Raising a beef cow/steer - looking for advice and tips

[MotorSeven]

Processing fee here is .50 cents a lb on the hoof + a $30 kill bill.....so a 1K lb cow = $530 which comes out to about 400lbs of processed meat. That's cut or ground anyway you want it, double vacuum sealed and marked with labels.

We only grass feed our cows, yes they taste a little different, but the meat is lean and we have grown to really like it. It is legal to have your own beef processed for consumption, but {cough}illegal{cough} to sell it without a USDA stamp. Kinda silly, since, I can buy a cow today, drive it straight to the processor and have it done for myself legally, but I can't buy already processed meat without a stamp. Processing facilities with a USDA inspector charge more per lb so you will have to shop that around.

I agree, pen raising a cow is going to cost you as much in feed/hay as buying one from a farmer and having it processed. Around here you can buy a 800 lb calf for a little over a dollar a lb, add that to your processing fee and you still come out way ahead vs buying from a butcher.....unless you have to run out and buy a chest freezer And you're getting a cow that has not been injected with antibiotics & hormones, or shipped to a feed lot where they are fattened up on a cocktail of stuff that trashes their digestive tract. Since we have switched to grass fed, I can't stand store bought meat, it's tough and has no flavor at all.

 

[General Lee]

One thing I failed to mention is some other family members may go in half on butchering costs. My family couldn't eat a whole cow in a year, so splitting it would help in costs too.

 

[joshuabardwell]

If you consider cost effectiveness keep on visiting the butcher shop.:thumbsup:

At least around here, you can come out way ahead of the butcher or the grocery store by buying a market-weight animal from a small producer. Typically, you pay them a deposit some months in advance, then they transport to the processor and you pick up after paying the remainder. Also, the meat is far higher quality than typical grocery store fare. If you plan to raise the animal yourself, you will have a lot of up-front costs, like fencing, that will keep you in the red at least for the first few years, but eventually you will come out ahead.

EDIT TO ADD: If you need to pick up a chest freezer, you can typically find good bargains on Craigslist. Just be sure the thing runs and gets cold. There is a chance you will bust out and get one that has a compressor leak or something, but for the most part, chest freezers are pretty tough, and if they run and get cold, they will probably keep working for a while.

 

[General Lee]

I'm good on freezer space I believe. The fencing will put me in the red for sure. I want to do cattle gate fencing but I'm betting its expensive per panel. Maybe I'll luck out and can find some on craigslist. I'd have to run an extension cord quite a ways in order to electrify the fence.

This is something I'd like to keep costs down on materials as much as possible in case I don't care for the whole experience and don't do it again. I'd like to try it at least once though. Spending for feed and grain is just what it is, I won't skimp in that area.

 

[Egon]

At least around here, you can come out way ahead of the butcher or the grocery store by buying a market-weight animal from a small producer. Typically, you pay them a deposit some months in advance, then they transport to the processor and you pick up after paying the remainder. Also, the meat is far higher quality than typical grocery store fare. If you plan to raise the animal yourself, you will have a lot of up-front costs, like fencing, that will keep you in the red at least for the first few years, but eventually you will come out ahead.



EDIT TO ADD: If you need to pick up a chest freezer, you can typically find good bargains on Craigslist. Just be sure the thing runs and gets cold. There is a chance you will bust out and get one that has a compressor leak or something, but for the most part, chest freezers are pretty tough, and if they run and get cold, they will probably keep working for a while.

You are buying a finished animal. Not feeding out just one animal. There is a diffErence.

 

[joshuabardwell]

Cattle gate fencing is going to be expensive as heck, but at least it'll be relatively easy to re-sell if you don't like the process. I'm familiar with using cattle panels for temporary fencing, but I've never used it for permanent fencing. I assume there's some way to affix it to the ground to keep it in place.

There are various options for electric if you don't have mains power. One option is to bury a wire out to the fence. You can buy direct-burial fence wire for not too much, and trenching it doesn't have to be a big production. I hand-dug a "trench" about 6" deep, set the wire in it, and tamped it down with my foot. The only place I had to rent a trencher was when I ran under my driveway, which is compacted gravel, and was much too hard to dig by hand--not without a pickaxe anyway. Another option is to do a battery powered energizer with a solar panel. Some folks don't like these because they are not as powerful as mains-powered energizers, and if the battery goes flat, your fence is off. But I have had good results with them. Just have to stay on top of making sure the battery is getting charged. Anyway, a cow is not as bad an animal as a pig or a goat for testing a fence, so if it goes offline for a bit, you will probably be okay.

If cost is an issue and you don't want to do electric, then I think barb wire is your next best bet. As soon as you get into things like horse fence, field fence, and so forth--basically anything that isn't tensioned wire--the cost goes way up.

 

[Bird]

When I was a kid, we had a milk cow, had one calf a year and butchered the calf when it was much young and smaller than what's recommended today. But this thread reminds me of one of my younger brothers telling me about him and a friend going in together to buy 2 calves and raise them to the size they wanted for butchering. He said in the final analysis, the figured they saved 2 cents a pound, if they figured their time and labor at zero, and they would never do that again.:laughing:

 

[NoTrespassing]

I must be really cold hearted or maybe it was just the way I was raised. I just don't understand how people get so attached to animals, especially the ones that are being raised to eat. I've raised and butchered meat rabbits, meat chickens, hogs that we purchased live, and held the bucket while my dad castrated piglets. I've never felt a bit guilty about eating something I've raised for meat and don't understand why people do. I intend to raise my son the same way I was in that regard and I was lucky enough to marry a lady that was raised the same way.

I'd love to raise a few calves one of these years. We've got the fence left over from horses that are gone along with shelter, water tank, and round bale feeder.

 

[farmer2009]

I must be really cold hearted or maybe it was just the way I was raised. I just don't understand how people get so attached to animals, especially the ones that are being raised to eat. I've raised and butchered meat rabbits, meat chickens, hogs that we purchased live, and held the bucket while my dad castrated piglets. I've never felt a bit guilty about eating something I've raised for meat and don't understand why people do. I intend to raise my son the same way I was in that regard and I was lucky enough to marry a lady that was raised the same way.

I'd love to raise a few calves one of these years. We've got the fence left over from horses that are gone along with shelter, water tank, and round bale feeder.

I know what you meen. I was raised that way too. Growing up hogs kept for slaughter were named bacon and sausage every time. Only names aloud. This way we knew what they were for. For some reason I get the job of banding the calves doesn't matter if I am home or at dads or a buddies. I get to band everyone. Guess I am also just that cold. :confused3: :confused3: sounds like you may be almost set up already.

I haven't had good luck with the direct burial wire unless it's in 1/2" conduit. Every time I burry it direct under a gate I am digging it up within 2 years to replace because it has burnt into. 1/2 conduit isn't terribly expensive.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I must be really cold hearted or maybe it was just the way I was raised. I just don't understand how people get so attached to animals, especially the ones that are being raised to eat. I've raised and butchered meat rabbits, meat chickens, hogs that we purchased live, and held the bucket while my dad castrated piglets. I've never felt a bit guilty about eating something I've raised for meat and don't understand why people do. I intend to raise my son the same way I was in that regard and

I was lucky enough to marry a lady that was raised the same way.

I'd love to raise a few calves one of these years. We've got the fence left over from horses that are gone along with shelter, water tank, and round bale feeder.

You are really confirming my point that I tried to make earlier; farm folks have a realistic, pragmatic approach to animals and their place in the food chain. Sheltered, city folks, and children to a certain extent, have a difficult time with raising an animal without becoming attached to it. I personally know a couple (now divorced); farm guy who married a sheltered city girl. She actually called him and his family "murderers" for killing and butchering a fatted calf. Fifty years ago, it wouldn't have made any difference to me; now, I would just as soon get my beef cut, packaged and frozen.