Beef prices

[MossRoad]

We are fortunate in that we have several good meat markets within half an hour of us. When we go, we usually by 20-30 pounds of hamburger, 20-30 pounds of bone-in chicken breast, 20 pounds of chicken quarters, 10-20 pounds of chicken wings, 10 pounds of stew meat, a couple boneless pork loins, and a boneless rib-eye that's usually 20+ pounds cut into 1" steaks. Maybe a couple bags of shrimp, and a box or two of pollock. We take it home, break it up, and vacuum pack it for the freezer. I bone out the chicken breasts and save the bones and skin for soup stock.

Anyhow, we've found it's cheaper to buy on-sale VS buying from friends and family. We still buy from friends, though, because it's a family/community thing. We enjoy it. However, I can tell they are getting tired of raising it. It's a lot of work and they have other things/family/grandkids that they'd rather spend time with. Our family member that raised beef got out of it for the same reasons. They raised about 20 head a year when their kids were in 4H, then for about 15 years after the kids moved out. It became too time consuming, health issues came up too, so they called it quits and now spend a few months in Florida in winter.

 

[MossRoad]

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.

It's all raised locally. Shipping ads to the price. It has no food coloring, as they're cutting up the sides right in front of you. When it's not on sale, it's the same price as from our family and friends. When it's on sale, it's 1/3 the price. Raising a family, some people have to consider cost and make wise decisions financially. That's why we've been debt free since about about 1996. Frugality and practicality weighed against benefits and detriments.

 

[LouNY]

We are fortunate in that we have several good meat markets within half an hour of us. When we go, we usually by 20-30 pounds of hamburger, 20-30 pounds of bone-in chicken breast, 20 pounds of chicken quarters, 10-20 pounds of chicken wings, 10 pounds of stew meat, a couple boneless pork loins, and a boneless rib-eye that's usually 20+ pounds cut into 1" steaks. Maybe a couple bags of shrimp, and a box or two of pollock. We take it home, break it up, and vacuum pack it for the freezer. I bone out the chicken breasts and save the bones and skin for soup stock.

Anyhow, we've found it's cheaper to buy on-sale VS buying from friends and family. We still buy from friends, though, because it's a family/community thing. We enjoy it. However, I can tell they are getting tired of raising it. It's a lot of work and they have other things/family/grandkids that they'd rather spend time with. Our family member that raised beef got out of it for the same reasons. They raised about 20 head a year when their kids were in 4H, then for about 15 years after the kids moved out. It became too time consuming, health issues came up too, so they called it quits and now spend a few months in Florida in winter.

Yes, raising a few beef for "entertainment" would get old in a hurry.
Unless your "local" meat markets are different then any that I have seen around here they simply buy their meat of the open market it is not local beef by any definition.
They have no idea were that beef comes from.

 

[shooterdon]

At 69, not too concerned about what the animal has eaten or been injected with. "Organic" does not matter to me.

We pay (per lb) about $2.49 for ground beef, $5.99 for rib eye steaks, $1.29-1.69 for whole pork loins, $.99-1.49 for pork butt, $.49 for chicken quarters. $1.29-1.79 for boneless chicken breasts....when on sale.

Tastes good to me...at least equal to affordable restaurant food or better. Did the "buy from farmer" thing and agree with MossRoad, waste of money IMHO.

Have a neighbor who raises a couple of hogs a year and chickens. His costs are a lot higher, and last year a pig died two weeks before being butchered. I felt sorry for the poor guy...his wife insists on "organic". He was working his butt off and pissing away money they did not have. They are two years behind on taxes and were raising expensive meat...just dumb. I got whole pork loin last year for $1.29 shortly after his hog died, and we stocked up with 60 lbs of it. He shook his head and walked away in disgust. He is not raising pigs this year.

 

[goeduck]

It's all raised locally. Shipping ads to the price. It has no food coloring, as they're cutting up the sides right in front of you. When it's not on sale, it's the same price as from our family and friends. When it's on sale, it's 1/3 the price. Raising a family, some people have to consider cost and make wise decisions financially. That's why we've been debt free since about about 1996. Frugality and practicality weighed against benefits and detriments.

Right. There is no reason that good meat market / butcher cannot provide excellent locally raised quality beef. Personally, I think it is a good business model. That is not to say that every meat market meets that standard. I have seen hamburger packages with pure fat rolled into the middle to hide it and the package half spoiled. My father in law once bought a whole freezer full of it from a meat market in Oregon. He tried to give some of it to me but it stunk up the house so bad that I would not even feed it to my dog. Buyer beware.

 

[Molalla1]

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.

Yep Andy, if you like old warn out dairy cows for your beef buy it from a supermarket . . .

 

[daybreak1998]

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:

 

[shooterdon]

It is great that we have choices. I prefer to pay less to get less quality. But I am not a picky eater. Season and cook it well and it works. Protein is protein.

The guy that runs our deer camp asks me to make pork loin roast it every year. I cook up about 10-12 lbs so we have leftovers. His family used to own a grocery store chain in northern MI so it can't be too horrible even it is cheap (1.29-1.69/lb).

 

[TheMan419]

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.

 

[shooterdon]

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 is a very good price

 

[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: