What's a fair price to sell farm beef for?

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Allen, we're sold out for 4 butcher steers w/ slaughter date in January at $4/lb. hanging weight, and customers pay share of $80 kill fee and all of 54 cents/lb. cut/wrap. We grain and alfalfa finish the last 60 days. Before then, pasture and grass hay. We have to match up quarter buyers sometimes, as our cutter takes instructions 1/2 at a time. We require $150 non-refundable deposit to hold, and we do this like 4 mos. before slaughter. So, we are "sold out" before then. Can't put a half back out on the pasture.
 
Named'em Tamed'em":1gz5z62e said:
Dave":1gz5z62e said:
The ads on CL in Seattle and Portland run between $2.85 to $4.50 a pound on the rail plus the cost of cutting wrapping. Most are between $3.00 and $4.00.

Named'em Tamed'em":1gz5z62e said:
My accountant pays $6 and up because it's predator friendly. :hide:

What the heck is "predator friendly" in your neighborhood? It is not like you are up in Stevens County fighting off wolves and cougars.


Not my neighborhood or my beef Dave, she travels to Oregon for a quarter.

You're sure sending a lot of the predator friendly heat into Oregon! :lol: :lol:
 
Thanks Kathie, I sold the quarters so quick I have to try to have more patience with the dumbest animal on earth and deal with them........ And I'm not talking about the steer.
 
SJB":1b2c4eu2 said:
the way i have it figured (which may be all washed up), is about $3-$5/lb hanging. that puts it in somebodies freezer for average $6-$8/lb. at the grocery store, ground chuck is $3something/lb, and ribeye is $15ish. and lord only knows where it comes from or what it was fed.

if i take care to select good animals, make sure they have good clean water, no unnecessary hormones/medicine, and feed them out with a good quality ration, $6/8lb is pretty fair deal.

and at $3/$5 hanging that puts me making decent money. better than taking to the sale and taking my chances with the market, which is also fair, considering my time and trouble to do the above.
I like the way you think brother!
 
Ram mentioned the potential for liability issues that could arise in a customer based beef business, have any of you ran into this? Im exploring a possible business deal in this area and one of my concerns is the liabilty issues. How can you protect yourself and business from the sue happy people?
 
I think the liability comes when you play the middle man between a USDA inspected processing facility and the customer.
 
Sd1030":2m82hjtk said:
Ram mentioned the potential for liability issues that could arise in a customer based beef business, have any of you ran into this? Im exploring a possible business deal in this area and one of my concerns is the liabilty issues. How can you protect yourself and business from the sue happy people?


First you need to check with your state and local government laws and regulations. In Oregon I'm not selling them a quarter of meat they are buying 25% of a live steer, that way the USDA is not involved and it's common knowledge that it is perfectly legal.
 
Thanks for the responses, alan i think thats how it works here. I talked with a friend of mine that does it and thats how it was explained to me, the buyer buys their part of the steer still on the hoof, she just carries it to slaughter. So shes not really selling it by piece by piece. Still some stuff i need to check into though.
 
Alan":utloaebh said:
Thanks Kathie, I sold the quarters so quick I have to try to have more patience with the dumbest animal on earth and deal with them........ And I'm not talking about the steer.
I hear ya. Every year, we have about 60% or more same customers as year before, and the rest are new ones. Not all our regulars buy every year. But it takes a couple years to "train" em; then there are new ones "in training," and repeaters that need the "refresher course." We charge that $150 nonrefundable deposit mos. ahead for 2 reasons: So they get spanked a little bit if they back out (obvious), but mostly so they've got plenty of time to save up for the big $$ hit at the end -- so many of them are just used to spending $15-$20 bucks for meat a couple times a week. I've got one customer backing out right now cuz he lost his job -- trying to get that half spoken for again, and when I do, I'll go ahead and refund his deposit.
 
Sd1030":1z89ju0i said:
Thanks for the responses, alan i think thats how it works here. I talked with a friend of mine that does it and thats how it was explained to me, the buyer buys their part of the steer still on the hoof, she just carries it to slaughter. So shes not really selling it by piece by piece. Still some stuff i need to check into though.

That's how we do it too. The price is pre-set per lb of hanging weight.
There is a big difference between selling shares of an animal and selling packaged retail meat (the latter generally requiring a USDA licensed facility etc).
I'm not sure about selling shares over state lines though...someone else may know...I know that's been an issue with raw milk sellers.
 
People write one check up front and get 225-300lbs of beef (depending on how long it's been aged) over the next 1.5 to 5.0 years (depending on how quickly they eat it; they'll get it in 70-100 pound bunches). Our program is a bit more complicated than anything else I'm aware of --- it's a program of our own design --- and we get super premiums for our high-touch approach to getting great beef in the hands of families wanting healthy and flavorful beef ... and a great story to go along with it.

While we don't price it by the pound, in order to translate to a more common production model ... two winters ago, we got a little over $4/lb (hanging weight) for a 12yr old cull cow (and our buyers were clamoring for her beef; the phrase 'beef butter' was used to describe her ribeyes and filets); earlier this year, we got similar pricing for a bull who was no longer fitting our program (and our buyers told us his roasts were so tender they cut them with their forks -- not bad for a 5yr old in-tact bull).
 
WalnutCrest":2xc8x7ht said:
People write one check up front and get 225-300lbs of beef (depending on how long it's been aged) over the next 1.5 to 5.0 years (depending on how quickly they eat it; they'll get it in 70-100 pound bunches). Our program is a bit more complicated than anything else I'm aware of --- it's a program of our own design --- and we get super premiums for our high-touch approach to getting great beef in the hands of families wanting healthy and flavorful beef ... and a great story to go along with it.

While we don't price it by the pound, in order to translate to a more common production model ... two winters ago, we got a little over $4/lb (hanging weight) for a 12yr old cull cow (and our buyers were clamoring for her beef; the phrase 'beef butter' was used to describe her ribeyes and filets); earlier this year, we got similar pricing for a bull who was no longer fitting our program (and our buyers told us his roasts were so tender they cut them with their forks -- not bad for a 5yr old in-tact bull).
Are you telling your customers your selling them these beautiful old cull cows and bulls or are you just sneaking it to them with your great story lol! ...ha I'll stick with my grain fed steers!
 
They request the older animals. The flavor is much better in older animals. This is why the most expensive beef in Europe is a 5-8 year old cow and the second most expensive is 4 year old steer.
 

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