Marty

A couple of my regular readers comments both on the site and privately asking me about currently beef prices local and have made comments or asked if I feel that I am getting my money’s worth raising a beef calf..  this was a interesting thought, so I am going to share with you the details to the best of my knowledge and we see if I save any money or not.. Regardless of if I do, I like know how my calf is being raised, and that he had a good cow life, so I hunted a number of different websites until I found a farm that I felt not only seem to treat their cows well but in fact better then me! and I will use their current pricing as a guideline, I will have to adjust this once again when it time to send him to butcher, but it gives me a base line to start with * See below for full details- Jan Note- A six week old weaned half beef male calf on Kijji right now locally is going for around $550 We have enough milk replacer to last till the end of Feb and then Marty will be weaned at 4 months, a full two months longer then most bottle calves.

To date Marty cost’s are $535 April 2012

• Marty-$150.00 **
• Milk replacer-$320.00 *
• Feed-$28.00
• Baking Soda- $2
• Hay-$20
• Bedding-$15

* I buy higher end milk replacer because I feel its the right thing to do, if you want to know more read my calf milk rant talk on the subject

** I bought Marty privately and at the age of three weeks well started on milk and bucket training, locally its 50 per week, so I could have bought a calf at a week old for 50 if I wanted to save money sort of, given the cost of the good milk replacer, it would be very close to a wash in the end for me, but for someone that was going with the standard 40 dollar bag, it would be a reasonable cost savings of over a hundred dollars to do it soon.

I will update his costs per month for a running total over his grow out as well as his imputes on a month base, once I figure out a number for his manure value on the farm.

*Currently pasture raised, no extra’s local beef prices for fall of 2011　They say that the average 24 month or younger beef is typically 125 pds per side, or 250 pds of meat, not including bones, or organs, if they sell whole its at 5.25 per pd so our start base is 1487.50 at farm gate sale price, don’t even know how to add in the fact that I plan on getting his hide back and self-tanning it, but it will certainly have to find a way into impute raither then output, same as his manure, I will have to figure out a approx value to assign to it as well.

Heart, Liver, Tongue, Soup Bones, Ribs, Kidneys:

$2.50/pound (it costs us over $0.50/pound just for cutting and wrapping!)

one package of liver, soup bones or kidneys FREE with any order (when available)
Individual Young Steaks/Roasts -when available from our inventory

Steaks: (Individually Wrapped)

T-Bone $15.15/pound

Rib $14.10/pound

Wing $12.50/pound

Sirloin $9.40/pound

Eye-of-the-Round $8.35/pound

Round $6.75/pound

Blade $5.75/pound

Roasts: (Approximately 3-pounds)

Rib $12.50/pound

Sirloin Tip $9.40/pound

Sirloin Steak Roast $8.85/pound

Eye-of-the-Round $7.80/pound

Round Steak Roast $6.25/pound

Rump $6.00/pound

Boston $5.75/pound

Blade $5.25/pound

Amazing Lean Ground Young Beef:

Available in approximately 1-pound packages ($4.35/pound)

Amazing Young Beef Boneless Stew:

Available in approximately 1-pound packages ($4.35/pound

Rabbit raising costs Breakdown.

Two does and buck cost me 50 dollars as a start up breeding trio, both does were breed by a different buck each, and all were unrelated to the buck I bought, so I was able to to keep back the best two does from those litters, giving me six does and one buck, plus I paid 30 for a new breeding buck to avoid in-breeding, when replacing older does with younger does..

The cost of each outdoor rabbit hutch was a hundred, the cost of the hanging rabbit hutches was 20, we have two single hutches and two huge grow out outdoor hutches, and six indoor grow out rabbit pens, so that is a total of 520 in housing costs

The average cost of feed spread out of the year is 140, including all winter extra feeding and bedding and don’t include things I grow for the rabbits over the growing season.

My girls typically produce between 48 and 60 young ones per year, the average cost of one of their grown out offspring at the local farm boy will range between 20 to 22 dollars, so lets average and say 21 dollars. Just as we will average on the offspring produced (and yes I know that I could breed my girls more then four times a year and produce more litters, I just don’t) to 54 grow outs per year, for a total instore bought value of $ 1134.

Total outputs over a seven year period

• Housing -$520
• Bought breeding rabbit costs-$80
• Feed -$980

Total spent to date- $1580 plus tax on the above items I buy for another 205 for a total of $1785

Total average rabbits raised over 7 years for personal home use on the farm -378, with a average value of 21 per dressed rabbit, that’s a instore value of $7938

Savings for growing my own vs buying them in the local store = $6153

Now that is what I call savings! and of course we had extra’s from the butchering to go to the hounds, hides to play around with, and the output on the hutches and pens value is still ongoing.