Seriously looking into raw feeding but need ways to cut costs first

[Skyesrocket]

I would think that the best way to cut costs would be to get a big freezer and do your own processing. I feed dogfood and when I have it I let them have raw mainly to work their teeth.
What I have been kicking around in the back of my mind are the poor dairy bull calves that sell at auction during the winter for $1-$2 each. Bidders, if there are any at all, will take the calves 90 pounds or over. But the low weight calves have almost no chance of surviving. Especially during the winter. There will usually be 4-6 calves that end up going to the same bidder for next to nothing.
My problem is the processing part of it. I could handle putting them down. They have no quality of life ahead of them. Between the cold and scours they have a miserably short lifespan.
I don't have the knives, saws or experience to process them. But if someone reading this can do it there might be some money to be made in selling raw. There seems to be enough people looking for a cost efficient and easier way for them to feed raw. I don't know what laws are involved. It might be worth while to look into. This time of year it costs the dairies more to transport them to auction than they make. Many just knock the bulls in the head and compost them.

 

[watchdogps]

$1-2?? Is that per calf or per pound?
I would not suggest anyone try selling raw unless they really look into the legalities of it. Selling pet food has a lot of red tape, at least as much as human food. I know people who have narrowly escaped serious trouble because they didn't know the laws.

 

[Skyesrocket]

That is $1-$2 per calf. They bring more in the spring and summer. It's so hard to keep below weight jerseys alive in the winter. It's hard enough keeping the big boys alive.
You are right about checking the laws first.

 

[pbjmaker]

Your right - it's having the equipment to do the slaughter. My hubby was a meat cutter for a grocery store for years and knows how to process a cow. We have good knives for the smaller cuts - it's the big stuff we couldn't do.

SO far I can't kill stuff even knowing they are going to have a sad,short life. If they didn't have eyes then maybe I could do it. Yes I'm a sap.

Once they are already dead then I am not grossed out at all - it's just the killing itself I can't handle.

I have been trying to get over it.

Maybe I can do the quail - start small.

 

[halo]

Thats for Jersey calves? Not holstein? I didnt realize Jerseys were used on any scale for milk.

 

[watchdogps]

Oooh, but I have made nice with a local processor..he gives me tripe and let's me come take all the deer leftovers. I am betting he would kill and quarter a calf for a song for me. I bring him baked goods, he gives me stuff. It costs me about $e a week to feed my dogs right now.

 

[pbjmaker]

How much is $e?

 

[watchdogps]

Darn phone typing? That would be $2

 

[pbjmaker]

Quote:
Suuuurrrrreeee blame it on the phone - you sure it wasn't operator error?

I figured it was $2, $3, or $4 all the numbers above "e"

You have 6 dogs right? That you feed for that much?

I wish you lived near me and I could come see your set-up.

 

[watchdogps]

Quote:
Suuuurrrrreeee blame it on the phone - you sure it wasn't operator error?

I figured it was $2, $3, or $4 all the numbers above "e"

You have 6 dogs right? That you feed for that much?

I wish you lived near me and I could come see your set-up.

Technicality, technicality, lol!

I have eight dogs of varying size and ten cats I am feeding. That equates to about 450lbs of dog and 70lbs of cat (some are kittens)

Set up is nothing fancy. Two freezers, some crates for feeding.