more or less

[firecord]

With the price of meat these days $4 for a pound of ground beef!  Pork rising dailey, chinken wings that cost more than breast.  Is it cheaper to raise your own?  I have raised pigs back in high school, fed them scraps from a friends daddys resturant mostly.  I  know nuthing about cows though.  Been butchering my hunting kills for 30 or more years.  I can do that, but can i learn to care for and raise cows cheaper than buying beef?

[Peter Drouin]

I find with all the time in having cows I's best to buy a 1/2 or 1/4 side from someone in town. Help them put it down and put what you need in the truck and bring it home and hang it up  :D

[DDDfarmer]

I sell beef and chicken.  I am asked this question all the time.  If you have the facilities to house the livestock beef-poultry-pork, able to aquire an animal that is worth feeding,  the feed to finish them and the ability to butcher( which you said you did) sure..   Almost anyone can learn to raise, feed and care for livestock, some people can never get it tho... If you never try you will never know. 

$3.95 a pound for hamburg/ground beef is the lowest I can sell it.  If you raise, feed and butcher the animal yourself.  You will know 100% what went into it.

any questions just  ask.

[GAB]

DDDfarmer wrote: "If you raise, feed and butcher the animal yourself.  You will know 100% what went into it."
Now how much is that worth to you?
Gerald

[chevytaHOE5674]

As a beef producer I will say that small scale is expensive. A lot of the expenses are the same if you raise two cows or twenty (like fencing, taxes, insurance, etc). Feed is more expensive to buy in small quantities. Cows are also herd animals and you should have two at all times. That means when you butcher one you better have a replacement waiting, or butcher both at the same time. Butchering a cow or two requires a lot of freezer space. 

For the average family it is easier and cheaper to find someone in your area who raising animals to your satisfaction and then buy a whole or 1/2 from them.

If you want to do it because you want the satisfaction of raising your own food then go for it.

Now poultry on the other hand is something that is pretty easy for the small time guy to raise. They are cheap to buy, require very little work, don't need fence, mature quickly, and are easy to process.

[red oaks lumber]

if the animal isn't raised right, you wont like the meat. to achive the melt in your mouth quality from either chicken, pork or beef. you need to feed that animal the right diet and all they can eat. doing that dosent come cheap. my cost to raise a non gmo all natural hog is $140 per head. to raise grassfed all natural beef well, that cost is a moving target from womb to tomb is about 20- 22 months. to raise 1 animal you'll need 3 acres of pasture and you can figure hay intake of 30 -35 lbs per day. buying good hay will cost $150 / ton so,for me i feed hay 6 mo. of the year that animal will eat 5 1/2 tons or $ 810 in hay total. raising good natural chickens (6 lb ave) my cost is $7.22 per bird.
raising any animal takes good facilities, and the knowledge of animals is a must. is it cheaper to raise or buy? always cheaper raising. the draw back to putting a whole beef in the freezer there is alot of cuts that arent real desirable, also can you eat a whole animal in 12 months or less? 6 months for pork and chicken.

[thecfarm]

A guy from work kept asking about meat birds. Told him what I did,what I fed them. He had to get some too. He got reading the % of what is in the grain. I fed mine the boiler mix. He told me that something had more protien or something than the bolier mix and would be better for them. I almost think it was a wild game mix,maybe for quail?? I just told him what I did and had no idea. Those birds did not taste good at all,he told me. Just as red oaks said,feed them the correct grain.

[justallan1]

I think there are also several ways to save a bunch on feed, mineral, salt, pour-on, etc.
If you have a mill I'd get in good with a few of the local ranchers and farmers for a little trading. Anyone with a set of corrals is forever looking for 2x6,2x8,2x10s and 1x's for windbreak. It's an outlet for all the boards you wouldn't take to the county fair and they're just getting busted anyway, so a rancher is willing to take them. Find out when they are working their cattle and see about throwing yours in last in exchange for your days work. They get free labor and you get your shots, pour-on, etc. Plus a little education.
I know from experience a bunch of farmers would be willing to trade bales for labor during haying season. Last year we were 2 guys short of having 3 crews and it probably cost us better than 1,000 bales. If we could have found a couple people for just weekends we would have probably took them.
Just some ideas.

Allan

[sandhills]

I think Allan pretty well nailed it, we can always use extra help different times of the year, if you can find someone to buddy up with might be your best bet to save costs.  This beef market right now is unreal, setting records for fat prices and it's showing up in the stores now, depending on weather and grain prices this coming spring I'm not sure we'll see it turn much but my marketing skills are horrible to say the least so follow your instincts not mine  ;).  We just got back from my brother and sister inlaws and we always take a cooler of beef to them, bil was saying how much better our "grass fed" beef was from what they buy in the store, I didn't have the heart to tell him they are grass fed, then weaned, corn silage, hay, and a LOT of grain to finish them  :D. 

[Ljohnsaw]

How about raising your own fish?  I'm about to embark on a Aquaponics experiment.  Hydroponics is growing veggies in a water bath (just floating on foam or in gravel beds, no dirt) that is supplemented with "stuff" like Miracle Grow, etc.  Aquaponics is having a huge fish tank and the "waste" is run through the plants.  Once established (two types of bacteria to change the ammonia to nitrites then to nitrates for the plants), all you are doing is feeding fish and growing veggies at an astounding rate.  I figure I'll be growing a half dozen to a dozen fish (bluegill to start) and harvesting them whenever they are big enough and getting my fill of veggies.  When I'm good at keeping the fish, I'll try some trout.

[MattJ]

Given the spread of feral hogs in the south, especially in Texas next door you could buy a hunting license and generate quite a bit of free range pork.  My cousin was in Texas for two years with the Marines recovering from an IED incident and had to rent a Uhaul to drive all the meat home at the end.  Just another option.  I plan on going once or twice this spring in NC/SC and look forward to the meat.

On a far extreme there was an interesting/mildly disturbing video on youtube of Ted Nugent hunting out of a helicopter in Texas.  The outfitter cost $5000 for him and another guy, and they probably used a grand in ammo, but they shot somewhere around 400 pigs!  $15 a pig isn't bad!  I can't imagine recovering and butchering 400 pigs though.  The video was called aporkalypse now I believe.

[firecord]

I have shot a few hogs, boars are extremely gamey, sows a little less.  A friend traps them and feeds them for a couple months to ease the wild taste. 

[Magicman]

We have hog trappers that will come to your place and trap them for a large fee.  They then load the trap/hog onto a trailer.  Problem is that they haul it a few miles and let that sucker go.  Nothing like feathering your own nest.   :-\

[elk42]

Magicman

Arkansas changed the law that you can't transport wild hogs, you have to kill them in the trap. 

[Magicman]

That's good that they recognized what was happening.   :-\

[ST Ranch]

Is it cheaper to raise your own?

I agree with Red Oak Lumber that it is difficult to pin down the costs of raising "all natural grass fed" beef. It varies tremendously by, location [i.e. - the snowy winters of northern US and Canada vs. the southern US], by the economy of scale of your operation [caring for 2 or 3 calves vs. operating a 60+ head cow/calf operation] and how you place a value on your time.   
Also are you comparing the cost of farm raised grass fed [sold at the farm gate] to store sold "organic" beef or to store bought conventional feedlot beef?   

Here in southeast BC beef cattle production has been part of the ranching life for decades. We feed at home for 5-6 months and pasture for 6-7 months on mostly dry-land summer range. The closest stock yards for sales are 3 hours and we have very restrictive government laws pertaining to selling at the farm gate to customers.

My cost model goes like this:
These costs assume raising 2 calves per year and feeding small square bales twice a day when I feed my other farm stock. [small scale, but need 2 animals to keep herd dynamic].
I am not including any costs for land, support equipment, building etc.
Assume you buy a calf at 6-7 months old [or pay yourself for raising the calf - the value of a calf at 6 months of age if you run a cow/calf operation]. You feed it for an additional 12 months till about 900 +/- lbs, slaughter and sell locally.
Value/cost of 550 lb calf 6 months age = $550 [net of shipping & sales commission]
Cost to feed, 6 month hay [$175/ton] = $600, 6 month [private wetland pasture] = $180
Labor to feed – [6 months, 15 min/day, $15/hr] = $630 [less for large round bales]
Slaughter [& waste disposal fee] = $75
Cut and wrap [hanging weight of 600 lbs] @$.65/lb = $390

Total cost is about $2425 for 600 lbs of dressed meat [hanging weight] and assuming a loss of 20% for fat, bone, etc during cut and wrap, your final weight of 480lbs. 

Final cost of meat in the freezer is about $5.05 per pound for all cuts [about 40% ground beef and stew & 60% roasts and steaks].  This would be classified as natural grass fed and grain finished [1 month], antibiotic and hormone free beef.

I can buy a half side of beef grown the same way as above, FOB at the local meat cutter for about $4.75 a pound. 

At my local large chain grocery store, regular beef ranges from $3/lb ground beef, $6/lb roast to $15/lb rib eye steak. Their "organic" beef prices are about 2.5 times the price of their regular beef.

Maybe a bit long winded, but I think it is important to put a real dollar value on your time.

Tom

[Corley5]

We're looking into getting a beef.  Looks like the best I've found is $35.00 for trucking to the slaughter house, $35.00 for the slaughter, $2.00 a lb hanging weight, .45 a lb for paper wrap or .60 for vacuum.  I can't feed and baby sit an animal for that much.

[red oaks lumber]

the real wild card is this... how much is it worth knowing what it was feed  and how your meat was raised? for my customers that answer is easy. priceless i can't feed the world so i target the ones that really are concerned about the food they buy.

[LeeB]

I keep a couple of cows to raise for beef. I have a bull and an 3 cows to keep it going. I could likely buy in the store for a good bit less if I bought regular store bought meat, but I really like the prime beef for just a little more. Beside the price part of it, I just like doing it. We got three calves this winter, two hefers and a soon to be steer. I enjoy going to feed every day and watching my dinner grow.

[Farmerjw]

We raise freezer beef and pork and farm with a couple of teams of horses.  It all sounds rosey and looks good except for the current weather.  Remember, days like we have been having this winter, your animals need their daily care as well as more care in extreme weather, cold and hot.  The other thing not mentioned so far, last summer, three days before loading the fat calves to go to the processor, had a heifer hang herself in a hay feeder.  So hot, by the time we found her, she was bloated, a complete waste, total loss.   Those things hurt.  When you have livestock, sometimes you will have dead stock. 

[redprospector]

I like to kill an Elk when possible. After all is said and done, it's just a little cheaper than buying a range steer but a really nice change from beef. I managed to put 303 lbs. of prime grass fed Elk in the freezer this fall, I'm not always that lucky.
If I get one, and my wife is able to get one too, we don't have to buy much beef. Looks like we'll have to buy a steer to supplement the Elk this year.  :(

[chevytaHOE5674]

If I was you and just wanted meat for the freezer I would look and call around and find somebody local who raises beef the way you want (grass fed, organic, corn fed, etc) and go visit their operation. See how they treat their stock and what not and then buy an animal a year from them. Many of my customers come out to the farm and see the animals, some want to go scratch their steak behind the ears others just want to see how the animals are treated, and I'm more than happy to give them the tour.

If you want the experience and challenge of raising some animals then the best way to do it is to just try it. You can read and study all you want but the best way to learn is by doing.