For those who sell beef by the whole/half/quarter?

[Bobg]

Just would like to know where you are located and what you get per pound hanging weight. Do you get more for a front or hind quarter? I'm only sell a few a year, this year I got $1.55/pound and they pay the cut and wrap. Some people squack at that even. Trying to decide if it pays for me to put the extra money into them or not. I run them on grass as yearlings and then grain at 6 pounds/day for 120 and end up with between 700 and 750 hanging weight. I don't figure the price of hay since It only has been costing me my time to put it up, I should start figuring that in.

Just wondering what everyone else does.

Thanks,
Bobg

 

[ChrisB]

Bob,

I don't like selling to friends and family, but when I do I sell quarters I sell 1/2 of a 1/2. (Basically a side evenly split) I sell according to market price, but if I ever got serious about direct marketing I would add a dime or so to make it worth the extra hassle.

 

[S.R.R.]

$2.44/lb HW. that is Canadian dollars. ;-)

 

[Bullbuyer]

Just would like to know where you are located and what you get per pound hanging weight. Do you get more for a front or hind quarter? I'm only sell a few a year, this year I got $1.55/pound and they pay the cut and wrap. Some people squack at that even. Trying to decide if it pays for me to put the extra money into them or not. I run them on grass as yearlings and then grain at 6 pounds/day for 120 and end up with between 700 and 750 hanging weight. I don't figure the price of hay since It only has been costing me my time to put it up, I should start figuring that in.

Just wondering what everyone else does.

Thanks,
Bobg

I just sold a front quarter for $1.55 cut/wrapped and ready to go. We halves at $1.75 and hinds at $1.95. I personally wouldn't grain that long - usually about 60 days. Some folks on this board are selling grass fed because that's what their customers want.
Actually, I don't like selling to folks because some people just don't understand that hanging weight is NOT the same as what you are going to be getting when you get it home. Of course, everybody has come older customers that you've had for years and you feel obligated to feed out a few steers for those type of folks. I do have a NO GRUMBLING policy - if you grumble about the price or anything for that matter, I will not sell you anything in the future. ( Let 'em go to store and buy some $7/# steaks)

 

[Susie David]

Bob....we still sell for $2.00/lb hanging and the customer pays slaughter (went up to $55) and cut & wrap (up to 38 cents).
See some folks selling for less up here in the Spokane area but wonder how they make any money with the price of corn going up so high...guess that they don't put any extra finish on the animals. Of course some think that "break even" is the way to do business. Even being semi-retired, I don't work for free.

Our butcher divides the half carcass during cutting to give cuts from the north and south end of the steer to each 1/4 share customer.
We sell shares in a live animal (no tax liability) and broker the processing.

Have had some of our customers buy from home grown back yard friends but they come back to our beef...been told that they really notice a difference in quality and taste.

Primary rule of business...Never compete based on price!

Haven't run our ad this year and repeat customers have been asking when they can get on the production list.
Slaughtered a Lim and a Angus last week and didn't get to keep a share for ourselves. Was doing three or four a quarter but slowed down to two every two months...we'll see how the summer goes as we're looking into new outlets for processed beef.
Dave Mc

 

[Bobg]

Dave,

I have Tom Tevlin of Garfield Meats come down and do ours. He charges $50 slaughter and $.40 cut and wrap. By the time I run around and find a trailer and haul it up there the $50 seems pretty cheap.

Do you do grass fed and/or grain on your's? I keep wanting to grain for 90 days, but for some reason I never get it done by then. What we've been butcher are Longhorn/Hereford crosses and they've been grading "Choice". Would like to run a few more, but finding pasture is the problem. Lost 15 acres of hay ground this year so I'll probably end up buying some.

Bobg

 

[greenwillowherefords]

Dave,

I have Tom Tevlin of Garfield Meats come down and do ours. He charges $50 slaughter and $.40 cut and wrap. By the time I run around and find a trailer and haul it up there the $50 seems pretty cheap.

Do you do grass fed and/or grain on your's? I keep wanting to grain for 90 days, but for some reason I never get it done by then. What we've been butcher are Longhorn/Hereford crosses and they've been grading "Choice". Would like to run a few more, but finding pasture is the problem. Lost 15 acres of hay ground this year so I'll probably end up buying some.

Bobg

If you've got Longhorn crosses grading Choice, that says some good things about the Hereford side, no offense to Longhorn breeders. What are the Hereford bloodlines you are using?

I sell the live animal, but feed it out and pay for butchering. Processing is 37 cents per pound. I charge $3.00 per pound for package weight. That way the customer is not disappointed by hanging weight loss. So far have had many repeat customers, and none dissatisfied to my knowledge. Always Herefords or Hereford crosses, usually of my own genetics. Feed for around 90 days usually.

 

[MrBilly]

We charge around $495 per quarter (includes everything). They buy a share in a live animal, we feed grain for 6 months while they remain on pasture, then it is harvested in a USDA meat plant. Customer gets 1/2 of the meat from the front and 1/2 from the rear quarter (split half). We are sold out for 2006 and taking orders for 2007. They get around 100 lb of boneless beef, which computes to being about a few cents less than buying the same cuts and burger in a store.

Detials on our website: http://www.sellfarm.com

Billy

 

[Susie David]

Bob....we start the finishing sixty to ninety days out by introducing cracked corn, about three pounds for the first few days then upping it to three twice a day for a week then five twice a day for another week then seven twice a day up to two days before slaughter. We decrease the alfalfa as the corn increases...25 hay/5 corn...to...15 corn/15 alflafa, that's for winter feed, we pasture and suppliment the market steers with alfalfa in summer.
Whith the prices of corn I think that we'll hay finish some and see how they turn out...expect that it will take a bit longer but we'll see how the $$ fall out when they are sold.
Curt Forney up in Clayton comes down and does our butchering,
same price if he does one head or six. He went up to $55 because of the fuel costs.

MR Billy...like your web site and marketing plan...mind if I borrow an idea or two?

DMC

 

[Bobg]

The Hereford bull we were using was out of Bill Bennett's in Connell Washington, I believe the sire was BB L1 Dom 5376. The guy that I got him from would by Bill' older cows and then AI to his bull. He had a surplus of bulls one year and couldn't get rid of them all and was going to cut them, I bought him weaned for $500.
People have a great misconception on longhorns, they actually marble faster than the English breeds and with a lot less excess fat. When we first started butchering them I asked the guy the slaughtered them how the beef looked and he said not great, it have very little fat. I run into him a two weeks later just before they started cutting it and he said it surprised him that is was marbled that good. Feed conversion is quite a bit better also. I'm not knocking any of the other breeds, we've run Herefords, Angus and baldies and would do so again.

Bobg

 

[MrBilly]

Go for it DMC

Billy

 

[greenwillowherefords]

The Hereford bull we were using was out of Bill Bennett's in Connell Washington, I believe the sire was BB L1 Dom 5376. The guy that I got him from would by Bill' older cows and then AI to his bull. He had a surplus of bulls one year and couldn't get rid of them all and was going to cut them, I bought him weaned for $500.
People have a great misconception on longhorns, they actually marble faster than the English breeds and with a lot less excess fat. When we first started butchering them I asked the guy the slaughtered them how the beef looked and he said not great, it have very little fat. I run into him a two weeks later just before they started cutting it and he said it surprised him that is was marbled that good. Feed conversion is quite a bit better also. I'm not knocking any of the other breeds, we've run Herefords, Angus and baldies and would do so again.

Bobg

The Bennet program is known well for carcass quality, especially some of the best REA and IMF in the breed as I understand it. They also have Mark Donald bloodlines, and the "Sandman" bulls. I've seen some impressive data regarding ADG on steers sired by BB bulls, over 5# per day, with a conversion in the fives as well.

I guess there is a wide variety of quality in the Longhorn breed as well as some of the others. A friend of mine butchered two straight Longhorns, and refused to ever feed any again. He brought some of it to work, and no one could hardly chew it. You must have much better Longhorns. Nothing against them as a breed, just that bad experience.

 

[Rustler9]

Our butcher was surprised also at how well our Longhorn beef turned out. He was actually very complimentary toward our beef in comparison to some black cattle (not knocking anyone's breed) that he butchered at the same time. He told us that there was alot of fat and waste to them. One thing I always tell folks before they try Longhorn beef is that if they cook it too done it will be hard to chew. Medium is about as done as we cook ours and it has a great taste and is tender.