national meat shortage

I was looking forward to getting my 1/2 a hog from my neighbor. he has been raising hogs to feed his family for at lest 60 years. he used to get free food for them by the 55 gallon drum from local corn liquor distillers but that ended last year, the distillers are a couple of those guys on the moonshiners show. so I offered to pay for feed in exchange for meat. Anyway he went to take them to the local slaughter house and they sent him back home with the hogs and had to make an appointment, they are backed up until September. First time for anything like that at the local slaughterhouse. Yesterday I had to make a trip to the city and could not believe the only thing left in the meat case at the local super Walmart were a dozen or so pkgs of hamburger, some expensive ribeye steals a few packages of chicken and some hams. Guess I'm gonna build a hen house and get some chicks.

I've only recently heard about a meat shortage in the US, but haven't looked into the details behind it yet. It's a little scary for those of us who haven't reached a point where we can produce all of our own meat.

I've never been fond of rabbit meat but, with 100 show rabbits in the barn, I'm going to start putting more of the culls in the freezer and try to acquire a taste for it. Usually the culls get fed to the pigs, cats, and dog. The ones I do eat are usually made into sausage and jerky.
My 4 pigs are potbellies, but I've been considering getting the older sow and barrow processed for the freezer. Sure they don't have as much meat, but it would be some pork in the freezer, and I would still have the big boar and the gilt I kept from the last litter to produce more. I would likely need to have them processed, though, as I know that is beyond my skill & strength levels right now.

For poultry, I haven't yet replaced my chickens that got killed by neighbors' dogs, but I have a ton of pigeons that I can always eat if it comes down to it. I've also been saving eggs from the surviving guineas to incubate, so should eventually have some extra males I can dispatch.
Plus, I bought 5 ducklings and 3 turkey poults a few weeks ago, so the excess males in those can be eaten.

So red meat is going to be an issue for me. I don't have space to grow out a calf, and don't yet have funds for the fencing to keep a few goats for milk & meat (but it's on the list of future projects). I've never been able to tolerate the taste/smell of venison, and have tried several things to deal with it... But I suppose if I get hungry enough I will force it down.

Overall, I think I will be okay for a while if I needed to produce all of my meat. It would just take some getting used to eating more rabbits, and learning how to correctly dispatch and clean the poultry/birds. Health issues have caused me to stay deficient in my protein levels, which is why I try to eat a lot of meat, in addition to the legumes that never seem to grow well for me.
So, definitely a little scary, but at least I'm slightly more prepared than (I would think) the majority of Americans are, to deal with a meat shortage.

I'd love to hear other's plans for overcoming the potential of an extended meat shortage in the country.

People in rural areas have a real advantage with regards to this.  We just bought 1/4 beef, and there is no problem getting meat here.  Even if all the stores ran out, most local farmers here are perfectly happy to sell you a cow, pig, chickens, whatever.

Kc Simmons wrote:

I've never been fond of rabbit meat but, with 100 show rabbits in the barn, I'm going to start putting more of the culls in the freezer and try to acquire a taste for it. Usually the culls get fed to the pigs, cats, and dog. The ones I do eat are usually made into sausage and jerky.

What the rabbit eats has a huge impact on how the meat tastes. I'm assuming that since they're show rabbits they get mostly pellets? It might be worth adding more fresh greens, a little at a time.

The wild rabbits in my parents' backyard eat something that makes the meat taste like it's been marinated in sugar. I'd love to know what it is. So far all I see them eating is clover, dandelion leaves, and raspberry bark.

Ellendra Nauriel wrote:What the rabbit eats has a huge impact on how the meat tastes. I'm assuming that since they're show rabbits they get mostly pellets? It might be worth adding more fresh greens, a little at a time.

That was one of my thoughts, as well; and something I plan to experiment with, once I get the time and materials to make a rabbit tractor.
I also considered that I may have left the meat to age in the refrigerator too long before freezing, or that the rabbits may have been older bucks and had a "taint."
Another thought is that, due to my health issues, I have had to do sporadic regimens of heavy antibiotics over the years, which seems to affect my senses of smell and taste, so something that I previously had no problem with suddenly becomes unpleasant to smell or eat (ketchup is a good example).
Still, I need to figure out some ways to consume this meat source that's so readily available to me. My most recent lab work showed my protein levels are way below the normal range and rabbit is, from my understanding, one of the highest sources of digestible animal protein there is.
Last week I gave my uncle a bunch of culls to dispatch to lighten my load a bit, & just asked for a few of the dressed out carcasses in return, which he brought by while I was out of state last week & my mom put them directly in the freezer. I took a couple out to thaw this morning, so we'll see how they taste/smell to rule out the possibility of the last ones being aged too long (and the buck-taint, since all of these were does).

Sorry if this is too off topic from the OP