A couple of my regular readers comments both on the site and privately asking me about currently beef prices local and have made comments or asked if I feel that I am getting my money’s worth raising a beef calf.. this was a interesting thought, so I am going to share with you the details to the best of my knowledge and we see if I save any money or not.. Regardless of if I do, I like know how my calf is being raised, and that he had a good cow life, so I hunted a number of different websites until I found a farm that I felt not only seem to treat their cows well but in fact better then me! and I will use their current pricing as a guideline, I will have to adjust this once again when it time to send him to butcher, but it gives me a base line to start with * See below for full details- Jan Note- A six week old weaned half beef male calf on Kijji right now locally is going for around $550 We have enough milk replacer to last till the end of Feb and then Marty will be weaned at 4 months, a full two months longer then most bottle calves.
Even if I throw out the other imputes it, and go straight meat/raise costs per pd, it works out to 2.97 per pd, I would like to see anyone walk into any grocery store and buy even hambuger for that these days! Never mind the steaks, roasts and so on.. In case I am not being clear enough.. jumping up and down in joy! Just think about how much better return we will get on the coming calf, as we won’t be buying it or paying milk replacer for it..
Total returns on Marty
- One Big Beef Hide being turned into a cow hide- (if bought finished, around a thousand)
- 452 pds of cut and wrapped meat – at the going rate of 5.25 per pd-2373
- Bull Returns- Marty is the father of Girls Calf for 2013- 200
- Manure returns-100
Total Returns: 3673
Total Output: 1346
Total savings on him: 2327.
To date Marty cost’s are $ 1346 Feb 2013.Marty is now a year old and weighin in at a live weight at 700 pds give or take a 12 pds either way due to the measuring tape.
- Marty-$150.00 **
- Milk replacer-$320.00 *
- Feed-$48.00
- Baking Soda- $2
- Hay-$350
- Bedding-$40
- Shipping Fee -20
- Butcher fee’s -416
* I buy higher end milk replacer because I feel its the right thing to do, if you want to know more read my calf milk rant talk on the subject
** I bought Marty privately and at the age of three weeks well started on milk and bucket training, locally its 50 per week, so I could have bought a calf at a week old for 50 if I wanted to save money sort of, given the cost of the good milk replacer, it would be very close to a wash in the end for me, but for someone that was going with the standard 40 dollar bag, it would be a reasonable cost savings of over a hundred dollars to do it soon.
I will update his costs per month for a running total over his grow out as well as his imputes on a month base, once I figure out a number for his manure value on the farm.
*Currently pasture raised, no extra’s local beef prices for fall of 2011 They say that the average 24 month or younger beef is typically 125 pds per side, or 250 pds of meat, not including bones, or organs, if they sell whole its at 5.25 per pd so our start base is 1487.50 at farm gate sale price, don’t even know how to add in the fact that I plan on getting his hide back and self-tanning it, but it will certainly have to find a way into impute raither then output, same as his manure, I will have to figure out a approx value to assign to it as well.
Just another Day on the Farm 