Thanks Annie for letting us know about this. I hadn’t heard
a word about this and I read a lot of news every day. Between this and the
avian flu in the chicken population in Tennessee we could be in store for high
prices and shortages.

Last summer we had a wild fire move so fast on the other
side of the lake it burned over 250 homes within 5 hours. It was so fast
people were literally running for their lives. We lost several people in the
fire. What was really sad was most of the places burned were older retired people
who had no insurance. We had convoys
from across the country, mostly churches, which overwhelmed our valley churches
with thousands of pounds of everything from bottled water to furniture. I don’t
think that area up will ever be the same. Some of the younger folks have rebuilt
but most of the people were just too old to start over even if they had the
funds to do so.

We donated to a fund set up for our local firemen, sheriffs
and CHP officers who lost homes. They were out trying to move people out knowing
that their own homes were burning.

I don’t much care for GoFundMe ill look on the facebook page
for an alternative.

Wow. That is not getting much press coverage. Sorry to hear that. Tragic.

I thought you were going to mention the Brazil scandal. meat scandal

We joined a local CSA...they call it something else that escapes me but similar. Much more accommodating than others in the past as you can choose, mix-n-match. And because many do not have large freezers it is divided in monthly or every three months delivered or pick-up. Expensive but we are eating so much less meat now. Smaller portions yet better quality. Packaging and labeling is excellent unlike another local farm i used a couple yrs ago. They cut the bacon too thick so i need to request un-cut. Only gripe.

I guess I won't be eating beef when I go to Brazil.

I heard about the Plains Fire on the news, but they did not talk about repercussions. I guess this means that my brother and nephew will be getting higher prices for their own beef. I never cook beef at home, although I do eat it occasionally in restaurants. So sad to hear about the devastation.

Partst, were you talking about the Erskine Fire at Lake Elsinore? Last night I watched an old Huell Howser show on PBS in which he visited Old Kern and New Kern, which I believe are on Lake Isabella on the Kern River - I don't know how far they are apart.

Yes lars it was the Erskine Fire it was devastating to this
valley. So many of the older people just had to move out. Still not much
rebuilding with all the newer building codes and the state clean up it will be
a long time before anything over there will look like normal. At one point we
had more fire personnel in the valley than we have population.

Old Kern, Kernville, is now under Lake Isabella, the town
was mover in 1953 when they built the dam. I’m on the top end of Lake Isabella
on the upper Kern River in Kernville also known as Whisky Flat. We have had our
share of fires over the years but nothing like that.

Boy, you weren't kidding Annie! I always was able to grab a pot roast or a rump roast for $1.99. In today's ad, rump is on sale for $3.69/# and pot roast is $2.89/#. Gulp.

My heart goes out to those caught in the fires. For me, nothing is scarry-er.

Read about the trucks of hay heading to the plains states because of what was destroyed by the fires but I really never gave a thought to the increase in beef prices. Mostly I was just feeling so sorry for the people. I still have a lot of meat in my freezer, but maybe I should keep an eye out for really good sales.

plllog, a lot of people don't really think about the wide ranging aspects of something like this, which is why it gets no media coverage.

Something like Hurricane Katrina or wildfires in California or Gatlinberg affect a lot of people immediately, and the tragedy cannot be ignored. Something like this can affect a lot of people later, but only a few now, and so the impact will be widespread but not immediate for most people. By the time we become aware of the impact, the time lapse is enough that some people don't even connect the two events, they just begin complaining about those darned farmers, overcharging people again.

Annie

Not me! I didn't say a word! My beef is already hella hexpensive.

Just had a friend text me from a place in Eastern Iowa....he said they have whole untrimmed beef tenderloins for $5 a pound...want me to bring you one?
I said "hell yes!".

Wow, LindaC, I'd have said "hell, yes, bring me TWO!"

Annie

A good bit of the general uptick in beef prices is increased demand for cattle to go onto spring pasture and not necessarily specific to the losses from the fires.

The last that I read about the fires is that somewhere around 2 million acres were affected. 2 million acres = 3125 square miles or an area about one-half the size of the largest county in Texas. Much of the pasture in the areas affected is native pasture/ range land where it requires 12-25 acres to support one cow. Also important to know is that the pasture will recover quickly (when it rains). When I lived in the area, controlled burns were pretty routine as a part of pasture land management (controlling cheatgrass & juniper/ native cedar).

Last growing season, a lot of the area received more moisture than usual so there was more abundant forage growth which provided more fodder for the fires.

Although devastating to those affected, this has not been a large scale disaster. A few thousand cattle were lost out of a beef cattle herd that counts in the millions.

Little mentioned is that thousands of hogs were lost in the fires, too. I've read of losses of pigs in at least three hog farms in western Oklahoma and one facility in the Texas panhandle. Yesterday I noticed that the bacon I buy had increased by 50 cents a pound.

I've read that some livestock sale barns in OK are conducting benefit auctions for the farmers & ranchers affected by the fire. No doubt this is happening all across the region.

Annie, I just meant that whatever you were reacting to, I didn't say it!

cilantro is right, there were other agricultural items lost besides cattle and range land/pasture. The pigs are one example, although that price doesn't stay up as long as beef does. I can raise a pig from birth to slaughter in about 6 months, that's between 240 and 280 pounds, which people feel is "ideal". So, a pig can have a couple of litters of piglets, 8-12 per litter, gestation is, according to the old folks "3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days". (grin) So, your one pig can become 24 pigs, with a dozen ready to slaughter, in a year.

If you breed a cow, gestation is 9 months, approximately like a human. They usually have a single calf, which will take about 18 months to come to 1000 pounds. That's equal to 4 of the pigs. So in one year you can get 3,000 pounds of pork on the hoof, but it takes 2 1/2 years to get 1,000 pounds of beef.

In addition to livestock and pasture, though, there were wheat fields and other crops. 656,000 acres burned in Kansas last week, and farmers are now out shooting their entire herds because they are too badly burned to survive or they're having respiratory issues because of the smoke. Because it's spring, many of those animals were ready to calve, so double those thousands already lost.

Of course, 4 companies produce 80% of the beef in America, so only the small farmers will actually be affected long term, the big companies can absorb the losses and not blink, but the little guys will just go bankrupt and try to figure out how to start over.

Meanwhile, I have a heifer in the barn having her first calf, so I've got to go check on that beef!

Annie