NOT BIASED! What's the weight, frame, ect of your Ideal Cow?

[blackcowz]

I have to say, there are some excellent ideas going around here. I'm learning plenty for sure. I had a teacher tell me once, "Do what works". I reckon that applies to other areas than studying.

 

[greenwillowhereford II]

Agreed with Dun and Willowsprings

if you have sparse grazing, low protein food, you should look at breeds that can do better on that, the longhorn is a classic example of what worked in the american midwest, and it worked for a reason.

And when they wanted to breed some more beef on the Longhorn, the Herefords were the obvious choice because of their foraging and doing ability, as well as their hardiness through open range blizzards etc.

 

[brandonm_13]

I'm going to go off topic, or actually go back to topic and go out on a limb. My ideal cow size would be about the size of a Dexter (700-900lbs)

I prefer smallish cows; but THAT might be getting too lite. If an 800 lb (in good flesh) cow weans a calf half her body weight you are talking about a 400 pound weaned calf. Generally a steer finishes at ~the mature weight of his dam and heifers usually finish 10-15% less. You are talking about 800 lb finished steers and 700 lb finished heifers!!! That is 472 to 413 lb dressed carcass weights. The feedlot guys are getting absolutely killed at those weights. Just about every grid docks those little toads. IF you can find some niche conning some urban dwellers into giving you a $1000 a side for that, great; but if you have to market those calves in the mainstream commodity side.....you are going to get killed at the sale barn if people realize what they are buying.

That's kinda my point. All we do is raise the kinds of cattle that slaughter houses want so we can get wholesale prices. I would prefer a system where the producer raises what he or his patrons want and get retail for his product. I know of farmers that are doing that now. I just hope I can work my way into something like that someday.

 

[Brandonm22]

That's kinda my point. All we do is raise the kinds of cattle that slaughter houses want so we can get wholesale prices. I would prefer a system where the producer raises what he or his patrons want and get retail for his product. I know of farmers that are doing that now. I just hope I can work my way into something like that someday.

Every drug dealer knows that the smaller doses they can cut the product into the more money they can make. Beef works the same way. There ARE people out there who will pay a $1000 for a side; but most beef is sold in $3 to $40 increments. It PROBABLY would pay the consumer to buy a side for the year; but the vast majority don't have the skill too process it, the freezer space to store it, and can't/won't come up with a whole $G to pay for it like that. IF you break it down for them, you will sell out of T-bones and ribeyes pretty quick, move a handful of sirloins, and then be drowning in a sea of chuck roasts and ground beef. It is also a heck of a lot more convenient to pick up a family pack of steaks from Wal-Mart while you are buying bread, milk, clothes for the kids, light bulbs, a box of .22 shells, and replacing that jitterbug you lost on the lake last week, all while their tech department is changing the oil on the truck than it is to drive 40 miles into the country to pick up beef from some farmer dude way out in the country.

I am not saying that it can't be done (many do this successfully); just that there can be obstacles along the way. If you know that going in and you know that 99% of the consumers out there can't tell the difference between a Dexter and a Hereford and they don't have any brand loyalty to any specific breed (with Angus being the only possible exception), why not produce a product that is big enough that it could work in either the direct marketing or the commodity beef world??

The advantages of Dexters, mini-Herefords, Lowlines, and other miniatures is that they work on small acreages and can finish rapidly compared to conventional beef breeds. As far as the retail trade is concerned, you have just about as much kill costs whether you are butchering a 1200 lb steer or an 800 lb steer but you have less product too deliver with the smaller steer.

 

[brandonm_13]

Still not sure what the drug dealer has to do with it, but ...

A lot of people in/around my home county use the local butchers to process cows. Most go in on half the cow, so it's not so much. From personal experience, the kill cost is not that much of a variable. The slaughter house I use has a kill cost, a poundage cost, and a seasoning cost(I have hogs killed and get a lot of sausage). The poundage cost is the biggest variable, and so the price per pound only goes up slightly on a lighter weighted carcass.

Personally, I think we rely too much on Walmart and packaged food products. Sure, I'll pick up some meat every now and again, but I don't know who processed it, how healthy the cow was when it went into the slaughter facility, how clean a large slaughter facility really is compared to one that has to answer to local patrons, and so on... More and more diseased food keeps coming in, so more and more customers are concerned with the food they eat. That means there is a niche for clean, naturally-raised food from your own area. I guess I just prefer a steak that hasn't visited as many states as I have. :nod:

 

[djinwa]

A bit off the subject, but Brandonm22 and Brandonm_13, are you two related? If you're in the same family, why not just turn around and talk to each other?

 

[brandonm_13]

nope. no relation, but odd that our screen names are so similar.

 

[greenwillowhereford II]

We're serving 3 or 4 customers per year with Hereford beef. They buy into the live animal before butcher.