Buying beef vs butchering cow?

[randal]

Been considering butchering a cow or splitting it with someone.. anyone done it? Worth it?

[panhandlehunter]

Its cheaper and easier to buy it at the grocery store.

[doghouse]

Probably want to butcher a calf rather than a cow. Cows are mostly hamburger meat. A younger calf 12 to 18 months of age will be the best.

[Mambajeep]

Look at zaycon fresh

[Chubb]

I've finished a few calves out every year for the last several years.
The cost per pound of meat in the freezer is usually around $6 per lbs.

[quackerback]

As long as you don't have to buy the calf then not bad. I have a calf that dropped yesterday. He will be getting cut in the morning and hopefully next summer will make some good beef. I have done it a few times and turned out good.

[Muskles]

We just had a calf processed about a month ago. A friend got a Jersey bottle calf and put in a 20' round pen. Didn't take long before he outgrew it. I offered to bring him to my house and put him in a half acre pasture with plenty of grass. She provided the feed and I provided the hay, once he ate all the grass. We raised him until he was just over a year old and had him processed. He only got sick once, and it only set us back about $100, but he lost quite a bit of weight that was hard to put back on. His hanging weight was only 265#, and we poured quite a bit of feed and hay down him. I didn't keep up with how much we spent on him, unfortunately, but I don't think it was worth it. Seems like I bought 2 50# bags of feed ($20) and 4 square bails of hay ($34) every 2 weeks for him. I don't recall the frequency, because I buy feed for my other animals also, and don't have a definite feed store schedule. After saying all that, if you do buy a calf, spend the extra money up front and get a meat breed, and not a cheap dairy breed like the Jersey! There are many other things to consider as well.

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[bowhntrmatt]

We just had a calf processed about a month ago. A friend got a Jersey bottle calf and put in a 20' round pen. Didn't take long before he outgrew it. I offered to bring him to my house and put him in a half acre pasture with plenty of grass. She provided the feed and I provided the hay, once he ate all the grass. We raised him until he was just over a year old and had him processed. He only got sick once, and it only set us back about $100, but he lost quite a bit of weight that was hard to put back on. His hanging weight was only 265#, and we poured quite a bit of feed and hay down him. I didn't keep up with how much we spent on him, unfortunately, but I don't think it was worth it. Seems like I bought 2 50# bags of feed ($20) and 4 square bails of hay ($34) every 2 weeks for him. I don't recall the frequency, because I buy feed for my other animals also, and don't have a definite feed store schedule. After saying all that, if you do buy a calf, spend the extra money up front and get a meat breed, and not a cheap dairy breed like the Jersey! There are many other things to consider as well.

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Yeah I would guess your main problem is that jersey calves take a lot of feed to put on weight compared to cattle bred for beef.

I say to the op, if you have the land, time, and freezer space, it will most likely be worth it if you start with a good steer and finish him out. Won't save you a ton of money, especially when you factor in your time, but you will end up with great beef with history you know.

[gatorgrizz27]

Probably want to butcher a calf rather than a cow. Cows are mostly hamburger meat. A younger calf 12 to 18 months of age will be the best.

That was the crazy thing to me when looking at it. You get about two dozen steaks and a freezer full of grind.

[dustoffer]

That was the crazy thing to me when looking at it. You get about two dozen steaks and a freezer full of grind.

Yep--buddy of mine and I split one ONCE. Never again. Either a freezer full of grind and a few steaks or a few steaks, some grind, and a whole bunch of cuts that you wouldn't buy at the market.

[Old Goat1]

I have been doing it for 40 plus years. Last beef figuring the cost I would have got for him at the auction and processing fee, cost me $5.20/# of processed meat. That was the hamburger, steaks, roasts, etc. I mainly grass feed. The calf only gets what I feed the cows. We like lean meat. Feeding them out in a pen puts morefat in them.I can buy hamburger cheaper but not steaks. I hate the taste of store bought beef. Just because of the taste and quality I won't buy in a store. Fixing to have another butchered in a couple of weeks.

[DuckDogTrainer]

Sams wholesale is hard to beat for beef.

[Mohawkman]

You can't really compare the price. If you go buy the cheapes meat you can get at the store it would probably scare you to see what it came from. We have been processing our own all my life and we have done it several different ways. Least expensive way to get great meat is to process the calf right off the cow. You don't even wean the calf. A really good cow shoul produce about 100 lbs per month. We will leave the one we are going to eat on the cow about 8 months to get the up around 800 to 850. They are eating grass and getting milk as well. We normally sell our other calves around 6 months. It is tough on the cow so we rotate to a different cow every year. Not going to get many stakes and they are not going to have marbling but the will be very tender. The rest of the meat will be incredible. If you don't want everything in burger tell the prosesser. They will make roast, round steak etc.

[millertravis07]

Nothing beats a home grown and slaughtered slab of meat. It takes work and time, but I think it is worth it.

[Draco]

I never even think about the saving money part when raising a calf to butcher. The meat is just so much better.