This guy here is our supper for the next year or so. We sent him for slaughter on 4/30. His hanging weight was 675lbs. We spent approximately $1,000 on feed for him since December when we brought him home from my grandmother’s farm. Our price per pound averages $1.48, but this does not account for his food costs during his first 1.5 years of life. Although $1.48 is a bargain price for us, when you average out the total cost and the labor entailed (I wish I had the figures to do that 
), raising your own meat is NOT cheaper than shopping the grocery store sales. The added benefit that can’t be accounted for in dollars is knowing the fact that this guy lived a good life. He ran on pasture for his first 1.5 years and he’s been in our corral since December (side note- our pasture is almost fenced in now!) After he finished his supper each night he’d kick up his heels and play with our other steer and our Momma cow. He was the king of the barn yard and called the shots and he was always first to tear into the round bale. Oh and if you brought him bread, WATCH OUT. His tongue was a mile long trying to grab the bread bag!
Some people might not want to know this much about their dinner, but I know that I really appreciate it. We treated him well and in return he’s blessed us with hundreds of good meals! Plus the farthest this guy has been from my house is 15 miles, the distance to the slaughter house. His feed was also grown ~15 miles from us. You really can’t get much more local than that!
I requested that mile long tongue as part of the cuts I wanted. I’ve had tongue as a kid but really don’t remember it. Does anyone have any good recipes???
He had a good life, you know exactly what he ate, you know what his health status was before he went to the big pasture in the sky..
All important stuff, IMO, if a person is going to be a meat eater.
As for cheaper, well, I don’t know. For the pricier cuts, I would think it would be cheaper, but that’s me going on my local prices. Heck, even burger in my area is up to $1.98/lb for regular ground…lean, or extra lean is in the $5-6 range.Of course, the real benefit of raising your own steer is this…when you eat burger made from him, you know it’s only him in your burger, not tens, hundreds, or even a mixture bits of thousands of other animals. That, my friend, is priceless!
I agree! The thought of eating 100 different cows in one burger makes me gag
He also wasn’t “finished” solely on corn, pumped full of antibiotics to help him grow faster, or slaughtered in questionable sanitary conditions like grocery store beef. So bravo for you! And around here, decent ground chuck runs about $2.99/pound, and actual cuts of beef are much more expensive, so you’ll probably at least break even, if not come out a bit ahead.
I still prefer mine on the hoof, but I applaud anyone that can raise and eat their own meat.