selling beef

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peb

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Hi all... finally got rain here in the Ozarks really nice coloring in the hills. My ? is i'am about ready to send a couple of beefs to the butchers for family members, first time for us to do this... How do i charge them and be fair about it to all. I'am only gonna have about 45 days grain in them and they will pay proccessing price..... thanks PEB
 
As long as you don't sell to general public, you probably won't have to have the beef USDA inspected at processors.

Now...

Two ways you could charge your family for the beef:

1) The actual cost of the animal, its care & feeding, etc., for the time you have owned the animal, plus the processing costs, and your travel expense to and from the processors, would be your bottomline break even cost for the animal (live weight), DIVIDED by the number of POUNDS of packaged beef you ended up with.

2) The average SALE price for an animal at an auction in the weight class for your breed, divided by the number of pounds of processed/packaged beef you end up with.

Either method will give you +/- a break even cost for your animal.

Or, you could sell your family "shares" of the animal (quarter, half of beef) and let them pay the processor. Share price would be based on either #1 or #2 above.

Note: Obviously, hamburger is worth less than prime rib (yours or the supermarkets). To keep your family members from killing each other on the deal, you would probably need to prorate the packaged costs based on # of pounds of each cut they got, etc.
 
How about a simpler formula . A dollar a pound standing. Fourty five days on feed concerns me some.
 
ollie":2qcl8tnp said:
Fourty five days on feed concerns me some.

Depends on the genetics. We had a heifer on feed for 47 days, clover pasture and about 1 1/2% body weight of mostly corn gluten and soy hulls. She finished very well, a little heavy on the backfat, but marbling about high choice.

dun
 
Here is how I do it:

Find out what the rail price for beef is. That is the value for an animal after it has been slaughtered and is hanging. Your slaughter house will know what the price is.

Add in the cost for killing, cutting and wrapping.

Total it all up and that is the bare minimum price.

In my area the average price for all of this comes to about $1.75 per pound after the animal is processed.

Put any profit and expenses you want on top of that - ie: 50 bucks for hauling the animal to be killed and so on.

In the end a person gets a whole half of beef for around $2 bucks to $2.50 a pound - give or take a few dollars.

Do not worry about the cost of various cuts.

One 15 pound prime rib roast will easily go the best part of 100 bucks or better in a store.

Burger goes for around two bucks a pound for better quality - and often higher.

In the end your family will get 300 pound plus of quality meat per side for around 600 - 700 dollars. There is no way in Gods Green Acres they could do this in any store.

As for inspection - well, most reputable processors do this anyway - and it is an added bonus.

Whatever you do, do not start trying to figure out what each cut of meat is worth - believe me it will run you into trouble in the end.

So you will probably end up with about 1200 bucks in your jeans for each animal before you factor in all of your costs for travel and processing.

Any more questions you can PM me

Regards

Bez
 
dun":39u6kw8v said:
ollie":39u6kw8v said:
Fourty five days on feed concerns me some.

Depends on the genetics. We had a heifer on feed for 47 days, clover pasture and about 1 1/2% body weight of mostly corn gluten and soy hulls. She finished very well, a little heavy on the backfat, but marbling about high choice.

dun
What do you call a little heavy on the back fat. Why didn't she go into the feeder program you are in?
 
ollie":1b1ubeae said:
dun":1b1ubeae said:
ollie":1b1ubeae said:
Fourty five days on feed concerns me some.

Depends on the genetics. We had a heifer on feed for 47 days, clover pasture and about 1 1/2% body weight of mostly corn gluten and soy hulls. She finished very well, a little heavy on the backfat, but marbling about high choice.

dun
What do you call a little heavy on the back fat. Why didn't she go into the feeder program you are in?

1/2 to 3/4 inch. She was too light. Her dam is the one we just shipped because of the dainty looking calves she throws/raises. They make a Jersey look coarse and heavy boned. But at 16 months she walked across the scale at 982 lbs.
That cow was one of those foolers. Everyone that saw her raved about what a great looking cow she was, and she was a great LOOKING cow. But none of her calves really grew until they hit a year, then they really put it on. 1100 lbs and brought 59 cents.

dun
dun
 
thanks for all your input .... I think a $1.00 lb. standing is a fair price for all. Once again thanks and i really enjoy and need this board it really help a newbie just getting started PEB :lol:
 
We call our local slaughter house to get their average $ hanging weight.
In this area it worked out to $1.85 includes the cost for killing, cutting and wrapping.
 
I'm not trying to offend anyone, but I'm always curious how people charge their family and friends more than market price and think they are giving them a good deal.

If you are direct marketing all you beef and are able to get $1.00/lb. from all your customers that is great, and if you want to charge your family and friends the same price that is fine also. But I've always considered a "fair price" to be market price.

I new a guy that raised a few hogs each year and charged his family and friends 10% over the cost he had in them. Again this is fine, and his family agreed to this. But he acted like he was doing a huge favor to them by doing this. Meanwhile hogs were selling for 20 cents that are finished on grain down the road, and his that were fed table scraps were selling for 80 cents. And he's making himself out to be a saint. I just didn't understand that logic.

If you grandmothers house needs painting and she gets an estimate for $1000 from the painter in town. But she decides she wants you to do it. Would you charge her $1200 because that is a "fair" price?
 
ChrisB":30dvgxld said:
If you are direct marketing all you beef and are able to get $1.00/lb. from all your customers that is great, and if you want to charge your family and friends the same price that is fine also. But I've always considered a "fair price" to be market price.

Do yo think 1.00/lb standing is to high?????
 
I'm not going to comment on the prices here, as we don't sell meat to anyone, but don't you think knowing where it came from and how the beef was raised is worth a little more per pound?
 
$1.00 per pound is not too high I don't think if I were selling it to regular customers. But if I have say 30 head ready to sell and I keep 3 back for family and friends and I get say 85 cents for the other 27 how am I being fair to my family by selling it to them for $1.00? That was really my only point.

And yes it is worth more to know where your food comes from and how it was raised. But it still seems to me like you shouldn't expect more from your family than you would get from the local packer.

But after saying that; I think across the border in Canada and the situation up there, I would think family members wouldn't mind paying at least the cost of production if not a bit more.
 
1.00 per pound for a fat steer that you know where it came from, what it was fed and how it was fed is a deal.
 
It may be a deal for a regular customer. But if you have 2 steers, you sell one at the auction for .85 and you sell the other to your brother for 1.00. How did you give them a deal? He could have went down to the auction barn for a couple hours and saved himself $200. To me that is not giving a family member a deal. But I am not trying to tell anyone how to do things, I just don't get the logic of how you are being so kind and giving them a deal.
 
Peace of mind is worth something. And if you only have 2 steers odds are you are not going to feed them out and then haul them to the auction barn so the extra work on your part is worth something as well.
 
the calves I sell at the sell barn are a little different than what I butcher or sell to family or friends.. :) I put a little more feed and time in a butcher calf , so he is worth more...
 
I just used 2 steers as an example to try and show the value of an animal, and it doesn't matter if you put more feed into it. Peace of mind shouldn't even come into the equation when you are dealing with family. The bottom line is what is that animal worth on the open market. If you can get $1.00 a pound at the auction; then you are not making extra money from your family; if that animal would bring $.85 on the open market, that would be a fair price for a family member. Remember I am just talking about family and friends.

I'll try and use another example. If you need to buy hay and your brother happens to have a lot of hay to sell. He has been getting $40 per ton for it at the local hay auction. You want to buy some from him and he tells you $50 per ton. How does he justify this? By telling you that you can have peace of mind knowing he uses enviromentally friendly farming practices, and you can trust him when he says it wasn't rained on. Did he give you a deal? Maybe you do, but I would feel he was taking advantage of me. If I wanted I could go down to the hay auction and buy the same hay he tried to sell me for $10 less and still have the peace of mind that seems to be so important.

Maybe I just come from a weird family. I am not trying to say there is anything unethical about it since both parties agree on the price. I am just trying to understand the logic of how paying more for something than it is worth is a deal. It is a good business move though.
 
ChrisB":3hgq5hg2 said:
I am just trying to understand the logic of how paying more for something than it is worth is a deal. It is a good business move though.

I don't think it's paying more, but paying for two different things. I would sell them a steer right out of the pasture for .85 lb (good deal right now), but if they want me to pen it up, put $300 worth feed/hay in it, and then sell it for .85 lb (tremendous deal), I would have to say no - even to family.

I think the $1.00 lb everyone is talking about is for a calf that is fed out and ready to butcher. To me that's a good deal. If I was feeding one out for the general public, I would probably sell it for around $1.50 lb, live weight, and then the customer would resume responsiblity for the remaining slaughter cost. Even that price is cheaper than what you can buy beef at the grocery store.
 

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