Will it hurt to have a fat beef processed early?

[sassafras manor]

I have a fat heifer that we finished out on grass for a friend and i would like for him to send it in to be processed. It has always been to biggest of the group and I would like to save our forage for the rest of our season for my own animals. My "friend" bought the calf the same time as we got our group last summer and the plan was for him to help out with fencing by contributing in both a monitary and labor way. The monitary never did pan out and the labor was sporatic and less than desirable. In my opinion his heifer is plenty ready according to descriptions on here as well as from local farmers. She has accumulated fat around the base of the tail, her hip bones are not evident and her back is large and flat in that area. There is cover over her ribs as well. I would like to justify my decision in case he feels that she is not ready. However he has not seen her since the end of February when he helped for a few hours putting up corner posts for our newest pasture. Needless to say this is the last time we do this sort of arrangement with a "friend" without a set list of conditions on paper and established terms. What are your thoughts?

[onthespot]

It's time, regardless even if she was ribby, it's time.

[sassafras manor]

That was my thoughts but this will be the first head of cattle to come off of our farm for meat purposes. This guys parent's actually paid for the calf so i am tempted to give them a call to let them know since he will not return phone calls or emails in any sort of timely fashion (2-3 weeks later). Then an issue they will run into is that they will need to contact a hauler or give the "on-the-farm" processor a call to have it dispatched and processed. Either way I believe i may ask them (either him or his parents) to drive out to help push the animal up from pasture and pen it up. For me it is just rather dissapointing that it has come to this after knowing him and his family for the past 17 years.

[onthespot]

Ta heck with that. Give him (the friend, not the parents) that it's time. He has two choices. Come get his cow within a week, or B. You will take it to have it processed, and the money you have to shell out for processing will go to pay for all the (fill in the blank) that he did not do as agreed. The meat will be yours and you will sell/eat/feed out as you see fit. There are no free lunches. not for him, not for the cow, not for the parents.

[Ronney]

Originally Posted by onthespot

Ta heck with that. Give him (the friend, not the parents) that it's time. He has two choices. Come get his cow within a week, or B. You will take it to have it processed, and the money you have to shell out for processing will go to pay for all the (fill in the blank) that he did not do as agreed. The meat will be yours and you will sell/eat/feed out as you see fit. There are no free lunches. not for him, not for the cow, not for the parents.

Under the circumstances, that would be my attitude too. I would be making a phone call, leaving a message and backing it up with email, that he has two weeks to make arrangements to remove the animal. Failure to do so will mean forfeiture of the animal to pay for grazing and other costs. Don't muck around, you have been used and are continueing to be used. Always disappointing I know, but sometimes you have to make a stand.

Cheers,
Ronnie

[sassafras manor]

In a surprise turnaround he called me yesteday afternoon 30 minutes after I sent him an email outling why the heifer was ready to go in and a list of local processors. He told me that he would call the on-the-farm processor today or tomorrow and let me know the dispatch date. We will have to see what materializes from here.

[Michael W. Smith]

Wow, some "friend". The last time he saw the cow was 7 months ago? Did you feed any grain or was it all raised on hay?

Pretty good deal for the friend - his parents buy the cow, he provides a few hours of labor, you raise it, feed it, water it, and house it and he calls the processor and pays to have it butchered and gets all kinds of meat.

I certainly hope he shares some of the meat with you! Although I suspect his line of thinking is you were already taking care of your own cattle, so one more didn't make any extra work for you.

[sassafras manor]

We rotational graze and we were able to get thru the winter using only 4 round bales of hay. They do not get grain other than a pound or so per head every few days in order to help them come up out of the pasture when called. I only do it in order to make it easier to move them as well as apply wormer & fly spray. This batch of calves average weight upon arrival was about 310 lbs. 13 months ago and I imagine his animal is in the 925-950 range. I will try to keep posted to see when he gets around to having the animal processed. If the on-the-farm processor does well, we will use him as well for the remaining head.

[SpaceCadet12364]

Sounds like you need to have the "friend" pay up something before you let the on-farm processor do anything with the heifer.

Since the "friend" hasn't held up their end of the agreement from the git-go, once that heifer is on its way to the freezer, there is no motivation for them to pay you what they owe you for raising their animal.

JMHO

[sassafras manor]

I think what i will do is let him know what my expenses have been during teh period for raising his calf - insecticide, mineral, grain, supplement tubs, water, fencing etc and see what he has to say. Plus the fact that his parent's paid $350 for the calf 14 months ago and he will get 550 lbs of grass fed meat at only $2.50 lb hanging weight value. With that being said there is the potential for a $1000 gain for someone and i know for sure we have not received $1000 worth of labor from him. To be honest we may have seen 20-25 hrs from him. I have not heard back from him yet to see if he has set up a date to have the animal processed.

[onthespot]

Split the meat with him. He can split his half with his parents.

[SpaceCadet12364]

Halfsies sounds like a good plan!