This is supposed to be the worst drought in decades. How much will this affect grain prices in the near and semi distant future? Should I buy a few sacks of base grains sooner than later?
That is a good point and maybe a good plan. I just heard something about the expected jump in corn prices but I’m not sure how that translates to grain. If you brew enough and have some extra space it couldn’t hurt to have a few sacks of grain laying around.
From a source at Sierra Nevada in regard to the drought…
“Sucks for brewers as the barley crop is doing really well this year but a bunch of that is going to be siphoned off for animal feed and raise malt prices when they should have stayed low this year…”
[quote=“Denny”]From a source at Sierra Nevada in regard to the drought…
“Sucks for brewers as the barley crop is doing really well this year but a bunch of that is going to be siphoned off for animal feed and raise malt prices when they should have stayed low this year…”[/quote]
That is kind of what I was figuring…
damn cows, taking my grain.
We need to eat more cows sooner then later.
[quote=“vanwolfhausen”]We need to eat more cows sooner then later.[/quote]If we ate fewer cows we could brew cheaper beer.
Or if cows weren’t force fed grain to fatten up and allowed to eat what’s natural to them (vegetation) we wouldn’t be in this predicament.
Grass fed cow. Yumm!
[quote=“dsidab81”]Or if cows weren’t force fed grain to fatten up and allowed to eat what’s natural to them (vegetation) we wouldn’t be in this predicament.[/quote]We never FORCE fed our cattle; they actually preferred corn.
The only solution is beer fed beef. We can give them all the BMC beer and we will have the good beer and burgers to go with.
Please accept my apology if this is off topic. It’s all related. The few farmers left around here are going to be dumping animals into the market now because it will be too expensive to feed tham this winter. Beef prices could double by Feb. Most grains(wheat, barley, oats) are an earlier crop and have been harvested. No second cut of hay, corn crop crap, soy beans just as bad equals higher prices for everyone. I’d buy grain now if you have a way of storing it properly.
My father raises a couple steers each year to slaughter and I always buy a half. The processer said that you can count on beef prices doubling, maybe even more as the ranchers aren’t raising as much due to high costs to feed… have also heard this on numerous tv stations… Buy beef now too if you can!
Raising cattle on grass produces more greenhouse gas (mostly methane) and requires cutting down more forest to make room for the pasture. So in the long term we might just end up with more droughts that way, thus putting ourselves in this predicament more frequently.
My solution is that I only eat beef once or twice a year.
Just gives me an excuse to hunt more.
Yuck!
Raising cattle on grass produces more greenhouse gas (mostly methane) and requires cutting down more forest to make room for the pasture. So in the long term we might just end up with more droughts that way, thus putting ourselves in this predicament more frequently.[/quote]
I think you are a little mislead there. Pastures are predominately on land that is unable to produce crops due to terrain, soil type, rock encropments, etc.
I would rather eat a salad than a “grass fed” beef. Shoe leather has about the same texture as a calf fed grass only. I have had to butcher animals that have been fed only grass before they got to the finishing lot due to injury. They don’t even make decent hamburger, there is very little fat or marbling.
The seasons are cyclical and its the time for the drought due to La Nina. When we are in an El Nino we have more rain in the grainbelt.
Also, as said before, beef will go up HUGE by next year as the breeding herd is being sold off due to lack of feed out west. The calves that we would normally be receiving in October are already being shipped to us since there is no hay or grass to graze on. The ranchers are then culling out most of their herds and they are being slaughtered now. It may be 4-5 years before we get back to the herd size that we had this spring.
