Raising your own beef for consumption....

[priszilla]

So why is Angus beef a premium in stores? makes one wonder

 

[boilerjoe_96]

my 2 cents....

My grandparents/Uncle had a dairy. They would keep a Holstein steer and have it butchered.

It tasted different. Very Different. I did not care for it. My cousin, who was used to taste thinks store bought tastes different(since she was raised on dairy steer).

One question is how different does a grass fed Angus taste compared to store bought angus?

So far I have noticed eggs do taste better, home raised broilers...well not much difference(but mine weren't pastured)....

My pigs will be ready inthe fall so I don't know how they will taste. I throw big handfuls of fresh clover and alfalfa to them everyday, I am curious as to their yummyness....

 

[greyfields]

All the beef in grocery stores comes from feedlots with very few exceptions

Those labeled grass fed are at least 90% grass/milk/forage, those labeled grass finished were not feedlot animals, and organic beef has pasturing requirements. I'm not entirely sure what % of the beef sold is under those schemes, but I would be surprised if it was more than 2-3%.

If you've ever seen a beef feedlot/drylot, you'd understand why the beef is marginal to bad. They are just not 'right' with my values. Then, grocery stores to maximize profit rarely hang their beef more than 24-48 hours, so you are buying water. To me, store beef just looks wet, too pink and is insipid.

 

[halo]

I hope its okay to bump this thread up. Ive been buying a little bit of grass fed beef from my local organic store. Its very expensive. I figure I could probably raise a couple of beefers myself, sell one and a half, and keep a half for myself. Has anyone on this thread finished up with their beef they were raising? Id be interested in how it turned out for you.

 

[shadowpaints]

i dont have time to read all the posts here but i wanted to let all know, we raise a dairy steer every other year ( get as bottle babies and butcher when they weigh around 900lbs)

we have 2 freezers, (soon to be 3) it used to be one for beef, one for chicken . but we also started raising a hog a year too so now we will have one for pork.

we feed our steers horse quality alfalfa hay . 60 days before butcher we feed a all organic grain to help with a few extra pounds. i believe that home grown meat is better, beef inparticular, that is raised in feedlots are fed a lot of corn (because its cheap) cattle cant process it well, so they form bacteria in their gut that in turn can make us sick.

we have raised both full dairy steers and half angus half holstien steers, i never have noticed a difference. around here, a dairy bull that is 2 days old to a week old will cost only 40$ but a angus bull at the same age will cost a few hundred.

my 2 daughters (6 years old and 4) know that their are animals here that get butcherd and some that dont. as of yet, we havent had a attachment problem, i think its about being open and honest about what that ' cute little calf ' is for. we started out by telling the girls that they are for eating and now they ask when we go pick them up lol

i hope that you can give raising your own beef a try!! its so awesome to cook dinner with everything grown or raised at home!
oh by the way, call around and find out how much per pound butchering is. it will also be very helpful!
good luck!

 

[Knight Hawk Ranch]

Angus is sold at premium prices due to the Angus Association(not sure of the correct name here) mass promo of it. They have over the years been so massively promoted on so many levels that it naturaly brings higher prices.

If you are going to feed out a calf, a beef bred animal will produce nicer meat than a milk producer bred animal just on the simple fact of genetics. Yes, you can feed a a milk producing breed and get some good meat, but a beef bred animal will grow out better and have more useable meat in a shorter amount of time.

We are still eating on our first one we raised and had processed from our beef mix bred cattle (hereford/brahma/xx). At one year, we penned him for 90 days and fed strictly grain (cheap allstock/horse feed). The meat is melt in your mouth and unreal. Ended up with about 600 pounds of meat and price per pound including feed ended up being about 1.80 a pound.

To us, it is most definetly worth it...I can't stand store bought hamburger and it seams that meat prices in the store are on the rise again.

 

[halo]

$1.80 a pound? Does that include the purchase of the calf and the butchering? Where did you have it butchered (since youre in Florida). So I assume you had him butchered at 15 months old?

 

[terri9630]

Quote:
To help keep me from getting attached I give them names like Tbone, Dinner, Supper, Porterhouse............ That way me and the kids don't ever forget we are going to eat him.

 

[arabianequine]

Corn/cracked corn and any other grain are used because it puts on weight but it also marbles the meat....that is what makes it so tender....me nor any other beef raiser that I know uses cracked corn/corn or other grains cause they are cheap it is for the above reason. You can do it all along everyday or right at the end like the other poster mentioned.

Typically a year to raise a calf before you butcher but if it is a small growing cow like a jersey....I wait till 1 1/2 to add some extra weight and fill out a bit better.

Butcher around here is $400 for 1000lb cow.....that includes $90 kill charge.