Raising Cows for personnel consumption

[LouNY]

An alterative to raising your own, is to buy one ready for slaughter.
If you check in your local farm publications and or farmers markets, also your local slaughter houses will know of local growers.
You can talk to the growers maybe see some of the operation.
The beef will cost more then store beef. If you pay $3.00 a pound life weigh it will be close to $6.00 hanging and close to or over $8.00
in your freezer.

 

[AllDodge]

I applaud your enthusiasm. The fact that you think you need a cow leads me to offer caution. You may be over your head. Not head of cattle. Your head.

Maybe, time will tell

 

[ovrszd]

In my area it's much cheaper than store bought. Just need to understand there will be some cuts that you might not buy at the store.

 

[AllDodge]

Buying already grown is another side, but unless I know them personally not sure this would do it for me. I want to know what goes in the beef and don't want it raised for weight, only for taste.

Any of the stuff not worth the cut would just be ground up

 

[Alan W.]

AllDodge, you can go to the county ag extension agent and get lots of info and they can help with your questions.

The main problem is finding a good slaughterhouse. Start asking around and you will hear well founded problems of being shorted on your beef, not aged properly, to being rancid. Dont be fooled by the USDA inspectors they are useless. A local well known upscale slaughter house, with the USDA clowns sent out four beefs that were so rancid the vacuum sealed bags were inflating and the meat was green. Yes one of those was one a buddy and I split.

 

[D2Cat]

Determine if you want grass fed beef or grain feed. Find a local farmer who raises and sells your choice of beef. Have him take it to the slaughter house. You determine the cuts, quantities in the wrapper. You pick it up at the processor. You will be money ahead.

By the time you purchase, haul home, fix fence, provide ongoing water supply, hay and grain, mineral, salt and protein tub in the winter cost. A couple of vet bills to keep the animal alive, a trailer with good tires when you need them to haul him to the processor. Oh, your time is free, but you have to do the chores no matter how you feel or the weather, or a holiday. All for a steak from an animal you know didn't get growth hormones.

Just find a nearby farmer you trust.

 

[TnAndy]

The main problem is finding a good slaughterhouse. Start asking around and you will hear well founded problems of being shorted on your beef, not aged properly, to being rancid. Dont be fooled by the USDA inspectors they are useless.

Yep...that right there ^^^^^^^^. After taking our for years to difference slaughter houses around, and wondering if you got YOUR beef back (sometimes I think not), or ALL of your beef back (now that we do ours, I'm fairly sure we were regularly shorted), and so on....we finally set up to do our own here on the place, and have done so for 7-8yrs now. Not that hard to do, and you can control the aging to suit yourself, the cutting/wrapping to suit yourself and so on.

I cut mine into quarters so I can handle hanging in our homemade cooler...and if it's an especially big one, I'll take the short loin off the hind section to lighten it up as well.

We raise 2-3 on our place at any one time, I prefer beef breeds, or cross breeds....Black Angus crosses, or white faced Herfords make the best beef in my opinion. Also, I've found 18mo to 2yrs let's the beef 'fill out'....doing a spring calf in the fall at 750lbs is a waste, I think.....the amount of meat they put on in that next year makes a whole lot of difference.

We only have 3ac of pasture, so I buy all my hay, and feed them a 12% beef feed every evening. Wonderful meat. You won't beat supermarket meat prices by any means.....but the quality of what you get will blow them away.

 

[Clint S]

It's a huge commitment and they need care EVERY day if inside in winter or they have no access to water. No vacations unless you have coverage. Buy hay store hay. 2 years till butcher for us. I would NEVER get just one. Get a one year old and a calf. Then a new calf every year when one is butchered. We do Herferds and I accepted that my free time is taken up by them. When dad stops being able to help . I ill drop from 12 to 14 animals to 3 or four tops

 

[Alan W.]

There is another downside to be prepared for when you raise your own or have someone do it for you, is that its hard to eat store bought beef after youve had quality beef. I had never noticed how much smell store bought hamburger had.
You cant go back.

 

[aczlan]

We just partnered with a friend to go in halves on three bull calves. They did this last year and the steaks where amazing!!!! They are retired and will be doing all the work, we'll give pay for feed. The calves cost $30 each from a dairy farm. They are five days old and will be bottle fed until they start to eat on their own.

From what we've learned, dairy bulls that become steers are the best tasting, but grow slower then beef steers. If you want to make money raising beef cattle, you stick with what works best in your area. If you want to raise beef that tastes the very best, get dairy bulls that they want to get rid of because they don't make milk and their is no use for them on a dairy farm.

We did that with a culled female Holstein calf and it wasn't worth it, she was too lean and stringy. Working on some Black/Red Angus/Hereford mix cows and calves. The calves from this spring are good sized and look good.
The plan is to send them to the butcher next fall at about 18 months.

Aaron Z