The real cost of your grass fed beef....EXPOSED!

Folks, I just wanted to throw a little education out into the internets this evening.  A lot of folks are selling their grass fed, grass finished, or grain finished beef "on the hook" or by hanging weight.  

Let me explain that term.  "Live weight" is how much the animal weighs when it leaves the farm.  When it goes to the butcher, the butcher stuns or kills the animal, then bleeds it out.  Then, the butcher prepares the animal for hanging by removing the innards, skin and hair, front and rear fetlocks, hooves, and head.  Then, the animal is hung for aging which can be anywhere from a few days to four weeks.  At this point, the animal is at "hanging weight".  The ratio of live weight to hanging weight depends on the age and breed of the animal, but for my steers, it's about 0.65.  

So as a point of discussion, my 1000 lb steer "live weight" is about 650 lb "hanging weight".  You follow?  So, say for example, you're buying your steer from the farmer at $3.50/lb hanging weight.  That's way less than the $6/lb that KD Farms charges, right??   

Not so fast.  You still have to pay the butcher and you don't get 1 lb of meat from every 1 lb of hanging weight.  No!  You get another ratio!  This ratio is the amount of meat you get from every pound of hanging weight.  This ratio can also be anywhere from 0.55 to 0.65 if you have a young steer that is just starting to get fat.

So now, we have our 650lb hanging weight steer that you pay the farmer $3.50/lb for so a total of $2275.  Then you have butchering costs.  The butcher charges you for the "kill" or the initial processing of the carcass to the hanging weight, then charges you for the "cut and wrap" or the cutting of the carcass into usable sizes and cuts for your consumption.  The cut and wrap charges are calculated off hanging weight as well.  Let's say that you have $0.75/lb and a $85 kill charge.  So now you have a total butchering cost of $0.75*650lb + $85 = $572.50.  

Your favorite steer has now set you back a total of $2847.50.   Now, we talked about that cut and wrap ratio earlier, we have to multiply our 650lb hanging weight by that ratio to find our actual pounds of meat in the freezer.  Let's be generous and also use 0.65.  So we actually get 650lb*0.65 or a total of 422.5lb of meat in your freezer.

Now, we can calculate the actual cost of the meat in your freezer or $2847.50/422.5lb = $6.74 per pound of meat in your freezer.

That $3.50/lb doesn't sound so great now, does it?  Keep in mind, the ratios I used above are for prime animals.  If you're buying an older cow for burger, your ratios will be lower and if you're buying a lighter grass fed animal, they also won't cut out as well if they aren't a little fat. 

At KD Farms, we try to finish our animals at least at 1200 lb so they are marbled well and also cut out well.  Its tougher to get beef steers to marble on grass because of the lack of carbohydrates, so you have to be marketing a larger steer to get it to marble well.

Now, if you're health conscious and want to make the best use of the animal, I recommend also taking the offal from your steer to make the price per pound a little more reasonable.  Experiment a little.  Make some oxtail soup, or perhaps some beef tongue tacos, and maybe a little marrow broth for your health?  

That's all for today!  I hope this little informational blog was useful to you!  Let me know in the comments what you think! 

Be Blessed.   -Kenny