acre or larger lot in Temperate, non-Arid suburbia had a small vegetable garden the need for irrigation water would be drastically reduced.

Only during a few months a year. CA is the leading producer of fruits and vegetables because they can grow things during the winter months.

 

[jyoutz]

Wow, your processing is dirt cheap!!!!

P.S. Oh wait, when I quote a price per pound it's total cost divided by the pounds of packaged beef in the freezer. Sometimes that get confusing. For example if you paid $2.40 p/lb for a hanging carcass that only produced about 65% packaged meat you actually paid more than $2.40.

Not saying that's the deal here. Just clarifying, I divide total cost by pounds of packaged meat in the freezer.

That is the correct way to calculate meat costs.

 

[jyoutz]

Places wh

Over our dead bodies. People who want to live in the desert get to figure out how to survive without water, not how to steal it from more sensible areas to live.

Places where it’s too cold to grow vegetables most of the year.

 

[deezler]

Places where it’s too cold to grow vegetables most of the year.

?

We grow our vegetables just fine thanks. You know, in the summer time? Otherwise known as the growing season. I do need to build a root cellar and get better at canning, though.

 

[jyoutz]

?

We grow our vegetables just fine thanks. You know, in the summer time? Otherwise known as the growing season. I do need to build a root cellar and get better at canning, though.

I do too, but fresh salads and other veggies and fruits are nice in the winter. That’s why CA along with a few other southwestern states and Mexico supply the grocery produce in the winter.

 

[ponytug]

I do too, but fresh salads and other veggies and fruits are nice in the winter. That’s why CA along with a few other southwestern states and Mexico supply the grocery produce in the winter.

Water exports in different forms, ditto alfalfa and grains.

Aerofarms, VerticalFarms and others may change that dynamic.

But, like land, clean water is a limited resource, and getting more so. I was reading recently about a spill from a metal plating company that put PFAS (perfluorinated, "forever" chemical) into a river in the Midwest that manage to end food fishing for 70-100 miles downstream in the river and local lakes. Not at all clear how long it will take to be diluted enough to be clean "enough" for eating again. Very sad.

All the best,

Peter

 

[deezler]

Yeah, it would be a shock

But, like land, clean water is a limited resource, and getting more so. I was reading recently about a spill from a metal plating company that put PFAS (perfluorinated, "forever" chemical) into a river in the Midwest that manage to end food fishing for 70-100 miles downstream in the river and local lakes. Not at all clear how long it will take to be diluted enough to be clean "enough" for eating again. Very sad.

Our biggest river in southeast Michigan, the Huron, has this problem - maybe that's what you saw.

A metal plating company was simply discharging their old plating bath solutions to the sewer. Nothing accidental, just flagrant dumping of known forever carcinogens down the drain. The local city sewer treatment plant couldn't handle or trap anywhere close to that, so they were then discharging it right into the river. The city of ann arbor pulls their drinking water from the river. Concentrations are low, but how low is safe? I don't want to drink a single molecule of that crap, but hundreds of thousands of people do, every day. We know better, and yet, nothing is being done. The company got a minor slap on the wrist and continued business as usual.

If you live near any airport, dont trust the ground water or municipal drinking water (if pulled locally from wells or rivers) - firefighting practice with foam. If you live near a firefighting training center. If you live near a metal plating company. If you live near a landfill. I could go on. We've ruined the land and water, and continue to do it. Makes me irate.

Part of why I only trust my own private well water. But I should run a few purity tests on it again here.

 

[ponytug]

@deezler, yes it was the Huron river, and that's where the link went. Ann Arbor would likely be better off recycling their water rather than drawing it all from the Huron, but that's a purely private view based on old, old data.

You are spot on for the risk to groundwater around airports and old military bases. Since it really doesn't degrade, all they do is spread, and accumulate in organisms like us.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Funny, as a kid I remember the yearly steer going into the butcher costing more per pound than after processing because of the value of the hide, bones and tallow. It didn't make sense to me then. That sure isn't the case in my neck of the woods today.

Local cow/calf operations are already gathering and selling steers now, instead of the more usual May/June. Not much growing hereabouts.

All the best,

Peter

Interesting. The last market report I saw there are a record number of cows on feed right now. It puzzled me, because I couldn't figure out where the stockers were coming from. It sounds like ranchers in your area are clearing out their herds in anticipation of a short feed summer.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I do too, but fresh salads and other veggies and fruits are nice in the winter. That’s why CA along with a few other southwestern states and Mexico supply the grocery produce in the winter.

Some from the southern hemisphere. Peru and New Zealand are big sources of fresh produce in the US. Nobody alive can remember when only greenhouse vegetables were available in the winter in most of the US and Canada.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Just read an article, saying the FDA was outlawing the eating of meat, effective in 2024; the reason being that it is unsustainable due to the fact that farm animals are the largest source of greenhouse gasses, i.e. Methane.

I was fuming; with the political climate I thought it was genuine, turns out it was an April Fools joke.

 

[deezler]

True, Larry.

I do see a lot of our winter tomatoes in Michigan come across the border from Southern ontario. The greenhouse concentration in some parts is crazy.

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

goo.gl

 

[Larry Caldwell]

There are a lot of huge greenhouse operations just across the border in BC too.

 

[jyoutz]

Some from the southern hemisphere. Peru and New Zealand are big sources of fresh produce in the US. Nobody alive can remember when only greenhouse vegetables were available in the winter in most of the US and Canada.

They must go to other regional markets. Where I live, all fresh winter veggies are labeled either CA, AZ, TX, or Mexico, with occasional items from Chile and Ecuador.