The Cost of a Cow: Part 3 - Butchering and Tags

In Part 1, we went over assumptions and the first year of feed costs for owning a cow and raising a calf.  In Part 2, we went over the feed costs of getting that calf to a finishing weight.  In this post, we're going to briefly address butchering costs and the per-head miscellaneous costs of a cow including vaccinations, ear tags, and mineral supplements.  

I already addressed the butchering costs in another post, but I'll summarize them here with our slightly different numbers.  For our 1300 lb steer we're going to butcher, we have an $85 slaughtering fee or the cost to stun and kill the animal, take out the innards, remove the hide, head, and fetlocks, and hang it in a cooler for aging.  After slaughtering, the animal is now at "hanging weight".  Most young animals' hanging weight is about 65% of it's live weight, so our steer is around 845 lb hanging wieght.  Hanging weight is also called "on the hook".  

The next cost is for the cutting and wrapping the meat into cuts suitable for consumption and individually wrapping said cuts for long term freezer storage.  This cost has (locally) gone up significantly, and I have seen prices from $0.72-$0.75 per lb hanging weight.   

Our steer then costs us $85 for slaughtering plus 845*$0.72 or  $608.40 for a total of $693.40 for butchering.  Adding that to our feed costs, our steer now costs us $1965.40.   For a steer that gets us 500 lb of meat, we're now at a cost of $3.93/lb.

 Kinda getting up there now, eh?  

Alright, for vaccinations, mineral, and ear tags, we add on about $5, $30, and $2 per animal, respectively.  Our steer now costs us $2002.40.  

That edges us up to $4/lb of meat.  

In Part 4, I'm going to attempt to address fencing depreciation and labor.  Both of which are often ignored by farmers.  Stay tuned!! 

Be Blessed,  

Kenny

My surprise heifer calf.