Belted Galloway Steers

[George Collins]

Contacted a family in Poplarville, MS today who have Belted Galloway steers for sale. I am considering purchasing between one and perhaps as many as four in an attempt to trial raising Salatin-style beeves.

The Belted Galloway has intrigued me for the same reasons as Berkshire pigs: taste. Supposedly in head-to-head taste tests, the Belted Galloway beats out every other breed of cattle tested against. Youngblood keeps Herefords and while they are quite tasty, I have long been of the opinion that when it comes to taste, it can always be better. The greatest compliment one can pay me after a meal is to care enough to offer constructive criticism.

Once I fried fish for my parents. After the meal, Momma told me, "You should have had your grease hotter when you put your fish in. It'll make them crispier and that's how I like mine."

The wife was like, "HOW DARE SHE!"

I was like, "Thanks Mom. Now I know how to make fried fish even better!"

I have always loved Youngblood's beef but when I mentioned I might want to try a different breed, he bristled (even though he has done the same thing before with disastrous results).

The reason I would like to get perhaps as many as four is to test the waters to help determine what type of demand there will be in the local market for a truly premium product and to see if I can muddle through this process, make a decent profit and do so without overcommitting resources.

The steers will likely cost around $800 each. Would asking for that amount as a deposit be too aggressive?

Does anyone here know or have an opinion on how much should one charge per pound of live weight for a finished beef?

[pa_friendly_guy]

How does the $800 price compare to what you can buy herefords for in your area. I am guessing that it is almost twice the cost. [ well, maybe not twice, but alot more. ] The feed costs should be very similar for both breeds, so that is pretty much a fixed cost. Your time to feed and water the beef sould also be the same for both. So to make the same profit that you would make for raising Herefords you just take the additional cost for the animal and divide it by the number of pounds of meat. As a guess I would think a 1200 lb animal will make just under 600lb of meat. So about a dallor a pound will give you the same or a little bit more profit for your hard work and your feed invested in the beef. If you feel that the beef should carry a huge diferencial in price because of quality then test the waters and see what the market will bear. If that is the plan then selling the meat in the city will help keep the price up, as well as seeking out wealthy, highly educated folks who don't mind paying for things they precieve as better, higher quality, products. Taste can be a big selling factor, snob appeal of serving more expensive meat at a dinner party can be a factor, organic grass fed beef can be a factor, but there will still be a limit to what folks are willing to spend for beef. If you are paying your expenses and making a profit, even a small one, then you are doing better than most farmers. Good Luck George.

[matt walker]

Great topic George. I recently had my first Dexter butchered and two nights ago sampled my beef for the first time. It was a very satisfying experience, one I know you are not new to. Anyway, I've been pondering what I will charge next year when I should have two whole animals to sell. Around here, typical price is around $1 a lb hanging weight. That's for animals sold on the hoof, a much higher price can be had by going the USDA route for slaughter/butcher and selling individual cuts, but the upfront costs are MUCH higher as well. I'm currently struggling with that choice with my sheep. I was able to sell four on the hoof this last month for around $3 a lb. to me, finished price to the customer after slaughter/cut and wrap was in the area of $6 a lb. Of course individual cuts at the local farmer's market are around $16 a lb, so there's a lot of difference there. Again, upfront costs are similarly different.

So, back to the beeves. I think if you are going to raise a premium product like the BGs, and the Berks as well, it would probably be in your best interest to at least investigate the USDA processing route. With a little marketing, a nice label and story, you could produce smaller amounts of beef/pork and charge a premium. Placement in local restaurants and other high end outlets could potentially provide a market for all of your output at a good profit, with a few added headaches and upfront costs. In my experience the premium product sells better to that sort of market, while the whole/side/quarter "custom cut" customer usually is going to default to the reasonable compromise of local/well raised/affordable. Like I said, around here you can buy grassfed small farm raised beef off Craig's List all day long for around a buck a pound. I'd be surprised if you could collect $800 deposit up front for a beef for the freezer. That said, you could probably do much, much better than that if sold as premium cuts.

[George Collins]

Guy, I think a comparably age/size Hereford would cost about $300.

I will surely investigate the USDA route. That said, Youngblood just sold a toped-out, grain-fed Hereford steer to a retired doctor we go to church with for $2/pound hanging weight if I understood the deal correctly which will likely equate to $1,200 to $1,400 (Youngblood ain't xactly long on details.)

As for grass-fed versus grain-fed, that would be up to the customer. I'm sure the grain fed stuff would be easy to pull off. We do that already. If that is the route taken, ~ $2,000 seems like a reasonable price.

The grass-fed, Salatin-style stuff is what I hope to go to. However, that's going to require me convincing Youngblood that I can manage his cows along side my beeves: a long shot in the short term.

Step one though is taking a few steers start to finish for proof of principle. Step two will be to ratchet up that play.

At the moment, everything is in the brainstorming/Youngblood-softening-up phase.

Just today, I put up a quarter mile of electric fencing in his pasture to begin fence-training his herd in the hopes of involving his along with mine in a paddock shift system in the hopefully not too distant future.

[Lollykoko]

George, I'm supposed to be getting half a Black Angus next month. The cost is only $1.20 a pound, but prices here are "on the hoof" while processing & delivery adds another $150 or so to the total.

[pa_friendly_guy]

Lolly, I was wondering now that you have the beef in the freezer what the final cost per pound was? Was the $1.20 price live weight, or a price per pound of meat? Live weight is only about 1/2 meat, the rest is hide bone fat and intestines etc. If it was for the meat I think you got a Great price per pound, even after you add in the processing fees.

[Lollykoko]

Guy, the price was live weight plus processing. I think the bottom line was about $2.15 a delivered pound total cost. That is a wonderful price for ground meat and phenomenal pricing for the steaks and roasts (about 25% of the total)!

Have you ever cooked up a pot of oxtail soup? The last time I did so, I was amazed at the rich broth that was created. Of course picking the meat off the bones is a pain, but very worth it, IMO.

[pa_friendly_guy]

That is a Great price for beef. Buying a side certainly is a good bargain if you have the freezer space. My sons have been buying a side of organically grown beef every year and splitting it between the 2 families. It works out great for them both. I have heard of Ox Tail Soup but have never made any. My Mother in Law is the one in the family who may have made something like that. She has rendered Lard for a group she is a member of so that they could sell funnel cakes at some local fairs and she makes her own pigs souse. For years I would not eat the souse, but hers is really very good and I have acquired a taste for it. She puts a lot of meat in hers. My Boys still won't eat it , my Father in Law likes to bring it to the camp for hunting season. its sort of a tradition now. A tradition that not everybody likes I guess you might say.

[Lollykoko]

Well, I'm an innovative cook, so my oxtail soup hasn't been the same way twice. Come to think of it, neither has a casserole or chili or anything more complicated than "eggs over ..." Perhaps it was reading too many articles in the women's magazines that showed various options of ingredients so that you could cook that meatloaf differently every Wednesday for a full year.

Of course you start with putting the oxtail in a big pot of water and boil it for awhile. I add salt, pepper, onion and garlic at this stage, every single time. Once the meat is well cooked, cool the oxtail until the meat can be pulled from the bones. ~~ This fall I have a cupboard full of different grains to experiment with. I might have to break the oxtail broth down into several batches to try the assortment, one at a time. I'm sure the spinach and/or kale that I dried recently will find their way into at least one batch.

[GrahamB]

Lolly, my mother used to make oxtail soup regularly. She had my dad modify a table fork to get the meat off. He bent the tines at ninety degrees and then shortened them by half the length. My mom used that tool for years, in fact I remember finding it in her kitchen drawer when we were clearing out her place after she died.
We used to eat a lot of extras that I can never find in the American stores. I would kill for a good steak and kidney pie, but I can never find the kidneys. Tripe, cow heel and ox tongue were regular fare on our dinner table.