I was just over at Linda’s blog and there was a comment about cost and expense and income of a rancher. Would anyone be interested in a rough over view of that, for this area?
Also, I went to Punkin Center today for a part and some other doo dads and ran onto our state Rep. He and another gentleman( and I use that term pretty loosely, Ross) and I got to visiting about the cost of raising and butchering your own beef, as compared to buying at the butcher shop or grocery store. I now realize why our taxes are going up, according to how my rep figures! Sheesh!
I’d say buying a whole, a half , or a quarter of a prime fed beef, all cut and wrapped to your wants, at $2.25 a pound, for hamburger, steaks, roasts and all, is a pretty good deal for both the person buying it and also the person selling it, if done right. He claimed it was cheaper to buy at a store. Remember, at a store it will cost you from $5 to $7 a pound for all the steak and roasts. Sure the hamburger will only cost about $1.80 or so, but the cost of the steaks and roasts more than makes up for that. And this guy is responsible for spending my tax dollars?
Sorry Larry, but I ain’t never voting for you any more!
Dennisranch 
I don’t think I would be voting for Mr. Larry either! He must not eat enough good beef!
That is absurd isn’t it? And doesn’t even factor in the superior quality of homegrown, or locally produced beef.
And I for one am interested in anything you post about the way things work in your world. Ranching is fascinating to me…on one hand much the same as what we do, what with depending on animals and weather and on the other amazingly different….I especially like what you write about training colts and green horses.
J’bob , I do some keyboard work for a state rep who is just exactly, positively, as smart as yours. I think we’re on our way to identifying a problem, eh?
I’d pay around $2.25 a point for good bulk beef in a flash, but the processing costs here don’t permit that. I think freezer-ready steer parts would cost north of $3 here. Still a good deal, and if I were stiull feeding a family I’d probably be buying it.
And thanks for the answer the other day on your feeding methods for home-use beef. Sounds good to me, but you’d get an argument for some of my crowd. They’d just stand up and yell “CORN.” ‘course, they raise the stuff.
About 18 years ago my pal Ken electrocuted a four-year-old bull. (Don’t ask.) He had the whole carcass ground into burger and sold it for $1 a pound. I bought a lot and was sad when it was gone.
Jim
Jim
Jim,
Yeah most people want corn fed, Problem is, when you feed any grin except soybean, you screw up the cholesterol in the meat or milk. Now that we know this, no one wants to change as we are all set up to feed corn or a by product of it that comes from the ethanol mess we have.
I had a bull who got on the fight and put me on a fence. I told him I would kill him and kept my promise. He was made into hamburger also. I wasn’t sorry to see him go as I was real tired of lean hamburger.
That is another one they have pulled on us. Lean beef. Did you know the taste is in the fat? So if it is lean, there isn’t much taste.
Thanks I will take my healthy grass or bean fattened beef and let the grease run down my chin! LOL
Most people claim to not like grass fat beef, because the beef wasn’t really fat.It was only partially fat and not ready to be butchered. It’s not easy to get one real fat unless you start out with a smakller cow as a steerr needs to be about 100 pound more than it’s mothers weight to be fat. So a 1500 pound cow’s calf needs to be taken to 1600 pounds. Not easy to do on lots of high fat and protien grain, let alone grass. But a 900 pound cow like they used to have, would have a steer who would be fat at 1000 to 1100 pounds. By the way, the kill plants want the beeves now to weight 1500 pounds. Above or below that weight and you get docked, they tell me. So, many fat cattle aren’t really at the right weight to be the best beef, as there are lots of 1500 pound cows in the industry.
Years ago they would sell mature 3 year old fat steers off this grass and grass alone in tis country and it was the best beef money could buy. Of course we had different genetics then also.
Also, a spayed heifers will gain and be prime at a lower weight so will fatten faster, so to speak, tho’ they don’t gain quite as well as a steer does.
Best meat we ever had was a spayed female who was butchered when she was 5 years old.
must be one of those people that think milk comes from a store, not from a cow.
I’d be interested in your cost of production down there. I’m scared to figure it here with all the running around we do 😉 We always eat a grass feed heifer, there’s nothing like it and it’s just about always a three year old that’s lost a calf in the spring. After B.S.E. hit this neck of the woods we didn’t get much out of our older beef and were basically giving it away. People around here learned in a hurry how good that slightly more mature beef was and now we have a great market for it. Cost a whole lot less to produce that way too!
Decades ago…we used to have hog-killins. usually from Thanksgiving- mid December. My papaw used to feed his up on pellet feed. I think it had less than 10% corn but mostly protein and other additives. Hogs and cattle. Others used more corn. Papaw’s always tasted better. Today’s store bought meat has so much water, preservatives and other things in it…well ya wonder why your Representative is an idgit….there ya go, him and a bunch more.
I believe that there could be a market for more beef.. we used to buy a whole beef and fill up the freezer.. ..but two people just don’t use enough to warrant buying a whole critter…so we are stuck with the grocery store meat..I sure do miss the old butcher shops and small coop meat markets..they were run plum out of business in the last thirty years:(
Far Side, can’t you find a local farmer or rancher who sells meat and buy it by the quarter? No farther than you are from me, it would probably pay for you to buy a quarter from me and come get it. Check craiglist. Under the farm and garden listing.
I’m like Linda – I’d love to see your figures but I’m scared to run mine. I just have a small flock of Suffolk sheep that I breed so the 4-H kids can have lambs for the auction at the state fair. There is a market for sheep here but the expense of getting started is pretty high since all the sheep have to be imported.