Beef prices

[Molalla1]

Thanks for all the info. I am looking forward to the quality. We have had steaks from these friends in the past. They were great.

So we are getting 20 pounds. In one pound tubes. We will freeze most of it to add to our stockpile in the event of a shut down. Probably eat a bit of it now.

They want $3 a pound including processing. So that is comparable to the low end ground beef at the supermarket here.

Nothing wrong with that price . . .

 

[LouNY]

That is a very good price for the consumer.
That is less then the cost of growing and processing in the northeast,
of course many places don't have to raise as much feed for winter feeding as this area does.
When you have to feed from early November or sooner till the end of May as that will be the earliest you can get on pasture and it is gone by the end of October early November.

 

[MossRoad]

Thanks for all the info. I am looking forward to the quality. We have had steaks from these friends in the past. They were great.

So we are getting 20 pounds. In one pound tubes. We will freeze most of it to add to our stockpile in the event of a shut down. Probably eat a bit of it now.

They want $3 a pound including processing. So that is comparable to the low end ground beef at the supermarket here.

That's a great price if it includes processing. :thumbsup:

We like our ground beef in 1 pound packages as well. All of our recipes call for it in 1 pound increments.

 

[bunyip]

remember when I was a kid rich people ate chicken and poor people at lamb with beef somewhere in the middle, today it has reversed with chicken and pork for the not so wealthy.

 

[Molalla1]

That is a very good price for the consumer.
That is less then the cost of growing and processing in the northeast,
of course many places don't have to raise as much feed for winter feeding as this area does.
When you have to feed from early November or sooner till the end of May as that will be the earliest you can get on pasture and it is gone by the end of October early November.

No Lou . . . we have pastures, with extra mow, gather, bale . . .

 

[aczlan]

Howdy,
Standard selling would be $3.00-$3.75 a pound hot hanging weight. You would then add on processing fees. Processing fees will vary with how much cutting is done. Getting patties made will add to cost. Standard hamburger packages should always be 2lb packages or larger. Steaks cut to your thickness, bone-in or boneless cuts, roast, etc...

Buy local, keep local in business. A properly raised beef is not cheap.

A proper butchered beef can be properly dry aged to your preference. Hanging between 14-30 days would be the preferred for lactic acid breakdown.

Can you get cheaper? sure.

Organic? The word organic means nothing to a real farmer. It just means someone paid a bunch of money to a organization to use the word. A beef moving off the farm through the sale ring gets popped with shots at each location stop. The amount of shots varies for how many times the animal moves before harvesting.

To each your own.

Grass fed? Nah, not for me.

Open pasture grain finished for the best tasting beef.

Beef, It's what's for Dinner. :licking:

That's about how it is here, processing and killing fees usually work out to about a dollar a pound for vacuum sealed meat.
Just had a butt roast tonight from one of the steers we took in last fall and it was great, just about fell apart in your mouth.

Aaron Z

 

[Sigarms]

I buy it from some buddies per hanging weight yearly, however, keep in mind, the hanging weight is NOT what you will actually get AFTER it's processed. You can figure if you're getting half a cow and they tell you then hanging weight is 250lbs, you can expect the actual weight being bought after being processes around 188lbs (you can figure at least a 25% reduction in processed weight).

Generally I tell the butcher what kind of cuts I want from the cow. Hamburger, stew beef, sirloin, T Bone, rib eye, chuck roast and filet / steak.

I can generally keep 300lbs of meat in my freezer with some spare items already kept in there.

Below is a whole cow, belive this one came in about 550lbs hanging weight.



I will say this... trying to find someone to buy a portion of a cow is a PITA.

When I tell a man I'm going to do something, I do it. Finding a couple of people to take a couple of cows you can figure people are going to back out on you which adds to the PITA factor. One reason why I'd like to think people will ask me if "I'm in" for a cow. When I tell them yes, they know I'm good for it.

The issue is IMO the best bang for the buck after processed is to buy a variety of cuts and not just hamburger unless you find another buy of a portion of a cow who would prefer more steak cuts. The reality is the butcher can only do so many steak cuts from a cow, and people just starting in tend to want to buy always want the best cuts.

From experience, I'll say this... whatever you buy per a portion of a cow, weigh everything before you put it in the freezer. Sometimes people make mistakes. Took a while for me to figure that one out.

 

[MossRoad]

It's a good point about hanging weight. You pay for the meat by hanging weight + you pay for the processing by hanging weight. Then you bring it home in laundry baskets and coolers and weigh what you actually got. It's less than you thought because of bones, fat trimmings, etc... that actually drives up your cost even more than what's been discussed.

So lets say I want a side of beef. And let's say it's 100 pounds hanging weight. (small cow, easy math). My guy wants $2.50 a pound, and it's a buck a pound to process. That drives it up to $3.50 a pound. Still doesn't sound bad. You hand him $350. Then you take it home and weigh it. You only have 80 pounds. That's $4.37 a pound. While $4.37 for hamburger is expensive, $4.37 for steak is not.

However, when you go to the butcher and buy 100 pounds of hamburger for $2.90 a pound, you get 100 pounds of hamburger. You don't pay hanging weight price.

So figure in the actual weight of what you bring home in your price calculations, not hanging weight.

 

[LouNY]

No Lou . . . we have pastures, with extra mow, gather, bale . . .

We pasture all summer also, occasionally they will need some supplemental feed even while on pasture.
Then we put up few thousand tons of haylage, baled hay and corn silage.

 

[Ritothebull]

I raise some Black Angus prime beef and can tell you there are lots of people looking for cheap beef and most don't know the difference between dry aged beef or supermarket beef, or the different grades of beef. Most of my customers grew up on or around a farm and miss the good beef they grew up with and are looking for fresh local beef to fill a freezer. And if your one of them that likes to cook the he!! out of your beef like many do you might as well by the cheap stuff. :licking: