$300 Black Angus Cow (7-8 years old)
 

So a local guy wants to sell this cow, the problem is that she is wild and can't be caught short of a 30-06. My thought is would the beef be worth it? How tough would it be? How much would I get? (I haven't seen her and don't quite know how big she is yet...)

This does not sound like a good source for steaks and prime rib.....

Most likely if you have it all ground up..........some places around here (Amish Country, Ohio) will also make some of the ground beef into hot dogs, beef stick, summer sausage, etc.

I guess it depends on the price of hamburger in your area, and how much she weighs......and if you have to shoot her.......check with the slaughterhouses first. Some will only accept live animals, and will not accept dead animals (except deer). Some will accept the meat if you bone the animal out after you shoot it. (The voice of experience..........having bought a bull that went "nuts"......running through fences, destroyed a gate..........started to charge humans........not much choice but a 7.62X54.)....not one of the best days of my life.......

still has a bunch of good breading years left in her

I would buy it, and haul it to the closest livestock market.

Guess it weights around 1200 lbs, sell at .50 a lb, gross $600. $50 in assorted selling fees, $50 in gas to get it there, net $200.

Just a thought.

I wouldn't touch a deal like that. This cow might only weigh 800 lbs , be skin and bones, have health problems, and many more unimaginable problems. Not to mention the problems involved in getting her to a processor. I once had a hereford I would have gladly sold for that price but nobody could get close to her. Was a non breeder, and hated human beings, and fences. Finally a .308 and coyotes settled the problem.:mad:

edit to add: travelinusa: the rest of any profits you have figured wouldn't cover the processing costs.:shrug:

After butchering, removal of head, feet, organs, hide, tail, and deboning, you will bring home about 25 % of her weight on the hoof in ground beef.
Unless you are a cowboy who seeks a challenge, I don't see the benefit of pursuing this when there are plenty of calm old stock cows available.

That would mean 50 cent a pound hamburger if you did your own grinding. The hamburger would probably be 93% lean. At the price of any burger that would be better then a $200 gain. You could easily sell it for $2 a pound if you didn't want it. A $900 profit!

No way would I want her for a breeder. That temperament will be passed on to her heifers, and soon you'll have a pasture full just like her.

She's a hamburger cow for sure.

I think $300 is cheap. As long as she is healthy you can run all the steaks through a cuber, and is is wonderfull eating.

I would shoot her, hang her from her hind legs from a tree, or a front end loader, gut, skin and split her then stick her in a freezer to cool her off, then process her on your kitchen table.

Don't you know any cowboys? :shrug:

She sounds like a fairly typical range cow to me...
That said, I probably wouldn't try to turn her into T-bones or anything, but she'd be perfect (not to mention dirt cheap!) for hamburgers. I wish we were in the area! We'd take her in a heartbeat. :)

Let's do the math!

Hypothetical if cow weighs 1,050 pounds on the hoof. Yield of ground beef of more or less 25% = 262 pounds of product. 262 pounds X $2/pound = $524
If you donate your labor and do everything from the bullet to the packaging, then you have $524 - $300 cow price = $224 profit. Then subtract for cost of meat packaging materials.

Keep in mind that in most states selling beef that has not been processed at either a State inspected or USDA inspected facility is not a legal transaction.
Some states require the seller to have a wholesale meat license in addition to the inspected for resale product. Your state may vary.

Now let's say you decide to be a Legal Beagle and you trick her into walking into a stock trailer and deliver her to a USDA Facility for butchering and processing. For example only, I will recite the charges our local facility would incur for this hypothetical 1,050 pound cow:
Slaughter Fee: $32
Rendering Disposal Fee: $10
Processing: 58 Cents/pound X 262 pounds = $152
So now you would have $300 + $194 in processing so $494 invested.
Let's say $25 for transportation to catch, haul to Locker, and haul meat home from Locker.
So you would net out $524(262 pounds X $2/pound) then subtract off $519($300 cow + $194 processing + $25 Transportation) for a total net profit of $5.

If you do as Michigan Farmer suggest, and do everything yourself, and then utilize the animal for your family meat at home .... I guess you come out ok.

Either way, you will also have the Heart, Liver, and Tongue to use as you see fit. And of course a true Thrifty Scot would make an Oxtail Stew as well, LOL.

If that cow is healthy at all, she'll tip at over 1300

25%?
Are you sure about that?:)

I'd say it's kinda on the low side....

I thought so, too. we usually estimate 50%... :shrug:

Kinda. :)
I'd say at least 65-70% return.

Yeah, that's a good safe estimate.
Pigs in good shape will give back 72% or better, cows maybe a little less.

50% -60% Yields are for beef cuts with the bone in. Completely boned out for ground beef, not including organ meats, tongue, tail, is about 25 % of weight on the hoof for older cull cows.
When you look at an old cow standing there, it is surprising how little ground beef is there.

Could well be. Or she could be 800 pounds as KS Farmer warned. All conjecture at this point. My illustration was merely to point out that a $900 profit is probably optimistic if you intend to sell ground beef at $2/ pound.

You're in North Carolina. Find someone who has either blackmouth curs or catahoula cur dogs who work cattle and have the guy help ya round up the cow. That is the original job of the cur dog breeds. There are still some people who make a living rounding up feral cattle or cattle that like to fight. Those cur dogs are worth their weight in gold in East Texas because cattle (tame or not) have learned to hide in the thick grass/brush and avoid being rounded up. Lots of feral cattle/hogs in 'em woods. Cur dogs learn fast enough that they need to round up the cattle for you. Worth a shot and to see old-time cur dogs work!

Wonder if she would be of any value to a rodeo as a wild roping steer?

No. you rope steers or calves, not cows.

But everything (except tail/organs/etc) is ground beef on a canner. and we usually get 50% out of slaughter aged steer but get very little meat that has the bone on...

:rock::frypan:
Right on!

Sorry, but there's no way that you can get 50% of the live weight back in ground beef.

Up North is right. The 50-60% is for hanging weight, before any cuts are made. You even lose a little of that (probably 3-5%) for regular bone-in cuts. That hanging weight is what the slaughter fees are based on, so that's what you pay for, but the yield of boned-out, ground beef is about 25% of live weight.

When I suggested the idea of buying the cow, I would not consider eating it. I would buy it for the $300 and, without passing my own house, take it to a livestock sale and sell it.

It's salvage value would be worth more than the $300 and gas.

Sorry, travlnusa. I misunderstood your intentions. Your idea is probably the best one here, if the cow is healthy and in good condition and can be corraled and loaded without a lot of trouble.

There's the only problem with your suggestion.

wromg breed her to a gentel bull then after weening her calf then grind her up

we started this way we have 16 head all nice cows and none related i can walk up to anyone of them she didnt say it was meen just hard to catch

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one.

You're right in that she could throw a mild-tempered calf, but she could also throw one just like herself. I'm not willing to take that chance.

We bought an *extremely* poor old Angus cow....she was supposed to be around 10 years old. We wormed her, put her on pasture and a small amount of grain. By that fall she was fat, slick and sassy. We butchered her and had the meat put into all burger and roasts(no steaks). She was delicious and tender. We had plenty of grass so her keep was very cheap.
As for being wild......do you have anyone near you who comes out to the farm to shoot, skin, gut, the beef then hauls it to the processors for the customer?? We have a guy here who does that so there is no need to catch or corner the cow/steer. He is very good and never has to shoot twice.
We found him buy calling the slaughterhouses and asking.
I would do it again in a heartbeat if I had the chance.