Beef prices

[bunyip]

We got half a calf off a friend, butchered and bagged cost us AU$450.00, mince was about 80%.
We have a cheap butcher chain but their meat is a bit ordinary and the mince is very fatty and grizzly, I don't buy at supermarkets as I don't know what I'm getting.

 

[Alan W.]

Friend of mine raises to sell direct. He usually sells at the current stockyard pound price plus a delivery charge to take the animal to slaughter. The processing is paid by the customer.
I have purchased halves and whole from him.
After you try the meat from a well raised animal versus the supermarket fare you will never go back.

 

[goeduck]

I was in a local chain that specializes in mostly organic foods. The meat is reasonably priced and only a little higher than non-organic. But what shocked me was organic beef bones (for making beef stock) was listed at $6/lb. For BONES!

 

[SmallTimin]

So we have a friend who raises a few cattle at a time to eventually make into meat.

They slaughter and process on their own.

They are getting ready to slaughter one. What is a reasonable price for ground beef? I have never bought this way before. Always from a super market or farmers market.

Any way to know what the fat ratio will be?

We want to stock the freezer. Much happier to spend the $$ with a friend but also do not really know what we are doing in this regard.

Any advice?

When I sell halves/whole I call my butcher and set up a kill date. I give him the name and number of the buyer(s). They pay me per pound of hanging weight, and they pay him his processing fee directly. The buyer gets to choose how the meat is done, all ground or steak cuts, all that. With the price of feed going up, the ones I am raising for slaughter will be 3 dollars a pound plus processing. Total cost will be no more than 4 dollars a pound, unless his prices went up a good bit this year. This is in south Mississippi, prices bound to vary.

 

[TnAndy]

Friend of mine raises to sell direct. He usually sells at the current stockyard pound price plus a delivery charge to take the animal to slaughter. The processing is paid by the customer.
I have purchased halves and whole from him.
After you try the meat from a well raised animal versus the supermarket fare you will never go back.

Yep.....that is what has been missing from this thread. Quality. You can't compare a well raised farm beef to a factory farm, hormone/antibiotic laced beef that has been up to their belly in mud on a feed lot for the last few months. Look a bit past the price and see what you're actually buying.

I sell mine for $2/lb hanging weight, (none of the custom processors around here I know of have a scale for live weight) and the processing adds about a buck to that, depending on where they take it, what they have done, etc. Things like vacuum packing and having hamburger patties machine made add to the processing costs. By the time the cutting is done, you would end up with 3.50-4 bucks/lb in the meat with bone/trim losses.

 

[windy acers]

Yep.....that is what has been missing from this thread. Quality. You can't compare a well raised farm beef to a factory farm, hormone/antibiotic laced beef that has been up to their belly in mud on a feed lot for the last few months. Look a bit past the price and see what you're actually buying.

THIS IS FROM MY PAST EXPERIENCE FROM MY OWN CATTLE. HAMBURGER SHOULD NO MORE THAN 1 POUND PACKAGES. ONLY THAW IT BY SITING IT OUT OR IN THE REFRIGERATOR. DO NOT USE THE MICROWAVE! THIS IMPROVES THE TASTE OF GRASS FED BEEF THAT TENDS TO HAVE A GAMEY TASTE.

 

[TnAndy]

THIS IS FROM MY PAST EXPERIENCE FROM MYOWN CATTLE. HAMBURGER SHOULD NO MORE THAN 1 POUND PACKAGES. ONLY THAW IT BT SITING IT OUT OR IN THE REFRIGERATOR. DO NOT USE THE MICROWAVE! THIS IMPROVES THE TASTE.

We home process our own beef ( no way I'd do it for anyone else ), and vacuum pack everything. The hamburger either goes into 1lb sized pack, or patties we hand pat out, pre-freeze on cookie sheets, (or the vac squishes them too much) then vac pack 3-4 per bag.

 

[jaydee325]

Agree with the quality aspect. There is a down side though!

The down side is that we no longer can go out for a burger and a beer as we used to. Much prefer our local farm raised hamburger seared off on the grill at home!:licking:

Getting back to pricing, looks as though everyone is reporting total in the freezer prices are pretty close to premium hamburger price at the grocery store or local meat market.

 

[MossRoad]

Agree with the quality aspect. There is a down side though!

The down side is that we no longer can go out for a burger and a beer as we used to. Much prefer our local farm raised hamburger seared off on the grill at home!:licking:

Getting back to pricing, looks as though everyone is reporting total in the freezer prices are pretty close to premium hamburger price at the grocery store or local meat market.

Not me. It's much less expensive to go to our local meat markets and buy on sale than it is to buy from a local person that raises their own. We used to split a side of beef with our in-laws every year purchased from a family member. Even with them giving us their best price, the meat was usually 33% more expensive VS the butcher shop once you add in the processing fees from the processor. And we've had "bad" beef from our family member on occasion. It just didn't taste as good. Happened twice in about 20 years. With a butcher, if you get "bad" beef, you can take it back and get a replacement. With Aunt Kathy, you can't.

 

[LouNY]

Well Moss you enjoy that "cheap" beef that you have no idea where it came from, including what country, what it was fed, how much antibiotics it was fed, the quality of the feed.
How much food coloring and or BHT has been added, so many variables to be considered.
While price is one of the variables I consider it is not the only one and some times it's not even the major one.