If you are a beef / sheep / chicken farmer, are you noticing a fall in demand?

[anotherotherone]

I was just travelling back down to London by train and there seem to be a lot less sheep and cows in the fields than normal. Am I imagining things?

There are so many meat / dairy alternatives in the shops now. AIBU to think (well, hope) that as people are eating less meat these days and this trend looks set to continue,
are farmers reacting by reducing their stocks?

My dads a dairy farmer and his livelihood has absolutely thrived since covid! I know that’s different to meat but his farmer and butcher mates don’t seem to be complaining either..

And honestly I don’t know anyone in my everyday not internet life that is newly vegetarian. I know one veggie and she has been since I met her at school

Sheep are probably inside for lambing. That said, there were plenty in the fields round here last weekend with lots of cute lambs.

My brother owns a butchers shop and has never been busier.

Our butchers seems as busy as ever, queues always out the door.
Lots of fields round here are full of sheep & lambs & cows. Noticed one now has goats too.
Why do you 'hope' that cattle stocks are reducing?

A quick Google suggests meat consumption has gone down 17% in the last 10 years.

We live on a family farm with farm shop. We don't run it.

But the business is booming. People have a keen interest in where their meat is coming from and that welfare standards are high.

Well I was just hoping that the slaughterhouse business is decreasing.

When you go in supermarkets now there are whole aisles of meat and milk alternatives. Personally I don’t buy meat alternatives (though I am vegetarian), but clearly people must be buying them or they would be there.

wouldn’t be there

Well you have to slaughter animals to eat them so I don know why you would hope for a reduction those either

I’m not disputing there are more people buying it but when I go to zero waste places they’re full of these meat replacements.. so I’m not massively convinced they’re as popular as people think they are

Our local butchers is as busy as usual, always with queues. They have introduced loads of new lines and also now have huge fancy (expensive looking) metal cabinets displaying gorgeous looking huge meat joints dry aging on display. He says it has been really busy since covid as people are really enjoying eating meat at home now and more are buying big expensive cuts such as tomahawk steaks etc rather than eating out.

You might find there is more meat alternatives at the supermarket as the meat consumers have shifted to butchers shops.

I think people who go to “fancy” local butchers is a niche market though and not everyone can afford it or can bear to step into that type of environment. We have one near us in this part of London unfortunately, and the smell is unbearable from outside, let alone what you are confronted with inside.

I’m talking more about the average customer who probably does most of their shopping in sanitised supermarkets and doesn’t have time to deal with whole dead birds or whatever. The type of people that don’t want to see delights such as whole pigs heads decorating a meat counter and just buy their chicken in breadcrumbs and that kind of stuff. That’s where I suspect people are making a switch to vege alternatives. Particularly sausages because people were always dubious about what is in sausages.

I think meat is as popular as it ever was. The idea of meat substitutes is a good one but basically we're omnivores, not herbivores. Maybe one day they'll develop a good substitute for meat, but it hasn't happened yet.

Lambing season. They're busy making chops and steaks for the summer.

If companies could be arsed to make alternatives that didn't all contain fucking gluten, they'd have more customers, by the way.

If you're not seeing animals out in the fields it might be because they're in for lambing, or dairy farms haven't reached spring turnout yet, or the fields are shut up for silage, or too wet for livestock still.
The Lancet indicates a small decrease in red meat consumption & a slight increase in white meat consumption (bad news for animal welfare) however it doesn't say anything about where the meat is sourced ie are people still eating the cheap stuff from Brazil...
www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00228-X/fulltext

I heard the 17% reduction in meat eating stat on the BBC food programme at the weekend. I was suprised but it fits with what my social circle are doing.

I bet that as people are becoming more conscious about the impact of the meat they eat, they’re thinking more about its provenance as well as the quantity. So the independent butchers PPs mention might be getting busier while supermarkets sell less.

No drop in trade here. And in fact prices for our lambs have increased the last 2 years so we're very happy to keep operating

Like a previous posted said, the cows at the germs up my lane have t been turned out yet - they are al still living inside the barns.

@bellac11

Well you have to slaughter animals to eat them so I don know why you would hope for a reduction those either

Well strictly speaking, someone else slaughters them for you then you pretend like that part never happened.

I think some people are cutting down the meat due to cost of living as well...so not necessarily the expensive milk and meat substitutes taking over but budget meat free meals...

I think people who go to “fancy” local butchers is a niche market

Not round here. I live in farming country. Our local, small market town has three butchers, as well as a Tesco, Co-op and Spar. The butchers are not "fancy" or "niche". They just sell locally produced meat to people who like to know the provenance of what they are eating.

I live very southerly and farmers have only recently started putting the animals outside again.

I would love the dairy industry to die.

@Carpy899

I would love the dairy industry to die.

Such insight