You can’t sell ranch beef without the USDA stamp of approval and the cost of a meat inspector in house that you pay for.
The alternative is to sell the cow, let the rancher take it to the community abattoir and you buy finished beef paying for the cow, the butchering and packaging and pick up your approximately 41% of the on the hoof weight to put in the freezer. If I don’t go to the sale and get a calf to fatten, this is what I do. It works out to about $5 a lb for finished beef at current prices of about $1.35 on the hoof.
A lot of people are not able or resistant to this process.
We have a new tribal abattoir. I’ll be interested to see how that works out and how heavy the thumbs on the scales are.
Butchering beef it a messy business by the way. Only 41% to 44% goes in the package. The rest, well, you gotta do something with it all.
Exactly. Plus, that lazy ass government meat inspector does very little to insure the quality and safety of meat. The private sector can handle this on their own a whole lot better and a whole lot cheaper.
Personally, I have no fears in buying eggs, raw milk, poultry, pork and beef from family and friends that are farmers. I trust all of them more than I will ever trust government. Additionally, I have no problems helping or doing the butchering. I can't do a steer by myself because I don't have a front loader, but everything else I can do on my own without an USDA inspector looking over my shoulder. I've done it for years for big and small game, and recently with pork and poultry.
“The rest, well, you gotta do something offal with it all.”
“The rest, well, you gotta do something offal with it all.”