Freezer beef

[Craig Miller]

Cowgirl said it's been eons she had freezer beef. Even with the few cows I have I always keep beef in the freezer. The way I see it if you have beef you should have plenty in the freezer so you don't have to buy any. I know others see it diffrent. My dad swears I'm wasting money by butchering my own. He would rather have money in hand as beef in freezer. Who butchers and who don't and why?

 

[Workinonit Farm]

We always have beef in the freezer. #1, love the convenience of "shopping" in the freezer. #2, we like the flavor of our beef, #3,we like eating what we raise, #4, in addition to selling 1/2's and 1/4's, there are a few who prefer to purchase a few lbs at a time, and its nice to have when they need.

Just to name a few.

 

[farmboy80]

Always butcher our own. It's better beef and I can control what it has in it (hormones, medication, feed). It's just good to know what I'm feeding my family.

 

[TCRanch]

For the first time in years we ran out of ground beef and I've had to buy at the store. Hate it! It's just not the same. I'm taking in the steer I've been finishing in a couple weeks. Hope he's worth it because he's an idiot and is tearing up the barnyard out of boredom, even had to remove the bunk because he kept flipping it over. Tips-n-Tricks: Jolly Balls aren't just for horses & large dogs. Dufus (yes, I named him) plays with it all the time, I have to retrieve it from the Bermuda field a lot.

 

[Farm Fence Solutions]

We butcher a couple a year because we like beef that tastes good. Two butcher calves ago was Raymond, a calf that had a bad case of pink eye in both eyes as a young calf. We ended up making him a bottle calf when he was two months or so old because it was near impossible to keep him doctored in the pasture. Of course he ended up blind, and never wandered very far. He just walked circles and ate corn. He weighed about 1,400 and was the best beef I've ever eaten. I've threatened to gouge the eyes out of a calf for some more beef that tender.(No, I wouldn't really do that....maybe) Get them up to at least 20 pounds of corn a day for the last 100 days of their life, and it's gonna be good.

Edit: I should add that the three of us don't eat two fat calves a year on our own. We keep a few others in beef, as well.

 

[Craig Miller]

We love it. I kind of look at it as I'm so small I'll never make any money UNLESS I eat what I grow. I did some calculating on the first beef I did. At then current store prices, what I paid total for butcher is close to the same amount I would have paid for just the ground meat I got back. Then all the steaks and roast were "free". I have one more ready to go in november. I also have a lamb going at the same time. Possibly 2 which I don't think will be very much meat. And have hogs lined up for late spring. We may have to sell some to make it fit.

 

[DLD]

We always keep our own beef in the freezer, it's been that way all my life. We feed several steers for our kids to show every year, so we have a ready supply, and we sell quite a bit, too. We feed enough that even though some make the terminal premium sales, we still have some to eat. I rarely eat a steak when we eat out - it's almost always disappointing to me. Our youngest (twins) will graduate this year, but we'll keep feeding some butcher calves - they just won't be nearly as much work as we're used to...

 

[farmerjan]

Have been eating my own beef for probably 40 years. One thing, I mostly eat jersey or jersey x beef, occasionally a guernsey or guernsey x. They don't bring much at the yard when you get them up to 4-5 wts ready to wean, and I'll be d #$%^% d if I will give away some of the best flavored beef I have raised. Since I love my dairy cows, and they do one heck of a job raising calves for the most part, when they have bull calves, then it's beef. We also have killed a few angus that have had pinkeye and gone practically blind even after multiple treatments. We have a couple of people who get 1/4 or 1/2 a beef so it works out. I did price what I got one year; weighed out the steaks & what kind; the roasts and ground beef etc. and also found that the ground beef made the steaks practically free compared to if I had bought it at the store. Plus, I TOTALLY AGREE, I want to know where my beef comes from, what it ate etc.... And it sure is alot easier to just go get a steak, than to go grocery shopping and stand there and debate if you really want a steak that will cost near as much as a tank of gas in the little truck !!!!

 

[Anonymous]

We have been raising and eating our own steers for several years now. It's hard to find beef with the same flavor unless you go to a specialty meat store. No comparison in burger from a good steer vs grocery store. We've had a few cull cows ground for burger too. Not as good as steers but still better than grocery store. Our butcher is USDA certified. The last 3 steers butchered were packed for individual retail sale. We put together 20 lb mini boxes for sale. Seems that people like the smaller/cheaper box vs a 1/4.

 

[slick4591]

Guess I picked the wrong breed to raise. When my breed becomes more valuable in the freezer than the hoof I'll make the switch. For now, I'll still buy the black hided stuff, or I'd like to learn more about the dairy cross to try.

 

[bball]

Taking 2 steers in tomorrow. Its a must have in the freezer or mama ain't happy. We enjoy quality beef. Also, really enjoyable to treat company to a quality grilled steak. Sold more than a few halves of beef just from grilling steaks.

 

[hdrockn]

I started raising mini beef breed for the meat. We built a walk in cooler in the corner of the barn to age the carcass. There aren't any processors close to us so the smaller animal is easier to handle for this ole lady. We also share part of each animal with our children for our Christmas gift to each family. I love the flavor of our beef and I really love having babies to look forward to each fall and spring.

 

[shaz]

We keep one in the freezer and give some to the kids. Wife is allergic to everything so it's nice to have something organic.

 

[J&D Cattle]

We sell our beef calves but butcher a Jersey steer every year for ourselves. Dad feeds out 10 or so a year and normally just gives my brother and I's family a half each for Christmas. We've been eating Jersey for 10 years or so and love it.

 

[BRYANT]

I buy from store. worked in a packing plant and also ran a custom processing, most farm raised I cut I would not like. Not trying to start a fight but most of , NOT ALL , the farm raise I cut were way to lean for my liking and I would not walk across the road for a truck load of them lean ''grass fed beef''. I started feeding a steer a couple weeks ago that had a broke jaw when he was young and he was looking good but selling him today. We don't eat a lot of hamburger and there is certain cuts of steak that we don't like so I can take the money and buy just what I do like, I also can look and feel steak and pretty much know if it is going to be what I like. I might would look at this different if I had not been raised in a butchers home , we could buy beef cheap so I was almost burned out on beef as a youngster.

 

[Dave]

Beef is for selling, deer is for eating. I know a bunch of ranchers who live by that motto. The beef we eat is from the crippled ones that would bring nothing at the sale. They get penned up and fed grain for 60-90 days but we certainly don't eat the good ones. On the years I get an elk we eat very little beef. We do raise our own pork and chicken. There is a huge difference in the taste of home raise pork and chicken from that which comes from the grocery store.

 

[True Grit Farms]

We've never ate one of our steers. I guess we're lucky to have a custom meat shop close by that dry ages their meat and everything is corn fed CAB from Nebraska. I have a meat room, cooler and process 50+ deer a year. We eat a lot of seafood and I just can't make eating our own beef pencil out. How many 1 1/4" thick T-Bones can you get out of one big steer?

 

[Craig Miller]

Just making up numbers here. Let's say you sell a calf for $700. That calf goes to feed lot and back out to the grocery store. It will sell at the store for 700 plus cost to feed it plus packing plus profit margin. If you bought all the meat that calf makes from the grocer then you would spend all the 700 you got for it plus all their cost and profit. Therefore its cheaper to butcher your own. I see your point if you eat lots of other meats like Deer and seafood. I don't know how many t bones I get but it's probably 10+ at 1". Just a guess though on that.

 

[bigbull338]

i prefer to eat my own home raised beef over store beef.we have the meat cut into steaks for frying and hamberger meat.need to put 1 in the pen to feed out for 120 days or less now.i cant see feeding them to 1200lbs.

 

[1982vett]

I buy. All we use is ground chuck, brisket for bbq, chuck roast for stew and an occasional ribeye. Just 2 of us. Don't want a freezer full of stuff I don't want to cook. I remember the days just before dad would take a calf in. When soup bone was about all that was in the freezer..... i don't like boiled bones.....