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
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