Side of beef Questions

[graingrower]

Being a livestock nutritionist most of the cost to the customer is based on what the cattle is fed, some raise beef on free choice hay, others want top quality marbleized meat have the steers on full feed and throw them 3-5 pounds of hay a day per head. Cattle are grazers and would rather eat hay then grain. Cost comes from the corn that is fed verses hay. Most corn raised beef is going to cost more, and it all depends on the weight of the animal. The optimum weight for butchering is #1250 but most farmers want them bigger to make more.

The market discovers the price to the consumer, not the cost of gain, reguardless of whether it was grain or grass finished. The cost of gain to the producer is only slightly higher on high energy rations because forage programs take many more days on feed to complete. Most important to the producer, the quality of the meat (and therefore the positive eating experience of the consumer) is far superior when cattle are fed a grain based diet. The gimmics used by niche marketeers of "grass fed", "all natural", "organic" will continue to garner less market share as the general consumer becomes more educated about production practices associated with modern agriculture. Everyone has a right to know where and how the food we eat gets to the table; most farmers are happy to answer your questions.

On a side note: Live cattle today topped at $102.00/lb for the

holsteins and $106.00 for the colored cattle.

The bulk of the holsteins sold in range of $0.97 -

$0.9950.

[farmallnutz]

GG, regardless of the market you are not going to sell your beef to your customers for a loss. All of my repeat customers year after year are happy to pay the price to cover the cost of the corn my cattle are fed. If the customer is satisfied by the product and knows where is raised they will pay. Your market report does not represent the country price on cattle, it is a local price and varies.