THE SQUIRREL CHALLENGE: Want to join?

[Tallman]

FD, it is very high on my list to find and buy meat in bulk that is in my price range. I could handle double what I am paying if it is really raised well, but even that is a stretch on our budget! I'm gonna check out a nearby bison farm soon.....And am hoping my silly turkey hen will start to sit on those eggs she keeps rearranging!

If you have some local locker plants that butcher, they would know who to contact. My father sold locker beef along with one of his brothers, and they would advertise in the local (small town) paper. In order to find these little locker plants you will most likely have to check out the smaller towns. If you have any livestock auction barns in the area, they could tell you who sells locker beef or point you in the direction of a locker. In most cases, you can buy a half or a quarter of a beef if you are dealing with someone who does this on a regular bases.

I know a fellow who went to the livestock auction and bought a steer which had horns. He just roped it around the horns, tied the rope to the bumper of his car and headed for the locker plant. I don't advise that method, but I know it was done at least once.

 

[freemotion]

I did that with one such place I found, (I will be getting lots of free fat this fall from them as a result!) and the best they could recommend does pasture their beeves, then ruin it by "finishing" them for several weeks on hay and corn in confinement. I may just see if I can get someone to split one with me, and see if they will skip the finishing and just bring one from pasture to processing.

I found a couple of places that advertised expensive cuts, when I went to visit unannounced, the cattle were in muddy paddocks without a blade of grass in site. Not what I had in mind! I won't be giving up, though. I think I will do better in Maine, and I travel there to visit my folks now and then.

 

[Farmfresh]

Another idea - an one that I will be trying later this year - is to purchase a large 600 - 800 pound "feeder calf". These are usually grass (grass/milk) fed up until sale as feeders. Plus this should be plenty of beef for our freezer. It is even considered more of a delicacy - not veal (they are only milk fed), but baby beef!

I would definitely not recommend the bumper idea. First of all ... have you seen how they make cars these days! But seriously ... I saw a horse tied to a car bumper one time that spooked and drug the car around a while (causing LOTS of damage) before breaking loose. NOT PRETTY. Some people just do not realize the amount of power a large animal really has.

 

[Beekissed]

Another idea - an one that I will be trying later this year - is to purchase a large 600 - 800 pound "feeder calf". These are usually grass (grass/milk) fed up until sale as feeders. Plus this should be plenty of beef for our freezer. It is even considered more of a delicacy - not veal (they are only milk fed), but baby beef!

I would definitely not recommend the bumper idea. First of all ... have you seen how they make cars these days! But seriously ... I saw a horse tied to a car bumper one time that spooked and drug the car around a while (causing LOTS of damage) before breaking loose. NOT PRETTY. Some people just do not realize the amount of power a large animal really has.

I agree with the baby beef idea. This is what I will be doing with mine this year, which will be a real first for my family~to own a baby beef and process it on our own. This is the perfect size, though, for a person to do home processing. And, FF, I've heard the same thing....the meat is far superior to 2 yr. old steer. Milk fattened, tender, just the right amount for a small family.

 

[freemotion]

That's what we ate when I was a kid. It was too expensive to buy hay for a growing steer all winter, so it was slaughtered in the fall when the pasture was no longer supporting it and it was using feed to stay warm rather than grow. At our poorest we ate the best! Imagine that!

 

[Beekissed]

I can imagine that....it was the same with us! We ate almost completely off the homestead and it was gooooooood! Fresh and canned deer meat, fresh milk and butter, fresh and canned veggies and fruit, dark, sweet honey, fresh homemade bread.......all cooked on a wood cookstove! Didn't know just how good we had it!

 

[Farmfresh]

Started canning green beans tonight!

 

[SKR8PN]

My farmer friend that I helped bale hay with last week , is thinking about selling off one of his newborn calves. He already has a bull,doesn't want to feed it this winter, and doesn't really need another steer in HIS freezer right now......
We may have to purchase another freezer this fall.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Wow, SKR8PN, you really are trying to keep ahead of the game

 

[Farmfresh]

SKR8PN you must have food rotation down to a science.

Can you give us some hints?