I would love to buy from a local rancher. Unfortunately, what I’ve been told is the processing fees and regulations make it difficult to do that in this area.
In the states towards the west, beginning with Colorado, more ranchers with many head of cattle tend to have contracts in advance for selling all of their cattle to particular buyers. Some will go to auctions, though.
In the states from Kansas towards the east from there, there should still be more small farmers who sell cattle at auctions. The trick is to get to know one and arrange to buy cattle (or one steer) from him. Also arrange transportation to a small, custom processor. The packages of finished product will say something like “not for resale” on them. Tricky, because many of them are probably receiving quite a few time consuming calls and approaches.
That sort of arrangement is best done, when no near future shortage is likely and slaughter beef prices are low. Give a little more cash for beef on the hoof, and make a farmer happy. Making some kind of group buy of several head of cattle with friends or family can also be helpful.
So along with a little salesmanship (approach, acquaintance, appealing character, etc.) pickup (including maybe helping to herd, load, etc.) and transportation to the processor is needed. ...and a more money per pound than market for slaughter beef on the hoof. Slaughter is now called “live” these days or something like that. My ag education and experience is a little dated (’70s and early ‘80s).
Come to remember it, the best way would be to have a pickup truck or trailer with stock racks. Go to the auction and bid on one or several cattle that will be about a thousand pounds or heavier. Make sure in advance that your truck or trailer will hold what you buy. Some animals can exceed 2,000 pounds in weight.
Check the market before going (”live cattle” or something like that) at Bloomberg or a similar market site, and don’t bid too much over that. Local bidding on cattle from smaller farmers may go a little higher than big markets, because smaller farmers more often tend to raise healthier animals.
Maybe some regulations in your area will prohibit that. I don’t know, and it would be worth checking on. Talk to someone familiar with local auctions and someone with a local custom processor (”not for resale” or something like that). The meat will *not* likely be USDA inspected. If you want USDA inspected meat, you’ll need to go to a processor who has that done and pay more.
Hope that helps.