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| Beef at the farm-gate |
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| Beef on the dinner plate |
A clean, 1400 pound, fattened steer will have a hot-hanging weight of about 62% of its body-weight or about 880 pounds. After hanging for two weeks and being cut into retail cuts of meat, the 880 pounds will have been reduced to somewhere between 500 (totally deboned) and 600 pounds of meat for an average of about 40% of the weight of the animal on-the-hoof. (Source)
Current cattle prices
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| (Source) |
Last week, a 540 pound calf cost $2025 in Indiana.
That same steer, grown out to 1400 pounds sold for $3200. Throw in $1000 for cutting costs and store mark-ups, then the average cost of a cut of beef becomes $4200/550 or a cool $7.60 a pound.
Given the high price of calves, the prices will not be coming down in the next 20 months.
Good data. Now add in those calves ae generally single births. That gestation time is 9 months (thus the old saying Cow or Dutchess a baby is 9 months) and let's not forget diseases like the South American screwworm wandering north as we speak.
ReplyDeleteOnce nearly eliminated in America, the screwworm has reappeared, and some suggest the invasion of illegals brought it here from South America (along with TB and a few other charming diversity gifts).
My Uncle had a cattle ranch and would show me decades of records how it was a boom-and-bust business. And how folks found it better to sell out to developers as few family members wanted a dirty 24 hours a day 7 days a week job keeping them safe from predators, thunderstorms (where they'd run blindly into fences and get hurt or worse and feed shortages that could force everybody there to sell EVERYTHING at Fire Sale Prices before going broke.
And that's before the FDA Inspector might rate your beef a lower quality that you were hoping for sale.
A few of us here buy and grow out our own beef calves, sharing the work and costs. We butcher it ourselves. Growing quality beef even without counting the man hours involved still isn't cheap as taxes on the land should be counted.
I've been getting half-steer from a local farmer for 4 years now. 4.25/lb hanging weight, about $1800 to me on average. Last one netted I think 174 lbs of product into my freezer at $10.248 per pound. Its more than the grocer charges, but its real meat, and the best tasting beef I've ever had. Almost ready for my next one!
ReplyDeleteIt isn't going to get any better. Just the other day, 93% lean ground beef was $9.48 a pound. That's up almost three bucks per pound in the last month or so.
ReplyDeleteI've also heard that ranchers are growing fewer cows, some are getting rid of their herds entirely.
ReplyDeleteRanching is big here - I should ask people who know better than me the status of the industry.
Jonathan