Price of dressed beef
 

Does anybody know what the going rate for freezer beef is? I found a rancher here that will sell you a live steer, avg. 1000 lbs. for $1.37 a lb. Finished, packaged, will be about $4 a lb. That seems a little high.

By finished to do mean he will grain it for another month or so? If so how is he charging to "finish".

We pay 35 dollars to slaughter and 33 cents a pound to process - (hang for 10 days, cut, package, freeze etc.)

Let's say you get the average (58%) meat to life weight. So for 580 pounds of meat you pay 1370 for the steer, 35 for slaughter and 191.40 for processing. Your meat costs 2.75 a pound. We usually are in the 64 - 66 range on processing cattle, bit higher on sheep and pigs. If your precentage for meat is better the price per pound is lower.

Unless you're paying something to "finish" sounds like the butcher is making too much money to me. Having a whole steer, you should call around and see what other slaughter houses are charging.

Pat

Thanks, by, "finished" I meant butchered and wrapped. I will look around a bit.

Don't know where in Nevada you live, but if it's near Los Vegas, Tahos or Reno, I'd call somewhere a hour or so away from the city.

Don't even think about calling another state though... Federal laws and state laws about livestock across borders is a royal pain (and could be expensive).

Pat

My mom just bought a side for $1.30 lb plus processing. She pays the butcher half of his fees, and the $1.30 lb goes to the guy who raised the steer. This is up in Washington state.

I've done that here in Arizona, but paid $1 per pound for the cow, then found another family to split it with - we shared butchering costs as well. If I had bought from one of the pastured beef producers advertised at the eatwild website around here it would end up being a minimum of $4+ per pound, some estimates were in the $5 and $6 per pound range. Too rich for me.

niki

We sell ours for $1.50 hanging weight and then the buyer pays their percentage of the kill fee plus $.40 cut and wrap. I'm on the low end, a neighbor sells grassfed Highlands and he says he gets $4.00 per pound.

Bobg

We paid $2.75 dressed, packaged, organic beef. $4 seems high.

Just had one of my boys processed.
Kill fee $25.00
Cut/wrap/freeze @ .21 Cents a pound live weight.

If I was selling you one of my dairy steers @ 1000 pounds I would charge you $1.25 a pound live weight equaling $1,250.00
Kill charge @ slaughterhouse $25.00
Cut/wrap/freeze @ .21 cents $210.00

Your output for approx. 560 pounds of usable meat would be $1,480 dollars total. If your numbers differ greatly than you may want to re-negotiate....Tennessee John

Well, Thanks all, for the input. Unioncreek, if I knew exactly where you were, it may pay me to drive up there. I haven't bought beef like that for a long time, and had no idea how much it was nowadays.

We just bought a side of beef from a local processor. 1.79 hanging + cut and wrap.

All in, we got 215 lbs wrapped and it came to 3.61 per lb. It's much better than store bought but not nearly as good as an 18 month old home raised beef.

I sell mine for $1.50 per pound hanging weight. The customer pays processing.(Killing cutting wrapping $25.00 to kill + .40 to wrap.) I sell all I can raise .... I think I am a bit too cheap, but share my country life anyways!

I just got in the mail a card from a local farm selling "Real Angus Meats" - their sales pitch is T-Bone steak is no sale now from regular $7.99 per lb to $6.45 and "Premium Black Angus Ground Beef" was $2.45 per pound, now $1.95...
tell me - do you think they slip a red angus in there from time to time?
I really think this price is outrageous - what do you think?

Organic(??)
 

I know a local guy who offers his Organic, grass-fed Highland Beef,
@ $4.00 per #, hanging wgt. or $5.00 per # cut & packaged, for a quarter, or half a beef.
He sells it all.......but not to me.

Guess it's all in what you want. And, in What you want to pay.
I just can't afford to pay that much.

Just like anything else, if there is a willing buyer who'll pay more..good for the seller. But also think about where you're buying the "cheap" meat. What did they feed them (if they even raised them)? You do get what you pay for. Walmart has cheap meat..but then again look at what you are getting. Typically "select" quality.

Hi, we are buying 150lbs, and its $3 per pound, including wrapped, etc. This is from a usda certified butcher.

Tbone steak in a grocery store in No. IL will run at least 9.99 per lb and the real premium butchers are more than that.

Crappy ground beef is over 2.00 per lb. unless you buy bulk at Sams.

$1.25-1.50 per lb. on the hoof. $50 kill fee and .50 lb. for cut and wrap. This is home growen and done right. This is about average for the western states.....southern states a little cheaper I think, but wages are lower there too.

How in the world do you find someone to pay that kind of money for beef on the hoof :shrug: $0.90 a pound will buy you the best grain fed beef walking at most any livestock mkt. in this country!!!!!!!!!! With prices like that I will custom feed and deliver to your door. You are surley meaning hanging wt. at $1.50 a pound.

Ah, I love reading the "homesteading" forum. I love to read the complaining about the price of well raised meats & vegetables. If you want to by WalMart grain fed, ill treated beef, that's your business. By the way, what kind of rig do you drive? I'm sure you'll spend more money on your car in a year than on the food you feed to your children. It's the American way after all.

Two years ago, mobile processor came and he charged $60 for slaughtering, $2.56 per pound for cut and wrap, cubing $4, and $2.10 to the State.

Bull was est. 1150# and hung at 688# = 59% carcass yield.

I sold half of him for $774, so he was $2.25#...and the processor said I did much better than most.

That figures out at about .34#, just what the processor said it was.

Here in NYS the latest I've seen for 100% grass fed, is $2.75 a pound plus processing (at a USDA inspected facility) another was $2.75 a pound and included processing but not at a USDA facility.
Here it seems 100% grass fed is at a premium.
Grain/corn fed is alot less.

$.90-1.00 at the sale barns for beef steers right now on the hoof, but I doubt they are grain fed or finished or the best for that matter. The going price for home raised beef, no hormones and basically grass fed with some grain is $1.25-1.50 lb. on the hoof...........period. You can double that for hanging weights. People will buy it it in a heartbeat!!

I have been in the cattle buis. for 40 years and have never seen prices like you are talking for slaughter wt. animals. Ihave 13 head coming off of the cows at the end of the month that would sure be going in the lot if these prices were available in our area. If that is the going price for your area I would presume you are taking full advantage of the chance to make some good money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mr Wanda
Mike

I raise grassfed Highlands, just one steer a year, that will increase to two in a couple of years if the cow quits throwing heifers and gives me some bulls again. I sell hanging weight $5/lb plus share of slaughter cost and cut and wrap. Have no problem finding customers.