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Post by lakeportfarms on Feb 25, 2012 10:41:35 GMT -5
How do you plan to raise your steers? Frankly, you won't make any money if you sell at the current live weight prices after your costs of maintaining the cow, breeding with either a bull or A.I., transportation to the butcher, factoring the cost of replacement heifers (sad to say but eventually your cow is going to get old) and your time involved with finding a purchaser whether it's the entire animal or halves, etc....
Now, if you're running 150 of them, put up your own hay and feed, are a veterinarian, and own your property free and clear maybe you can make a little money doing it that way.
Your best bet is to find buyers who value what you are producing over what they'll purchase at the supermarket. The prices that you're finding here are not high for all the work and investment involved.
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Post by Olga on Feb 25, 2012 11:00:59 GMT -5
Area differs from area. I live in a rural area. I advertised pure Hereford steer, as natural as I could get it, for $3 a pound hanging weight, processing included. Not a single bite. Advertised on FB, offering a 10% discount to anyone I personally know. Had 1 bite. But once they did the math - they didn't have the money. I ended up selling it well bellow cost to someone I know, simply because something was better than nothing and I didn't have room for the whole steer anyway. That's the reality of it now - even those people who know about good food and care what they eat may not have the cash to buy a large amount of meat.
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Post by marion on Feb 25, 2012 11:46:24 GMT -5
Hi ksroose, Trying to pass off young Dexter steers or heifers as something that they are not is very dishonest and the buyers will soon figure out what happened and who did it. If you're going to take Dexters to sell at the sale barn, be honest about what you are offering. Patti I am very glad to see that ksroose has come back on this thread, after what seemed like an attack. There was nothing in ksroose's post to indicate that the poster was intending to pass a Dexter off as something else..marion
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Post by kansasdexters on Feb 25, 2012 12:46:28 GMT -5
Hi Marion,
What I said was not meant as an attack of any sort. I didn't say that ksroose was trying to do this. I simply recommended against doing such a thing.
The reason that I even mentioned it is because we are currently seeing historical high prices being offered for young beef animals (300 to 600 lb animals) at the sale barns in the Midwest. Prices over $2.00 per pound live weight are currently being offered for feeder steers. But those are the prices for animals that will finish out in the feedlots at over 1,100 pounds. Most Dexter steers won't attain anything near that finished weight, so it's very important to be honest about what is being offered for sale, especially when selling weanlings (young Dexter steers and heifers) at the sale barn.
Patti
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Post by LizMO on Feb 25, 2012 14:57:59 GMT -5
I would just hate to think of my little Dexters be crushed into a feed lot with a lot of "big" steers. Think of that!
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Post by cripple creek dexters on Feb 25, 2012 16:58:52 GMT -5
We sell our beef by the packaged lb in wholes halve and quarters. We have found hanging weight just seems to confuse the buyers. We have been very lucky to have our demand for grass finished beef grow faster than we can produce it. Our dexters are most popular due to their size and quality. It seems that people into the health benefits of grass finished don't want a huge side of beef. We do Angus, highland and are trying a couple of galloway cattle too, these sell too for the same price just lower demand.
We have found word of mouth is best for us, in fact we don't do any other advertising and we have all 8 of our steers that will finish this summer sold (actually deposits on them) already.
I think having a major metropolitan area within an hour is a huge part of our success. We don't sell any beef to our neighbors, they think our prices are too high at $5 per packaged lb, but the folks in town think its a great deal.
We have a couple angus dexter cross that will finish in the summer of 2013 I am anxious to see if they retain the dexter quality meat with their larger size. These guys are big enough that if the auction prices stay this high, the heifers may end up at the auction.
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Post by ksroose on Feb 27, 2012 22:02:20 GMT -5
Thanks for the good discussion. We currently buy our little bull calves and turn them into steers. We are only getting a couple at a time. Raising our our beef, and hope to have a couple buys to help offset some of the costs. Sounds like demand can vary depending on maybe region but also finding the right buyers with similar philosophy on how the food is making it to the table. I've bee keeping track of costs but not really in this for money at all. Probably losing if I added up literally all the expenses. There's more personal satisfaction than anything. I just want to get a fair prices but not feel like I'm gouging anyone at the same time. Thanks again.
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