How much can it cost to raise a cow.

[Daytona47]

It cost me $18-25 a day to feed 12 head of steers. That doesn’t include watering them, fixing the fences they break, and doctoring them. Winter time they need a lot more attention. I’m in Agua Dulce CA.

 

[Willie B]

…
…Raised, one with a friend in LaTuna Canyon… definitely grain fed… But for the life of me, I can’t remember where we stored the grain… when it came time to turn the critter into dinner… Friend hands me a 22 long rifle… and put an X in the critters forehead… I couldn’t do it????… I handed the rifle back to him and said you do it… He couldn’t do it either… And we’re talking about a don’t mess with this guy because he was simply a bad ass when we were young…and was a hunter…
… Friend had been raised a Mormon, so his wife called whoever you call to do these kind of things… and it got done… I think the deal with the Mormon church was they get 20% of the meat for the slaughter and the butchering???…I can’t remember what they call their facility that stores the meat???…
…Definately the best steaks I ever had… If I recall right I ate something like a half a dozen at one sitting???

 

[Ace in the Hole]

Family size? I guess I should have included that in my first question

Half a beef from @wash11 amd Amy seem to suit us perfect. We also have my mom who spends about half the year in havasu using some of it. I may alter my cut request and timing this year but will say this….quality and service I’ll choose them every time.

 

[CarolynandBob]

In July we bought one that was grass fed and finished with sweet feed. All in it was $5.50 lb delivered to my door. I thought it was a little high, but after checking around the area, it seams the price. My opinion is that you can't get ground beef for $5.50 lb so I am good with that. Also bought half a hog. It was $510 for the whole hog. We split it with a friend. We figure it was about $2.10 lb.

Years ago we had raised 3 cows. Went to the auction, fed them hay until about 1100 lb then added sweet feed to the hay. We would shoot them, gut, skin and quarter them. Take to butcher to hang and process. We had the cost to about 3.25 lb, but we did a lot of the work. Justwannarace at 3.50lb is a great price.

 

[poncho]

I'd love to buy everything from @wash11 but I'm just not set up for it, yet.

Meanwhile...

I buy everything from the local butcher shop. Expensive? Yep. Worth it? Even more so.

I'm done buying meat from a grocery store.

Same here, all of the local big chains have gone to a large butcher hub, all the cool meatcutters are gone.

 

[TonyFanelli]

Good Lord, over $60 for a package of 3 ribeye steaks at Costco. How much are they making off of 1 head when you add all of the other cuts that come from 1? Then the scraps can be made into hamburger and hot dogs. I know things are not cheap, but $60 for just 3 steaks from it. I told my wife I think we need to buy a couple animals.

 

[GR8WHITE]

I buy several roasts during thanksgiving, Christmas & easter for $5-7 per lb. Cut them up and freeze nice thick ribeyes for all year. Had one Saturday after a 12 hr day in the garage.

Exactly what I do. Buy a few 10lb rib roasts at Stater, remove the ribs and freeze for PHO broth and slice the rest into steaks and freeze. Keeps us going until the next sale.

 

[82daytona]

Have you seen the price of hay?!

 

[snowhammer]

Have you seen the price of hay?!

Imagine how expensive it would be if it was subsidized and mandated to be used as fuel. Mandating the use of food to be used as fuel, i.e. corn (ethanol), drives up the cost of food and apparently fuel as well.

 

[Flyinbowtie]

Having our morning decaf on the deck with Mrs. FBT. (a new tradition since she retired that is a wonderful thing) reminded me of something else that should be in this discussion for those considering buying beef in quantity for your freezer.
Freezers.
And power.
By the time those boxes of frozen beef arrive, no matter if you raised it yourself or purchased from Joel you will have a pretty real investment in dollars to deal with. Don't buy a cheap ass freezer. I have one commercial Frigidaire 21 CF and a second smaller for pork. Ya want to get a couple of those freezer temp alarm deals to let you know if the freezer quits...so you can scramble to save your investment.
If you are like me, and live in an area where the grid is so fragile/poorly maintained over decades/mismanaged that you have frequent power outages you need to consider how you are going to power your freezer when the grid goes down. We have frequent short outages and several per year where the power is out over 8 hours.
If you don't have an automatic transfer switch you need to be home to get the genny going.
Obviously, you need a generator.
You also need a fuel supply for that generator.
If you plan to vacation, you need someone to do "generator duty".

Just something else to consider.

 

[25Elmn8r]

My wife and I were just having the conversation of beef last night. Freezer is getting a little low. Good thing our 1/2 will be ready in the next week or so, just waiting for the call.
As for what it costs to raise, no idea. We end up paying about $7/lb for a 1/2.

 

[1manshow]

Good Lord, over $60 for a package of 3 ribeye steaks at Costco. How much are they making off of 1 head when you add all of the other cuts that come from 1? Then the scraps can be made into hamburger and hot dogs. I know things are not cheap, but $60 for just 3 steaks from it. I told my wife I think we need to buy a couple

Imagine how expensive it would be if it was subsidized and mandated to be used as fuel. Mandating the use of food to be used as fuel, i.e. corn (ethanol), drives up the cost of food and apparently fuel as well.

Excatly

 

[Roosky01]

Live cattle prices have consistently gone up 25% per year the last 3 years.

Still not eat'n no bugs!