how to make a living raising a beef farm

newbury · Apr 1, 2012

Duffster said:
I have never considered the guy that works the meat counter at a grocery store to be a butcher.

So yes what I was referring to is what you would call a "custom packing facility".

That was confusing to me also.

The term "local" implied to me someone that was in a locally owned small business not affiliated with a chain and that their primary business dealt with the procurement, processing, and purveying of meat.

Even if the CLOSEST "butcher" was at Walmart or Krogers I wouldn't think of them as local.

forgeblast · Apr 1, 2012

Appreciate it, my grandmother would tell us about beef tongue that her mother would make, I heard its really good.

Pete Judd · Apr 2, 2012

I have both a beef hart and tongue in the freezer now, Thanks for reminding me, solves next weekends dinners. Great stuff.

rtimgray · Apr 2, 2012

I think that, with the right approach, some money can be made on a small herd of cattle. I usually run about 20-25 cows on my place and make a few dollars about every other year, but I'll never get rich doing it. I don't even do any kind of selling/butchering anything like that - usually just sell at the local livestock market.

Most of my cows are angus-based mutts and I use a Brangus bull. Typically, aside from the normal winter feeding, I don't have to do a lot with cows, but I might have to pull one or two calves per year and I might end up with a bottle baby on occasion. Most of this is because I am a sentimental farmer and I don't cull my herd like I should - I keep most of the cows until they die of old age, and they may be barren the last year or two of their lives. Most of my cows are named and are friendly to people (i.e. you can approach them and pet them) so I figure that if they've pushed out 10 or 15 calves in their lifetime, they can live out the last couple of years free of charge.

Most of the time, I find having cattle to be a relatively low-stress sideline, and I do enjoy just walking among them and talking to them (so far, they haven't talked back - I may get out of the business if they do). Of course, last year on Christmas morning I had to help pull a calf from a good cow that had gotten herself in a bad position (feet uphill, back against a tree - stupid cow), so timing is everything. But it does make me feel good when everything comes out okay (pun intended).

Whatever you choose, good luck and take care.

rtimgray · Apr 2, 2012

And for what it's worth, I've never had any of my cows slaughtered for our own consumption. As a family of four, we probably don't average eating a pound of beef per week, and when we do, it is usually just ground beef as hamburgers or sloppy joes. Nobody in my family ever really developed a taste for beef - it's not bad, we just like other stuff better.