About a year and a half ago I remember making a post here about how expensive weener calfs had gotten. (The last one we bought in the fall of 2022 was around $1200 when they had historically been in the $700-$800 range. Lately, they are going for over $1500 at our local sale barn). I noticed this weekend the MSM is finally getting around to reporting on it.
https://www.theblaze.com/news/cattle...l-prices-spike
If you did not take my advice then and find an alternate source for beef outside the grocery store channels, you might want to rethink that strategy now. The latest is the USDA is going to enact a new "regulation" requiring all cattle to be RFID chipped. This "regulation" does not require any type of action from Congress. It is simply a directive from our betters on-high. They are claiming it is for traceability. I.E. If there were some kind of disease outbreak, they want to be able to track the animal to the exact ranch it came from. But they can already do that now, without a chip.
It seems to me, the two REAL reasons they want it are:
1 - To be able to electronically track vaccination records. Think shooting the animal full of mRNA dope.
2 - To gain a more accurate count of exactly how many animals each ranch is producing so they can begin forcing ranchers to reduce their herd sizes for global warming.
So... If you have not done it already, now is definitely the time to start forming a relationship with your local cattle rancher so you can buy un-vaxed and un-chipped steers for cash. Every rancher I know always has 20-30 cows they keep aside and do not sell the offspring through the sale barn. These calfs are "off the books" and do not get shot full of the normal dope the USDA requires to be sold to feedlots.
Also, it will be helpful to find a local butcher who will process the animal without requiring the normal paperwork from a Brand Inspector. They will usually require some kind of document to cover their ass so they know you are not rustling the animal. But at least around here, a hand-written bill of sale is good enough.
Just a suggestion...
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Originally Posted by Piratesailor
