The cost of everything is always going to go up. Nothing is ever going to get more affordable. That's the trouble with perpetuating a fabricated economy based on infinite growth.

The absolute best thing you can do is purchase livestock yourself and either raise it on your own property or (more likely for most folks) lease from a friendly farmer. You know how it's raised, you know what it eats, you choose how it's slaughtered & butchered and it costs you dimes on the pound compared to purchasing from a grocer.

As for deli meats, having known a VP who worked at Schneider's for 43 years and now Maple Leaf for 6.... i wouldn't touch that stuff with your gut.

Maybe some of the cattle farmers out there can verify.

I was told by a farmer in the Waterloo Kitchener area that there is a shortage of meat and that prices are going up now.

I have noticed this over the last year in the stores and hate to see what it will go up to.

Outside of hunting and purchasing in bulk not sure what to do about deli meat....

It's up-up. Here in the U.S. you have a lot of contributing factors along with the general fuel and cost-of-living/interest increases. Cattle country has had a drought for a while, corn (used as a finishing feed for the last 500-700 pounds) is up in price, BLM grazing is in higher competition, and because of those, cattle herds were cut here and there. I think I heard we're down to a 1950s level of cattle in the U.S. and that we'll make marks for importing cattle next year if not this year.

Prices are high for the beef sale market, but it's also high to buy hay and deepen wells and pump as much water as they need, and it's a long-term expensive project to increase herd sizes.
It takes 18-22 months to get a beef to market weight and 15-18 to get a heifer to a safe breeding size and enough teeth back to not lose condition carrying. Cow cattle and heifers are half again and almost twice what they were in the beginning of the season, hitting $2K a head. Raisers can't afford that, either. So they're stuck doing increases the old fashioned way, which means fewer female calves hit tables as breeding stock is kept to increase (instead of maintain or decrease) herd size again.

And then adding to meat costs, you have had in the last couple of years:
- Piglet disease
- Turkey major disease
- Drought (which will affect everything, feeder crops to livestock costs, and includes veggies, milk, chickens, eggs)
- Increasing fish costs (increased demand for healthy alternative and a lower cost than other rising meats, coupled with decreased numbers of some target species)

Here in the U.S. the canned meat costs and meat-containing canned foods are climbing at a slower rate than fresh, even with drought speculation, although they are up.
So if you want to include any of those, you might want to jump on them before they go up further or at a faster rate.

For deli meats, you can try making at home, finely slicing, and freezing in useable sizes, or do the same with your fresh delli cuts or packaged deli cuts, so that you can spread the cost of them out further as increases come through.

Even if every turkey has her most successful laying year and mortality rates are the lowest ever for all livestock across the board with the biggest-bellied, fastest-growing livestock ever, Oddmott is right. Costs always rise. Even when they "go down" they never go all the way back down. These prices (or close to them) are here to stay.

The price is high, and its going to keep going for at least three to four years just based on the fact that we need that long to get producing cows that sold off when different conditions meet and caused a number of farmers to reduce overall adults cows and sell of more of the feeder calves.

In my own neck of the woods, here in Ontario, any other year, I could have picked up a nice day old (direct from the farmer) having had mom`s milk half dairy, half breed calf for 50, right now, 200, then the milk replacer has almost doubled in cost for those of us that want to raise a calf for butcher, hay costs are up, feed costs are up, I had a friend and farmer offer me 1200 for my yearling and I looked at him in surprise, had other friends send two 700 pounders got in the past couple weeks locally and they were getting well over double in price per pound.

those costs are going to be passed on..

AS for Deli meats, find a butcher, learn how to make your own is the only way I know to keep the prices down on that.. but even then, if you want beef, expect it to continue to go up..

Now this year, because of the piglet flu, the price of pork has been nuts, 40 dollar weaner piglets sold for between 150 to 200 locally, that by the way is the difference between us making a profit on our pigs or breaking even, by the time we do feed (which keeps going up) bedding (the big square bales went up from 30 to 50) the hauler went up and the butcher went up..

We raised a pig for ourselves, which will butcher ourselves and do well on, but I could not afford at all to raise a pig for my regular farmgate buyers, as they didn`t want to pay the difference that it would come out into per pound.

You can expect the same thing with farm raised birds, I can`t even buy a day old chick and shipping for the cost of what a òn sale twice a year chicken, thankfully for our own use, we can hatch our own but they don`t have the right paperwork to go to butcher that is needed, but as they are for home use only, it does not matter.

I agree with the others, nothing will come down....much less meats.

If you want deli meats, it's time to buy yourself a meat slicer.Unless you are really good with a knife to get them sliced thin and evenly. 😉
Cook up a roast...slice it. Get a ham...slice it, same with chicken.
Then vac. pkg in serving portions, then freeze.

Watch for sales (which are extremely rare these days) and pressure can your own if you do canning.

Otherwise, its grow your own and/or hunting. You might keep an eye out for hunters that want to share. Some do, most don't...but you might get lucky.
Same with ppl buying a side of beef or pork. Some only want to buy 1/2, thats where you come in, if the price is right for you.

Good luck. 🙂

Speaking of hunting...
If you don't do it yourself, you might contact any duck-goose guides you know or go out to some of the public lands that are popular in your area. A lot of people breast out their ducks and geese (which is a pity, half the meat wasted). If you catch them ahead of time and make arrangements, you can end up with a lot of goose and duck rear quarters, which can be made into a super-tasty proscuitto (that's not spelled right).
I had a buddy who took this guy's recipe and used it for rabbit rear leg quarters, too, after resting and brining the leg:
http://honest-food.net/search-results/?cx=partner-pub-5042591297638375%3Asx8qipfc8no&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=procuitto&sa=Search&siteurl=honest-food.net%2F&ref=www.google.com%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3D%26esrc%3Ds%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D1%26ved%3D0CCAQFjAA%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fhonest-food.net%252F%26ei%3Di5oPVNWEJpO3yATY6YK4Dw%26usg%3DAFQjCNH6chKOziTPSR8QC7iGyYYAOLobTw%26bvm%3Dbv.74649129%2Cd.aWw&ss=2429j702523j11
(Sorry for the size of the link.)
He's got several salami recipes as well, as far as lunchmeat goes.
Almost anything intended for pork, chicken or upland game birds can be done successfully with hare, although unless a game recipe you find specifically calls for it, you should pre-treat the rabbits the way you would if you were retiring an old dam.

For the folks in town or city you can save your self some money by trapping in your yard. Check out youtube on how to build a box trap. It is a simple home made trap for squirrel, possum, rabbit. You can also look up how to build an arapooka bird trap. This is a live trap for pigeon or dove sized birds that allows you to release the non target catches. If these things are done in your yard they are silent and the average neighbor will not even notice. If they do just say they are recking your yard or attic and gotta be moved. I always have a few squirrels in the freezer cause friends call when they have one in there attic' so I just vacccume seal them but they don't last that long any way.

There is a shortage in the market. Pork has risen, poultry and Beef are all going up. Double digit increase in price this year and next.

This started last summer I believe. The last report I heard on the news is that farmers stocks are being depleted to fill the demand, and it will be a couple years before prices drop again as breeding stock have also been used to fill the demand. As they grow the next generation it will replenish what has been used up, but get used to the current price and some more increase until the market has balanced itself out again.

I'm finding farmers markets still have prices below grocery store rates.

I wonder how much the weather problems in the west this year will effect the prices.
The farmers have had a terrible year with rain, cool cloudy weather and now snow in Alberta.
They gotta pass that cost some where even with crop insurance they'll take a kick'n again this year

Thank you for the information

that's a lot of information to digest.

But good to know

I know that pork was suppose to be going down because Russia was stating they wouldn;t take Canadian pork due to us siding with the states on the whole issue over there.

I'm only buying loss leader specials for meats/poultry.I'm buying multi use cuts...like whole chicken breasts that I bone out, can, freeze the bones and fat for later use.
If it's not on sale...I'm not buying it.

This means I have to get creative in the kitchen but that's ok.
Veggies seem to have done well this year and I'll be buying those 10lb bags of beets/onions/carrots/potatoes and cabbages and squashes that are going to be on special over the next few weeks at dirt cheap prices.Veggies are good meat extenders
Lots of canning/freezing/dehydrating gonna be happening!

Lots of stews and potpies are going to be on our menu rotation...veggie heavy stews and pot pies.

No Deli meats in the husbands lunches...it's going to be leftovers or homemade lunch protein items (meat loaf, meat salads, homemade deviled ham etc)

Pork prices do seem to be quite reasonable this fall since Russia is banning Canadian pork and we have more available to our markets.

Given the prices of beef recently, we are watching for the $.99 pork shoulder sales.
Instead of the usual 40 lbs for saussage making, we are going to get a minimum of 100 lbs so that we can make some ground pork and some cubed pork to replace the beef that we simply won't pay the prices for.

I did notice that our local store had the turkey`s on for the same 88 cents per pound that they have had other years, that is a very good sale price indeed, folks where loading carts with them, and I saw a number of people that were bringing extra folks or having both hubby and wife were going though with six each, which was the daily limit set by the store.

I as always shake my head at it, I can`t even buy the day olds and the cost of shipping, and tax`s for the price you can get on that 88 cents per pound.. sigh!

Our family has essentially cut store bought chicken and beef out of our menu entirely. The prices are absolutely ridiculous. I've raised both and there's simply no excuse for the rates we're seeing.

We've taken to stocking up on the "healthier" cuts of pork, but rely mostly on our 4-8 wild turkeys the wife and I take each year and a few farmgate chickens. And always a deer or 3 to split with my bro and parents.

But mostly we're just reducing our meat intake and going borderline vegetarian. Not by choice... but when i see 350g packs of crap bacon (no meat, just fat strips) for $6-$8, or a single chicken breast fillet selling for $8.... i know there IS no choice.