meat cow - cost/pound - adventures in feeding my family :)

chiknmama

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Heya all -

I am taking our meat cow to the butcher today. We sat and figured it all up - what we bought her for, what we have fed her and what it'll cost to process her (and how much meat we'll get, aprox.) and it comes out to about $2.10 per pound of meat. Yesterday I paid $2.49 a pound for HAMBURGER!!!

The cost per pound might vary a little, once we get her dressed out and find her exact meat rate - (we are figuring about 350 pounds dressed) I'll post and let ya know -

But, I have to think that she really wasn't THAT much trouble to raise, and it is well worth it for that cost.

We paid about $200 for Stella when we got her last spring (March, I believe)- fed her cracked corn, sweet feed, and hay (the hay was from us, so it didn't cost). Processing is going to be .39 cents a pound - we could do it cheaper, but I wanted it vacuum wrapped. Plus the kill fee, which should be about 40 bucks. The last two months she has had nothing but cracked corn and hay - no sweet feed, so she should taste mighty fine.

We had to build a corral, to keep her in - she went through the horse fence five times in 15 minutes, LOL. But the corral can be used again, so I didn't really add that in to the cost - we can use it for donkeys, goats or other cows (which we will definately be doing again). With a couple of modifications, it could even be used for pigs - we built this corral for just about any animal you can think of.

I'll update with the final cost evaluation after we get her processed.

ETA - the hay didn't cost us, because we have someone come in and do everything and just take half - no out of pocket expense for us at all.)

Peace -
Meriah
 

FarmerChick

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great deal!

my hog processing is about the same.
kill charge $40--.35 per pound and YES you save alot of money but key being, you know exactly what you are eating. Biggest plus in my book! Enjoy that great meat you raised!!!!!
 

Wildsky

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I think we're going to get lucky soon.

My husband cousin is "processing" a couple this month - with any luck we can hop in on the deal - they can't eat all that meat themselves! :D
 

chiknmama

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Here's some pics I took of Stella. This is her size when we got her. She's in the partially done corral at this point. Isn't she cute?

P0002663.jpg


This is about mid summer - it took her awhile to get going on weight, but once she hit a certain mark, she gained about 1 1/2 to 2 inches around her girth per week.

P0002838.jpg


P0002836.jpg


I'll grab a pic of her before we take her in and post it in this post. She is about 800+ pounds last time we taped her. I can't wait to see how she tastes, LOL - she is always licking me every time I get close enough, I keep telling her one day I'll be having cow tongue sandwiches.

Yeah, she's a holstein, not a "beef" cow. She was a twin, and therefore no good for breeding anyway, so we raised her for meat.

Ok, got pics -

P0003183.jpg

P0003182.jpg


Peace -
Meriah
 

patandchickens

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Great info, glad you posted this. Certianly gives me something to think about!

What do you (or anyone else) know about raising cattle on *pasture* for beef? I keep thinking about it but really have no idea where to look for info and I don't even know enough about it to know if it's a possibility. (Like, how long does it take from when you buy a calf or whatever to when it's a reasonable slaughter weight, and does it need grain as well as pasture, and would just 1 be ok [with calm older horses] or would it be too lonely without a friend and if so isn't that a problem b/c there is no way we would have freezer space for *2* of them, etc etc etc)

Pat
 

Wildsky

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Pat,
I'm no expert, but my husband cousin keeps his cows on pasture 100% - no added grain, he has alot of property and they move around, he also keeps other peoples cattle during winter I believe. They do give extra hay in winter.
(but from what I've seen in the storage shed, its not a lot of added hay)

You should get a good weight keeping a cow a year, from baby - over winter and then process. Some folk do two years.
You could get two, process one in a year, and then get another baby when you send one to process - and keep rotating like that perhaps. (keeping two all the time, but buying and processing one a year.)

I much prefer pasture/grass fed beef over corn fed - I believe the meat is a little tougher, but more tasty and healthy.
 

patandchickens

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Wildsky said:
You should get a good weight keeping a cow a year, from baby - over winter and then process. Some folk do two years.
You could get two, process one in a year, and then get another baby when you send one to process - and keep rotating like that perhaps. (keeping two all the time, but buying and processing one a year.)
That's an interesting idea... but I do not think we could keep cattle over the winter, the hay costs would be a KILLER and I doubt they could live with the horses (b/c of hay sharing) which would require another shed... :(

Pat
 

chiknmama

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Wildsky said:
Pat,
I'm no expert, but my husband cousin keeps his cows on pasture 100% - no added grain, he has alot of property and they move around, he also keeps other peoples cattle during winter I believe. They do give extra hay in winter.
(but from what I've seen in the storage shed, its not a lot of added hay)

You should get a good weight keeping a cow a year, from baby - over winter and then process. Some folk do two years.
You could get two, process one in a year, and then get another baby when you send one to process - and keep rotating like that perhaps. (keeping two all the time, but buying and processing one a year.)

I much prefer pasture/grass fed beef over corn fed - I believe the meat is a little tougher, but more tasty and healthy.
I would do more pasture, but we have her in a dry lot, because she really has no idea what fencing means (unless it is Fort Knox) LOL. I am hoping to get some pasture for the next batch of cows we do - but it'll have to wait til we get around to buying the fecning needed for them (and not the horse fecning - that just doesn't cut it.)

Peace -
Meri
 

chiknmama

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patandchickens said:
Wildsky said:
You should get a good weight keeping a cow a year, from baby - over winter and then process. Some folk do two years.
You could get two, process one in a year, and then get another baby when you send one to process - and keep rotating like that perhaps. (keeping two all the time, but buying and processing one a year.)
That's an interesting idea... but I do not think we could keep cattle over the winter, the hay costs would be a KILLER and I doubt they could live with the horses (b/c of hay sharing) which would require another shed... :(

Pat
Yeap, I didn't want to keep her over winter, we got her in March and now in October are butchering her. We won't get another until spring - no sense paying for the feed bill all winter, when the cow will get big enough during summer for our use.

We figured out how much beef we eat, and figured how much we would get out of her (aprox.) and decided to butcher now before having to feed her overwinter.

350+/- pounds of beef is about 2-3 pounds per meal per 3-4 times a week per year. (I had it figured more exact, LOL didn't write it down, but this is close to what I came up with.) That is a for a family of 4, with friends and relatives thrown in now and then. This beef ought to last us a year, I am thinking.

We are also ( if we have room in the freezer) getting a pig to split with a friend of ours - another 150 pounds or so of pork. and if I do meat chickens next spring - well, we ought to be eating well (which is good, because we may not be able to drive to the store with gas prices :) )

Peace -
Meri
 

chiknmama

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patandchickens said:
Great info, glad you posted this. Certianly gives me something to think about!

What do you (or anyone else) know about raising cattle on *pasture* for beef? I keep thinking about it but really have no idea where to look for info and I don't even know enough about it to know if it's a possibility. (Like, how long does it take from when you buy a calf or whatever to when it's a reasonable slaughter weight, and does it need grain as well as pasture, and would just 1 be ok [with calm older horses] or would it be too lonely without a friend and if so isn't that a problem b/c there is no way we would have freezer space for *2* of them, etc etc etc)

Pat
We did a dry lot, and just one cow - she did get lonely sometimes, but the donkeys come over and hang with her (and they get a good licking for the deal, LOL - I guess if ya can't get scratched behind the ears from the humans, the cow licking you will suffice).

She is usually happy as long as she has hay to munch on and a nice shady place to lay down. I've found she doesn't mind having "other" friends - not necesary to have another cow - donkey, horse, just about anything will keep her happy. She had a stoopid rooster that lived with her for 4 months - slept with her, slept on her, once slept under her, LOL he almost didn't recover from that one.

Time depends on type of cow - beef cows, I believe will bulk up faster, Stella is a holstein, so it took her longer to get started, and we won't get as much meat per weight out of her. But, (added it all in above post) you just determine what amount of beef ya need, and determine how much (processed) the cow will weigh out, and that decides when you take them to slaughter. You can get Beef Tapes - that you put around their girth and it tells you how much they weigh - so you can determine how much they are gaining per week, etc.. TSC carries them, most feedstores, too.

Peace -
Meriah
 
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