Here's the Beef

Videos and photos surface regularly about how mistreated livestock can be, and that is so true, especially when it comes to corporate/factory farms.  Many are heading toward a vegan diet or giving up meat because of the price, or the uncertainty of what kind of meat it actually is.  Then there are the religious folk who are trying to sort through the proper processing methods and whether the blood has been drained properly.  I have a fairly good solution for all of that.  This is the fifth year I've been raising my own butcher calves.  The great thing is, it's cost effective because I'm not vying and buying angus.  Bottle angus calves are incredibly expensive!

Bottle dairy bulls don't finish out quite as full as the meat breeds, but they are less than a third of the original investment, which at this point amounts to hundreds of dollars.  Here's the basic differences in dollars and cents and finished product.  Grassfed jerseys and angus will weigh about 850-900 and 1000-1250 pounds respectively between 18 - 24 months.  The jersey will dress out around 400 pounds of meat.  The angus will dress over 500.  The milk replacer, is minimal for me, because my goats provide the milk, but if purchasing, any breed of bottle calves will require about $125.00 in milk replacer.  The grind is leaner on the dairy bull, but the steaks are smaller.  I don't castrate, so that does prohibit the same fleshing out, as seen in steers of any breed.

Here's the bottom line with the bottom dollar.  Bottle dairy bulls are less than $250.00 three days old.  Angus bottle bulls are about $750.00 at that same age.  Add $125.00 for the milk replacer and figure hay for at least one winter.  If I process the beef myself, I save between $100.00 and $150.00.  When I home process, I can't let them get that big and handle them with the equipment I have, so the last year, I let them get bigger and paid to process.

These two are just a little over a year old, so they still have about 6 more months of growing to do.  They have shelter, but they free range.

My jerseys, if I bought milk replacer would be about four hundred pounds of meat for less than $500.00.  Five hundred pounds of angus beef is about $1000.00.  For me, that extra hundred pounds just isn't worth the double price.