Organic Beef

[Anonymous]

Did anyone see the ABC news piece about the Davis Mountian ranchers that are raising organic beef and doing a lot of direct marketing? They're planning on tripling their herd size in the next 5 years. It would seem that this may be good for ranching. Opinions?

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[Anonymous]

I look on it as the same as emu, ostrich, llama, etc. The market will get saturated and only the first folks will benefit. That's what usually happens with niche markets. At the price they quoted, I wonder how much demand there is for $22.00 a lb steak

dun

> Did anyone see the ABC news piece
> about the Davis Mountian ranchers
> that are raising organic beef and
> doing a lot of direct marketing?
> They're planning on tripling their
> herd size in the next 5 years. It
> would seem that this may be good
> for ranching. Opinions?

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, I saw the story about organic beef. In my opionion, I don't think the demand for organic beef will ever surpass the market for regular feedlot cattle. I just don't see how the average person can afford to pay that much for beef. The story mentioned that McDonalds was thinking about going organic with their beef. If that happens, no more .99 meals. They would all be $9.99!!

The question I have is "Where does all the expense come in for the rancher?" To mean it seems there is less expense in raising organic beef. The way I understand it, organic beef cattle are raised on grass and no vaccination/shots are allowed. I'm not sure about the record keeping process or what types of supplemental feed are allowed. Maybe that's where the extra expenses are incurred. I think the biggest problem with raising organic beef would be finding a consistent market place to sell them.

-----------------------------

> Did anyone see the ABC news piece
> about the Davis Mountian ranchers
> that are raising organic beef and
> doing a lot of direct marketing?
> They're planning on tripling their
> herd size in the next 5 years. It
> would seem that this may be good
> for ranching. Opinions?

 

[Anonymous]

For what little I know about organic food growing (vegetables or meat), true that growers can't use inorganic fertilizers or pesticides. The flip side of the coin is that when you go "au natural", that leaves the door wide open for noxious insects and other pests; therefore, there seems to be a higher loss percentage that can't be sold.

The other factor is that any organic "grower" has a tremendous amount of paperwork, and state inspections, and other stuff.

Still the other factor is all those "organic nuts" out there that are afraid they might eat some real normally grown food (probably the same ones that live on $1. a glass bottled water). To keep their "bodies pure", then the organic food consumers are more than willing to pay outrageous prices for "pure food" (and, some of the attraction to paying high prices for food "might" be a status thing--like, "guess how much I paid for your ground beef?".



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[Anonymous]

like alot of other fads they come and go. time will tell, it always does. i remember seeing angus cattle bringing the lowest prices and now they are on fire again.
> I look on it as the same as emu,
> ostrich, llama, etc. The market
> will get saturated and only the
> first folks will benefit. That's
> what usually happens with niche
> markets. At the price they quoted,
> I wonder how much demand there is
> for $22.00 a lb steak

> dun



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[Anonymous]

I only saw the last bit, and wasn't there to hear the 22.00 a pound deal. That's way too much They advertizing on the radio around here, and Austin has a real bunch of health conscious poeple. You wouldn't believe how much water gets sold in 20 oz. bottles for a dollar or more. I want to sell Salad Bar beef as Joel Salatin does at 3-4.00 a pound by direct marketing. The rest will go to the auction.

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[Anonymous]

Here's an off-beat comment...lol.

Pump 1,000 gals of good clean water out of your well. Have a printer print some nice self stick labels for you for $100 or so. Buy some plastic quart water bottles for .10 cents or so each. Bottle your well water and take it to Austin (and other "fern bar" cities) and sell it for $1.29 a quart and market it as "Natural" water. Use all that profit to feed your cattle...lol.

P.S.: The "fern bar water drinkers" would probably never know the difference (as long as your stick-on label looked "healthy")....

This message is intended as a joke...don't want to antagonize the EPA or Health Department...

Final question: "Do people that drink bottled water live longer or shorter and are more or less healthy than people that drink real well water?"

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[Anonymous]

I read an article a while ago that said the demand for organic beef is not comparable with the demand for organic fruit and vegs. The health conscious people who can afford and are willing to buy organic produce often don't even eat meat, especially beef. Some apple producers in Washington have said that so many people were raising a particular type of organic apple, the premium is no longer there for the producer. You might check the <A HREF="http://www.drovers.com" TARGET="_blank">www.drovers.com</A> site or search the archives here at Cattle Today and see if you can find the article about organic beef.

I think the real expenses involved in producing organic is that the pastures have to be declared organic, too. And that might take several years. Vaccinations are OK, just no growth hormones or antibiotics. "Natural" beef is easier because the pastures don't have to be certified. Just no hormones or antibiotics. You might look at the <A HREF="http://www.bradley3ranch.com" TARGET="_blank">www.bradley3ranch.com</A> site. Minnie Lou Bradley, at Memphis, TS, has been very successful with her "natural" beef. Good luck....

> I only saw the last bit, and
> wasn't there to hear the 22.00 a
> pound deal. That's way too much
> They advertizing on the radio
> around here, and Austin has a real
> bunch of health conscious poeple.
> You wouldn't believe how much
> water gets sold in 20 oz. bottles
> for a dollar or more. I want to
> sell Salad Bar beef as Joel
> Salatin does at 3-4.00 a pound by
> direct marketing. The rest will go
> to the auction.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the links. I'll look into them.

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[Anonymous]

Bill

ROTHLMAO! It wouldn't surprise me if it worked, these earth hippies being what they are.

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[Anonymous]

That's not so far from the truth! We run a little bait store not too far from Lincoln, Nebraska. During our summer season, people bring their containers and line up to fill up out of our well. They don't want to drink the water available at the lakes and it's well water too. All the deep wells in this area are tapped into the same aquifer -- what comes out of the hydrant at the lakes is the exact same water as we have here. But you can't convince them of that. It's very tempting to develop a label and sell it through the store. Labels could easily be done on your own computer for the cost of the label paper. I'll have to check the regulations on that -- if I remember right, there is very little regulation concerning bottled water.

Ann B

> Here's an off-beat comment...lol.

> Pump 1,000 gals of good clean
> water out of your well. Have a
> printer print some nice self stick
> labels for you for $100 or so. Buy
> some plastic quart water bottles
> for .10 cents or so each. Bottle
> your well water and take it to
> Austin (and other "fern
> bar" cities) and sell it for
> $1.29 a quart and market it as
> "Natural" water. Use all
> that profit to feed your
> cattle...lol.

> P.S.: The "fern bar water
> drinkers" would probably
> never know the difference (as long
> as your stick-on label looked
> "healthy")....

> This message is intended as a
> joke...don't want to antagonize
> the EPA or Health Department...

> Final question: "Do people
> that drink bottled water live
> longer or shorter and are more or
> less healthy than people that
> drink real well water?"



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[Anonymous]

A couple of years before we left the desert, a company built a water bottling plant just north of us. They drew their water straight of the california (LA) aquaduct. They filtered it bottled it and sold it for big bucks in LA. Idiots

dun

> That's not so far from the truth!
> We run a little bait store not too
> far from Lincoln, Nebraska. During
> our summer season, people bring
> their containers and line up to
> fill up out of our well. They
> don't want to drink the water
> available at the lakes and it's
> well water too. All the deep wells
> in this area are tapped into the
> same aquifer -- what comes out of
> the hydrant at the lakes is the
> exact same water as we have here.
> But you can't convince them of
> that. It's very tempting to
> develop a label and sell it
> through the store. Labels could
> easily be done on your own
> computer for the cost of the label
> paper. I'll have to check the
> regulations on that -- if I
> remember right, there is very
> little regulation concerning
> bottled water.

> Ann B

 

[Anonymous]

It takes quite a bit longer to finish a steer out on grass compared to a grain filled diet. I 've heard two years isn't uncommon.

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