Grass-fed Beef

[Shagbarkmtcatle]

Does anyone sell their cattle as grass-fed beef? We have some ready and are wondering which way we should sell them. How did you get started selling them? What is a fair price for 1/2 or whole beef based on hanging weight?

[travlnusa]

We sell grass fed beef if customers order it in advance. When they do, we will seperate it from the others to finish.

If all of your beef is already grass finished, look up grass fed beef on google, etc and you will find all kinds of things you can market. Some say grass fed has a different taste to it. Make sure you customers know what they are buying.

We charge $2.75 per lb, hanging weight, for the side or hole which includes the processing. If a customer wants to buy a quarter, they have to find someone else to split the side with. We are about $1 higher than the area markets, but people know exactly what they are getting.

We started by selling to friends, church members, etc. After they have it, we offer them 10% off their next order when they refer a new customer that buys to us.

[Christiaan]

I raise just one beef a year, Highland raised on grass and grass hay. I sell 3/4 of the beef. I charge $5.00/lb hanging wt, buyer pays share of slaughter and cut and wrap. I get word out to family and to egg customers. No problem selling it. If I wanted to do the work I could easily raise and sell more.

[efdgoon]

I also raise highland cattle and I love the breed. I've had both grass fed only and found it has a different tast. I don't mind but I did loose a customer because of it.
I found that by finishing off the last two months with cracked corn makes a better product in the end.The corn comes from a local farmer and keeps the chem. free meat most people are looking for.

[Christiaan]

I'm thinking of trying the cracked corn, just to see the differance. I really like the grassfed, and the one I butchered this year was just as marbled as a grain finished beef. My sister, she bought 1/2 of him, complained that he was a bit tough by I haven't noticed any toughness in him at all. I think our cooking techniques might just be different, but he also didn't get to hang as long as I would have liked as another sister was taking some of him back to MN with her and we had a delay in getting him butchered. Next springs beef is going to hang at least 21, preferably 28 days.

[tinknal]

We always fed ground cob corn to them while on grass, they finish out nice.

[phantompark]

We raise highlanders on grass only. This was our first year and we sent in 5, 2 were sold by the half @ $1.70/lb hanging weight, plus butcher fee. Which is way to low as we have found out! The remaining 2 (we kept 1) were sold as 25 lb packages. (roast, steaks, stew, burger) at $4.00/lb ($100). We sold out and still have people calling every week. We started off selling eggs about 5 years ago, then did meat chickens for ourselves, then gave some away last year. And tried some pigs last year. So over the -04 winter we printed up flyer about the farm, passed them out to egg customers, friends, family, at the bank, post office, ect.... We are now sold out of 200 chickens, 3 pigs and the 4 highlanders. And have a waiting list for next year.... even when I told them prices were going to be higher next year! Whew....... We market that the beef is all grass fed, no antibiotics or hormones. We intensive rotationally graze and we take potential customers out to "visit" with the highlanders so they see exactly what their "dinner" is eating and how it is being raised. Fresh air, green grass, only one bad day in thier lives, it seems to be good selling point.
It does have a different taste. But it is very healthy and well it's just plain great.

[moonwolf]

Originally Posted by phantompark

It does have a different taste. But it is very healthy and well it's just plain great.

What is the taste difference?