Entering Meat Market vs Barn sales

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Bigfoot":1mxjbn4s said:
No doubt, a person could sell sides and quarters. No question about it, that's going to be a growing "thing" in the near future. I gotta question how many animals that I could sell that way in my area? Then your gonna have phone calls at odd hours, tire kickers, and the likes. Making trips to the slaughter house with one or two verses trips to the yard with a trailer full. Also, once a few people are doing it, the competition is going to kick in. Eventually, your gonna have a dark cutter. What am I going to do with it, eat it myself? All questions I ask myself when I get the notion.

One good thing for me is theres not many people selling like that here. There isnt many cattle farmers on my side of the state.
 
Sky, I've been informed the grass fed market won't work for me. My wife says there's no possible way that it'll work on or place. I'm to conservative to deal with the liberal PC grass fed all natural crowd, and she's probably right again. How much extra $money are hoping to make per cow? And do you think it's going to be worth the BS?
 
ram":297qx7dq said:
Sky, I've been informed the grass fed market won't work for me. My wife says there's no possible way that it'll work on or place. I'm to conservative to deal with the liberal PC grass fed all natural crowd, and she's probably right again. How much extra $money are hoping to make per cow? And do you think it's going to be worth the BS?
I look at it another way, I'm making money off their silly ideas. I find that pretty enjoyable......... :lol:
 
ram":xi2wkqqe said:
Sky, I've been informed the grass fed market won't work for me. My wife says there's no possible way that it'll work on or place. I'm to conservative to deal with the liberal PC grass fed all natural crowd, and she's probably right again. How much extra $money are hoping to make per cow? And do you think it's going to be worth the BS?

I am not shooting for grass fed in particular. I will tell you how this has came about and became more in my face my family members are wanting to stop dealing with the grocery store and want to start buying from me as well as other people my family knows. I have been dabbling in selling meat to my family .. I have been selling goats and hogs for a couple years. I would buy them keep them for a lil bit then take to slaughter have it processed and sell to them. I haven't ever sold any beef so im still trying to figure out if its worth the trouble but with the prices being down so much on calves to me it only makes sense to do something to make more money off of them. I don't know what I will make per cow but hoping to learn from the experience. Life is full of BS and farming has tons of it Literally and Figuratively but we still go out and fool with farming. However, There may be a point when its not worth the BS and then I will just stop but if you don't try youve already lost the battle and beat yourself.
Ram if it doesn't work im making Toad buy all my finished steers at a premium since it works for him :lol2:
 
Toad":1ux65dbm said:
ram":1ux65dbm said:
Sky, I've been informed the grass fed market won't work for me. My wife says there's no possible way that it'll work on or place. I'm to conservative to deal with the liberal PC grass fed all natural crowd, and she's probably right again. How much extra $money are hoping to make per cow? And do you think it's going to be worth the BS?
I look at it another way, I'm making money off their silly ideas. I find that pretty enjoyable......... :lol:

:lol2:
 
Goddy

I probably did not communicate well.

The first 2 pictures are too fat, and I was hoping to make the point what can be done on grass, every bit as well as the feed yard.

The third picture is ideal, in my opinion.

Europe enjoys older cattle, 9+, as this is the greatest flavor.

Hanging time solves the tenderness problem. It is difficult to get longer/proper hanging here.
 
ram":1vnvhxv1 said:
Sky, I've been informed the grass fed market won't work for me. My wife says there's no possible way that it'll work on or place. I'm to conservative to deal with the liberal PC grass fed all natural crowd, and she's probably right again. How much extra $money are hoping to make per cow? And do you think it's going to be worth the BS?

Your wife is a very smart gal. Yeah ram, I think you would have a tough time 'accommodating' the fedora wearing neckbeards that show up with their hipster life partners. Answering their interrogations, etc. etc. One of the many reasons I don't sell on craigslist. I am fortunate to have a very loyal following of folks that are happy to purchase a half (if I have one for sale). If I have a replacement or two come up open, put her on corn for 60-90 days, make a few calls and she is gone.
 
We talked to the local butcher - deer processor today. I offered to buy the feed supply the hay and calves and do the advertising. All for just $3.00 a lb. hanging weight, he didn't feel like it was a worth while deal. He's got a covered catch pen - feed barn sitting by the shop empty. And he's processed 300 fewer deer this year, because a new deer processor opened up close by. We've pretty much decided that that we don't want anyone on our property.
"Privacy is Priceless" my wife.
 
i'm back a 1600' lane, locked gate, guard dogs. no one is coming in my place unless I allow it :D
 
If I sold any off my place the place would be my farm which is way off the road no where near my house and under locked gate and cameras
 
Sky, I posted on Allen's post about butcher beef a few days ago, and don't have much to add to that EXCEPT (of course, always an EXCEPT) . . . I haven't had much luck w/ Craigs for butcher beef. We started with a couple head and worked w/ friends and co-workers, and it mostly grew from there on local farm pages on FB. Most of our folks are repeat customers. I got a new one the other day after a cancellation via job loss -- he'd seen our posts for beef for a couple years on one of those FB pages and said he'd been waiting for an opportunity to buy from us as he'd only heard good things: "I'm not worried about you!" We are east of the mountains from Seattle, and are not working w/ the yuppie types, but there is a strong market here for locally raised food. And our regulars come back because they know exactly what and how we do. We take nothing to a sale; buy nothing from a sale. We do 4 or 5 steers a year; sometimes a burger cow. If the steer isn't born here, it comes from a local producer at about 6 mos. old and we raise it up. The occasional burger cow is one that isn't doing her job, but she's been here for more than a reasonable period of time. Good luck on your endeavor. We could not sell our white cattle at market for what we get doing butcher beef.
 
It is easy, once you get past the red tape, to sell a few whatevers (steers, cows, lambs, hogs) and if you get a handle on costs quick enough you can make some money. But there is a difference, a big difference, in making some money and making a living. If you don't budget advertising and outreach in the profit side then you will limit out on audience pretty quickly. If you advertise successfully yet cannot meet the growing demand with quality and acceptable product then you suddenly turn away customers. You really need more product than customers to keep that from happening. Then you need to budget in the loss on those unsold units or find a profitable alternative to move them. In the real world, most livestock producers are keyed to livestock rather than product sales and that might be the time limitation, too. But you probably already know all of this.

The one thing on the pictures of products: all have excess seam fat. If the buyer is buying a carcass, half or quarter on weight they will eventually think that someone is stealing part of their meat unless the processor shows them the pile of trimming that come from the breakdown of the carcass. To get 0.25" trim on a carcass that fat, I would bet that trimmings (excess fat) would average over 140 pounds per carcass. Either that goes into deer burger at no cost to the processor or goes into the grind on a lean cow for better hamburger. But there is a lot of shrink and a hard grilling process (high flaming and flare ups) for excessively fat cuts. Overall, it will produce greasy meals and high numbers of empty calories. For the forage system these cattle are using, the cattle do not have enough growth or muscling to match to the forages and thus are getting hog fat. Just an observation or two.
 
Ebenezer":2kpwogxv said:
It is easy, once you get past the red tape, to sell a few whatevers (steers, cows, lambs, hogs) and if you get a handle on costs quick enough you can make some money. But there is a difference, a big difference, in making some money and making a living. If you don't budget advertising and outreach in the profit side then you will limit out on audience pretty quickly. If you advertise successfully yet cannot meet the growing demand with quality and acceptable product then you suddenly turn away customers. You really need more product than customers to keep that from happening. Then you need to budget in the loss on those unsold units or find a profitable alternative to move them. In the real world, most livestock producers are keyed to livestock rather than product sales and that might be the time limitation, too. But you probably already know all of this.

The one thing on the pictures of products: all have excess seam fat. If the buyer is buying a carcass, half or quarter on weight they will eventually think that someone is stealing part of their meat unless the processor shows them the pile of trimming that come from the breakdown of the carcass. To get 0.25" trim on a carcass that fat, I would bet that trimmings (excess fat) would average over 140 pounds per carcass. Either that goes into deer burger at no cost to the processor or goes into the grind on a lean cow for better hamburger. But there is a lot of shrink and a hard grilling process (high flaming and flare ups) for excessively fat cuts. Overall, it will produce greasy meals and high numbers of empty calories. For the forage system these cattle are using, the cattle do not have enough growth or muscling to match to the forages and thus are getting hog fat. Just an observation or two.



Those fat pictures are ''cull cows'' that he is marketing as part of a grass fed program. Things like this sometimes hurts people trying to go about it in a different manner. I would have a hard time facing a customer when I was selling a six year old cull cow as premium beef. :shock:
 
Kathie in Thorp":75vn122a said:
Sky, I posted on Allen's post about butcher beef a few days ago, and don't have much to add to that EXCEPT (of course, always an EXCEPT) . . . I haven't had much luck w/ Craigs for butcher beef. We started with a couple head and worked w/ friends and co-workers, and it mostly grew from there on local farm pages on FB. Most of our folks are repeat customers. I got a new one the other day after a cancellation via job loss -- he'd seen our posts for beef for a couple years on one of those FB pages and said he'd been waiting for an opportunity to buy from us as he'd only heard good things: "I'm not worried about you!" We are east of the mountains from Seattle, and are not working w/ the yuppie types, but there is a strong market here for locally raised food. And our regulars come back because they know exactly what and how we do. We take nothing to a sale; buy nothing from a sale. We do 4 or 5 steers a year; sometimes a burger cow. If the steer isn't born here, it comes from a local producer at about 6 mos. old and we raise it up. The occasional burger cow is one that isn't doing her job, but she's been here for more than a reasonable period of time. Good luck on your endeavor. We could not sell our white cattle at market for what we get doing butcher beef.

Thanks Kathie,
I would require a good deposit before taking the steer to slaughter with then signing off on a contract stating non-refundable etc... I also would buy calves from the barn and raise up from about 3wt and then feed out I may try a few that way and see what happens. Right now I have several steers ranging from 350-700lbs.Burger flys off the shelves like hot cakes here so I thought about buying a slaughter cows and grinding up.
 
Thanks Kathie,
I would require a good deposit before taking the steer to slaughter with then signing off on a contract stating non-refundable etc... I also would buy calves from the barn and raise up from about 3wt and then feed out I may try a few that way and see what happens. Right now I have several steers ranging from 350-700lbs.Burger flys off the shelves like hot cakes here so I thought about buying a slaughter cows and grinding up.[/quote]

So what age/weight would you be planning to slaughter ? Just interested as I can't quite picture a 300lb weaned steer turning into quality beef.

IMO getting quality beef does require a good start to life , which to me would be a weaning weight in the 650 - 750 lb range, but that is to do it on pasture and I haven't read back to see if you said you were going to grass finish or grain.

Has been an interesting conversation.

Good luck
 
Ebenezer, MWJ

A cull is a late, open, disposition problem, nothing to do with quality.

What is quality? A healthy, flavorful, well marbled animal.

A healthy five year old cow, well marbled, will have much greater flavor than a 14 month old feedlot steer. It is a better experience.
Longer hanging time is a tenderizer, a Jaccard is a tenderizer:

Here is an over fat cow, raising a calf, on grass alone, year round. Genetics and type, matter.




Here is a cow, mid winter, grass year round.




By using all females, we gain the calf and the gain. Cows calve only, Steers gain only. Young cows do both.

 
skyhightree1":1maign36 said:
Kathie in Thorp":1maign36 said:
Sky, I posted on Allen's post about butcher beef a few days ago, and don't have much to add to that EXCEPT (of course, always an EXCEPT) . . . I haven't had much luck w/ Craigs for butcher beef. We started with a couple head and worked w/ friends and co-workers, and it mostly grew from there on local farm pages on FB. Most of our folks are repeat customers. I got a new one the other day after a cancellation via job loss -- he'd seen our posts for beef for a couple years on one of those FB pages and said he'd been waiting for an opportunity to buy from us as he'd only heard good things: "I'm not worried about you!" We are east of the mountains from Seattle, and are not working w/ the yuppie types, but there is a strong market here for locally raised food. And our regulars come back because they know exactly what and how we do. We take nothing to a sale; buy nothing from a sale. We do 4 or 5 steers a year; sometimes a burger cow. If the steer isn't born here, it comes from a local producer at about 6 mos. old and we raise it up. The occasional burger cow is one that isn't doing her job, but she's been here for more than a reasonable period of time. Good luck on your endeavor. We could not sell our white cattle at market for what we get doing butcher beef.

Thanks Kathie,
I would require a good deposit before taking the steer to slaughter with then signing off on a contract stating non-refundable etc... I also would buy calves from the barn and raise up from about 3wt and then feed out I may try a few that way and see what happens. Right now I have several steers ranging from 350-700lbs.Burger flys off the shelves like hot cakes here so I thought about buying a slaughter cows and grinding up.

Sky, we ask our people for $150 deposit whether they're buying a quarter or a half. As soon as we know hanging weights, they pay us the balance. Have had no issues with that, as the meat's going to hang at the cutter for at least 2 weeks after harvest -- most pay up within a week of slaughter. I've got all our beef buyers on an email group list. They get updates every couple mos. or as needed ("steers will go into dry lot in a week; slaughter date is such and such; steers doing well a month into finishing; attached are blank cutting instructions/get them back to me before slaughter date, etc.") Very first email -- the "are you interested this year?" mail -- sets out all the terms, what kill fee + c/w costs will be, and estimated slaugher date. Every email says "call or mail if you've got any ??s" The contract/all correspondence via email is kept in a folder on the computer. And I scan/save everyone's cutting instructions year to year, so if they can't remember what they did before, I can email them out if needed. We slaughter usually between 16-18 mos., 1,200 - 1,500 lbs., but pay more attention to condition than age.
 
Mere observations are helpful as are pictures. 201 cow has fat pones on tailhead while raising a nice calf. Would wonder why?: low milk (not by looking at calf), hormonal balance issue, genetics or too small for environment. Would rather have cows with one less BSC or two during lactation for best health and best fit for maximum returns on weight per acre carried. Other observation - big difference in seam fat and marbling. Buyers will enjoy marbling the most without excess seam fat and have a leaner and less greasy meal experience.
 

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