Rising meat prices hit barbecue restaurants

Mar. 29—In the self-proclaimed "Barbecued Mutton Capital of the World," barbecue restaurants are under assault from rapidly rising prices of mutton — and everything else.

"Mutton has tripled in the past six or seven months," John Foreman, the fifth-generation owner of Old Hickory Bar-B-Q, said Monday. "Sliced is $20 a pound now. This is the highest I've ever seen it."

Old Hickory, the city's oldest barbecue joint, has been in business since his great-great-grandfather lit a fire in the original pit in 1918.

Foreman said, "I've heard the problem is transportation, sheep shortage, ewe shortage, 100 different reasons. I'm hoping prices will come down this summer."

Most of his sheep come from Iowa," he said.

"We've been working to get an interest in local people raising sheep for awhile now," Foreman said.

But so far, that hasn't worked.

"Pork and beef prices have gone up and down," Foreman said. "We never know what the price is going to be from one week to the next."

In fact, his website says, "Prices may vary due to supply shortages. Please call the restaurant for updated pricing."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says there are definitely fewer sheep being raised this year.

It estimates that the total number of sheep on U.S. farms on Jan. 1 was 5.065 million head, 2.0% below the 2021 inventory.

In January 2021, a total of 161,800 sheep and lambs slaughtered.

That dropped to 154,100 in January 2022.

"We're dealing with it the best we can," Greg Floyd, owner of Ole South Barbeque, said Monday. "Our margins are staying the same, but we're having to raise our prices. We're not making the money. I'm not sure who is."

Keeping the profit margin the same has meant raising the price of the lunch buffet to $10.95, he said.

Busy, despite the prices"Beef and pork are up, too," Floyd said. "But we're staying busy despite the prices."

Ole South, which opened in 1995, is the city's newest barbecue restaurant.

Floyd said he's not hearing anything definite about the future prices of mutton, pork, beef and chickens.

"It's just week to week," he said. "I don't expect them to go backward though. They may never do that."

The USDA says, "Farm-level cattle prices are predicted to increase between 12.5% and 15.5% in 2022. Wholesale beef prices are predicted to increase between 4% and 7%. Wholesale poultry prices increased by 4.1% in February 2022, reaching 26.5% above February 2021 prices."

It said, "Beef prices have been driven up recently by worker shortages, supply chain disruptions, drought in cattle country, and accelerating consumer demand."

The USDA report added, "Farm-level cattle prices mirrored beef prices, which were 22.8%-43.9% higher in January 2022 than January 2021. Wholesale beef prices are expected to increase between 4.5% — 7.5% this year."

At Moonlite Bar-B-Que Inn, the city's largest barbecue restaurant, Ken Bosley, one of the owners, said, "Price increases started about three months ago. The price of mutton doubled in one day."

He said, "All meat is going up. When you order supplies, you don't know what you'll get. Chicken is going out the roof, too. The price of eggs has doubled."

Bird fluNational Public Radio reported this week that outbreaks of bird flu across the East Coast and Midwest have forced poultry farmers to kill nearly 13 million chickens since February.

It said, "An outbreak confirmed March 14 at a commercial operation in Wisconsin meant more than 2.7 million egg-laying chickens were killed."

Bosley said one problem for restaurants is that a 100-pound sheep carcass only yields about 25 pounds of barbecued mutton.

The drop in weight starts with cutting the head and legs off.

"By the time, it's barbecued and ready to eat, there's only 25 pounds left," Bosley said.

He said, "Mutton is $19.99 a pound today. It was $14 a month ago. Chopped is $10.30. It's doubled."

The price restaurants are paying for meat just keeps rising, Bosley said.

He said, "Brisket is $4.14 a pound. It was $2 last year, but it has been over $5. Cattle people say they're not seeing that kind of increase. It's with the processors and they say they can't hire people."

Pork, Bosley said, "is up and down. It's $1.49 a pound now, but it has been $2.50."

Chicken, he said, is $1.89 a pound.

"It was $1 to $1.10," Bosley said.

Moonlite has the city's largest buffet.

"Everything on the buffet has gone up," Bosley said. "The lunch buffet had been $12.99 for the past two years. We raised it to $13.95 this week."

He said, "People in Owensboro are price conservative. People from out of town say, 'How can you sell it this cheap?' We're fighting price increases, but we have to make a living."

Keith Lawrence, 270-691-7301 klawrence@messenger-inquirer.com