Is Butchering a Steer Worth It?

[highgrit]

I'am with CB on this one, can't afford to eat $1,000+ dollars of beef per year. Deer, seafood and other wild game dosen't leave much room for beef on the menu. And Friday is steak night for us, weather we eat in or go out.
We have done the math and it just doesn't add up and we process all our meat in house.

 

[inbredredneck]

at least i know what i grow..it aint eatin dead chicken and bubble gum

i also prefer to pick which drugs i ingest...for business or for pleasure :banana:

gary

you have no idea what could or could not be in your citrus pellets, or any other purchased feed for that matter.

 

[vclavin]

We just picked up some butchered beef to deliver.
400lbs hanging weight .. they weighed the pkged meat at 267lbs no liver, heart, etc.
172lbs was hamburger
the rest was round steak, stew meat, rump roast, club steak, sirloin steak, arm roast,
rib steak, porterhouse, chuck roast
.6675 of hanging weight
Valerie

 

[dieselbeef]

at least i know what i grow..it aint eatin dead chicken and bubble gum

i also prefer to pick which drugs i ingest...for business or for pleasure :banana:

gary

you have no idea what could or could not be in your citrus pellets, or any other purchased feed for that matter.

ah but i do sir..since i work in the mill that produces them...altho i cannot speak for other facilites i still think im ahead of the curve on what my animal ingests...funny that yall dont really share my concern...
aye hook..yeah...even if it costs more..look at the organic craze...peace of mind dont usually come easy..or cheap..and you can quote me on that..the price is always higher in my world

 

[Caustic Burno]

Back when I was a pup I became a journeyman butcher. Worked the trade for years before changing direction's.
Still worked it part time after that off and on.
Dealing with people who thought you had switched their meat or you had kept some steak's and substittuted hamburger was horrible. It got so bad we quit processing people's beef and venison. Dang deer was the worse some one would bring in a 150 pound deer and expect an elk's worth of meat.
I have never got the math to work as well as some either by the time I figured the cost of raising, processing,
then all the unwanted product's that went along with it. I tried both way's and got some great meat and some not so good. The good thing about the way we do it now is I might get a not so good steak once in awhile.
I don't have a freezer full of it.

 

[inbredredneck]

at least i know what i grow..it aint eatin dead chicken and bubble gum

i also prefer to pick which drugs i ingest...for business or for pleasure :banana:

gary

you have no idea what could or could not be in your citrus pellets, or any other purchased feed for that matter.

ah but i do sir..since i work in the mill that produces them...altho i cannot speak for other facilites i still think im ahead of the curve on what my animal ingests...funny that yall dont really share my concern...
aye hook..yeah...even if it costs more..look at the organic craze...peace of mind dont usually come easy..or cheap..and you can quote me on that..the price is always higher in my world

So the binder is?

 

[robertwhite]

We just picked up some butchered beef to deliver.
400lbs hanging weight .. they weighed the pkged meat at 267lbs no liver, heart, etc.
172lbs was hamburger
the rest was round steak, stew meat, rump roast, club steak, sirloin steak, arm roast,
rib steak, porterhouse, chuck roast
.6675 of hanging weight
Valerie

What was the on hoof weight?

And by your numbers, if you had a packaged weight of 267lbs minus the 172lbs of ground beef, that only leaves 95lbs of steaks, roasts, etc. Not exactly what I had in mind when thinking about butchering one of my steers. First off, it would take a family of 2 or 3 people a whole year to eat that much ground unless you eat it every day and secondly, I wouldn't want that much ground in the first place.

The more I look at it, the more CB seems to be right. I can get near 100 great steaks in the 16oz range for taking him to the yard. We don't eat anywhere near 100 steaks per yr, and we sure don't eat 150+ lbs of ground. I know that I can go to Costco and buy a whole slab of NY strips for under $100. The butcher will slice them into 1" steaks and we will get 14-15 out of that slab.

I'm thinking of it as I first have to put out a bunch of money to feed the steer, then I have to pay the man to butcher and wrap the meat. If I am only getting 350-400 lbs of meat from that 1100 lb steer AND I have to pay to have it processed, how could it be less expensive than to just go out and buy what I need, when I need it?

Maybe I am going about this all wrong, but it just seems to make more sense this way.

 

[Alan]

Sounds like you are coming to a decision, I agree with CB, if it was just my wife and I I wouldn't bother. But, I enjoy feeding out and seeing the finished product on hoof and then compare to the hanging weight and then cut and wrap. As you know I like the idea that my beef is grained finished, born and raised on my place,worm free, hormone free and for me cheaper and healthier than store bought. Again though, some profit comes in the from of labor from our kids, which is very nice. But just me and my wife we would go back to store bought ..... maybe.

As far a vclavin steer, sounds like a good average, one I would put in the 60% average. My last one was like that, a little heavy, but some have been a little lite. That's why 60% is a general average.

I also one that believes most butchers do not cheat or steal your meat, good ones need your business.

Alan

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

I found your link to be pretty interesting Farmgirl, thanks for posting it.

 

[vclavin]

We just picked up some butchered beef to deliver.
400lbs hanging weight .. they weighed the pkged meat at 267lbs no liver, heart, etc.
172lbs was hamburger
the rest was round steak, stew meat, rump roast, club steak, sirloin steak, arm roast,
rib steak, porterhouse, chuck roast
.6675 of hanging weight
Valerie

What was the on hoof weight?

And by your numbers, if you had a packaged weight of 267lbs minus the 172lbs of ground beef, that only leaves 95lbs of steaks, roasts, etc. Not exactly what I had in mind when thinking about butchering one of my steers. First off, it would take a family of 2 or 3 people a whole year to eat that much ground unless you eat it every day and secondly, I wouldn't want that much ground in the first place.

The more I look at it, the more CB seems to be right. I can get near 100 great steaks in the 16oz range for taking him to the yard. We don't eat anywhere near 100 steaks per yr, and we sure don't eat 150+ lbs of ground. I know that I can go to Costco and buy a whole slab of NY strips for under $100. The butcher will slice them into 1" steaks and we will get 14-15 out of that slab.

I'm thinking of it as I first have to put out a bunch of money to feed the steer, then I have to pay the man to butcher and wrap the meat. If I am only getting 350-400 lbs of meat from that 1100 lb steer AND I have to pay to have it processed, how could it be less expensive than to just go out and buy what I need, when I need it?

Maybe I am going about this all wrong, but it just seems to make more sense this way.

This is only on half the animal. The other half was not weighed after pkf but hanging weight was
373lbs. Guess they didn't cut it quite straight lol
So total hanging weight was 773 lbs.
Valerie

 

[vclavin]

oh, and not a steer, he was an Angus crossbred bull. He was fed an all high fiber diet not high energy. Ultrasound tested choice at yearling... I'd give you weight at ultrasound but program won't load.. heat stroke I guess lol

Valerie

 

[inbredredneck]

Check out this page. Gives a pretty good breakdown.

http://www.askthemeatman.com/yield_on_b ... #breakdown

IMHO it is absolutely worth it!

Thankfully none of those numbers add up correctly, that should further to mislead the uninformed.

Are you sure you did the math right, adds up just fine! Not trying to pick a fight just not sure where you find the faults.

I added it right, the numbers don't come out right, just as I stated the first time. Grab a calculator.

 

[chippie]

You don't have to feed it out to 1000 or 1100 lbs. You can butcher it at a smaller weight. We have raised a lot of Jersey steers and had them processed when they were around 800 lbs. Granted your roasts and steaks are smaller, but the meat was tender and good. We also had 5 kids at home then (7 in the family).

Now, everyone is mostly grown and there are only 3 to 4 of us here. We don't eat as much meat and now sell the calves and buy what we need.

 

[inbredredneck]

You don't have to feed it out to 1000 or 1100 lbs. You can butcher it at a smaller weight. We have raised a lot of Jersey steers and had them processed when they were around 800 lbs. Granted your roasts and steaks are smaller, but the meat was tender and good. We also had 5 kids at home then (7 in the family).

Now, everyone is mostly grown and there are only 3 to 4 of us here. We don't eat as much meat and now sell the calves and buy what we need.

killing light adds to the cost of production. This is not aimed at you chippie just a general statement.

 

[Workinonit Farm]

I also one that believes most butchers do not cheat or steal your meat, good ones need your business.

Same here. And the deal with that one hog (out of many, many) I think had more to do with the outfit being under new ownership and new management with all new staff.

I switched a couple of year ago because a place much closer to where I live had opened.

Katherine

 

[chippie]

You don't have to feed it out to 1000 or 1100 lbs. You can butcher it at a smaller weight. We have raised a lot of Jersey steers and had them processed when they were around 800 lbs. Granted your roasts and steaks are smaller, but the meat was tender and good. We also had 5 kids at home then (7 in the family).

Now, everyone is mostly grown and there are only 3 to 4 of us here. We don't eat as much meat and now sell the calves and buy what we need.

killing light adds to the cost of production. This is not aimed at you chippie just a general statement.

That is true. But at the time, the cost of feeding, killing & processing - it was still worth it.

Sometimes raising your own and knowing how it was fed and handled is worth the extra cost to some people.

 

[dieselbeef]

gary[/quote]
you have no idea what could or could not be in your citrus pellets, or any other purchased feed for that matter.[/quote]

ah but i do sir..since i work in the mill that produces them...altho i cannot speak for other facilites i still think im ahead of the curve on what my animal ingests...funny that yall dont really share my concern...
aye hook..yeah...even if it costs more..look at the organic craze...peace of mind dont usually come easy..or cheap..and you can quote me on that..the price is always higher in my world[/quote]
So the binder is?[/quote]


do you want an analysis..piss off yer not bustin my balls :tiphat: look it up..its online

 

[B&M Farms]

I butchered a steer 2 years ago that weighed 1230 and hung at 785. I got about 480lbs of packaged meat at a price of $350 for butchering. At the time I could have sold a 600lb weaned steer for at least a $1.25. Thats $1100 and we haven't added feeding him yet. You can't feed 1 steer as cheap as a feedlot can either. Anymore I make my hamburger out of deer meat and buy ribeyes to cut steaks from.

 

[salebarn junkie]

The only way i can make it work is if i buy or raise a calf with something wrong with it like bad eyes or rat tail i sell all my good calves. Recently ive started buying animals to big for the feedyards to mess with i bought 975 herford steer for 84 and a 1075 herf hefer for 80 put them grain for 40 days put one in the freezer sold the other one

 

[stockbub]

We butcher our steers at 750lbs. We get 425lbs of meat. No need to get steer to 1000 lbs. We can eat that much meat in a year and give some away. I like butchering young cause I have very little input cost. How much money would it take to get you to the 1000.