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rusty said:
A friend of mine says that bottle calves are bringing over $500.
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What breed? Most bottle calves are dairy calves, and most are bulls. Either way that's a good price, for the seller. When I was a kid most dairys would just knock the bull calves over the head and toss them in a ditch. Bull calves had no value for a dairy back then.
 
Mountain trapper said:
What breed? Most bottle calves are dairy calves, and most are bulls. Either way that's a good price, for the seller. When I was a kid most dairys would just knock the bull calves over the head and toss them in a ditch. Bull calves had no value for a dairy back then.
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I thought bull calves were castrated and raised to be steers, two or three years, and then sold for their meat. Rocky Mountain oysters? Yes, that is where they get them. There are dairy cows, but then there are many more steers that are raised for meat, like roasts, steaks and burger.
No matter what your thing is with cattle, selling a calf gets you some income.
 
Weedygarden said:
I thought bull calves were castrated and raised to be steers, two or three years, and then sold for their meat. Rocky Mountain oysters? Yes, that is where they get them. There are dairy cows, but then there are many more steers that are raised for meat, like roasts, steaks and burger.
No matter what your thing is with cattle, selling a calf gets you some income.
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Dairy breeds, beef breeds, apples and oranges. Simple economics, a bull calf that is holstein or other dairy breed will not put on as much muscle or at the same rate as a bull calf from a beef breeds, like angus.

If a farmer is going to raise beef to sell, he only wants calves bred for beef. He’s not going to waste time with a diary breed that grows slower and will be smaller for the same amount of feed as a beef breed. These days the profit margins for beef are razor thin. A Holstein bull calf is a waste of time, a money pit, for a beef man.

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Bottle calves here are at a premium also.
 
We've been to some auctions where calves sold for like $50 , sad ( not recently)

But yeah, it is more profitable to have more meat on meat producing livestock. Male milk goats have less meat on them also than our meat goats but we don't have any . People with male milk goats are trying to get rid of them here also but they still brings some money ( more than some calves)
 
rusty said:
Are horses selling at auctions? A few years back a friend told me that they could not even get a bid on them.
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There's a place couple counties over where unwanted horses, mules, donkeys are sold at auction. The guys doing the buying speak spanish. Their big semi's all have mexico plates.

Don't ask me what they plan to do with them... but i'd pass on street taco's south of the border.
 
I'm wondering about veal. Does it take special breeds for it to be harvested for veal?

I can tell you that my grandparents would never have thrown a calf in a ditch or anything. They would have found a way to make it profitable for their family. But then again, I don't know if they ever had a milk cow.
 
I went to an auction a few years ago and they could not give day old dairy bull calves away.
No one would even bid on them until one old Mexican guy eventually offered $2.50 for each one and they sold all `10 to him.
It was the same with horses. No body wanted them and if you left your trailer unlocked there might be a horse or 2 in it when you went back.
 
Our cow auctions are every Tuesday. I heard that's about right for an angus calf. Jersey calf would be about $300. Crazy prices. I don't know what ground beef local is going for. My cousin raises one, and we pay for processing and then keep half the beef...I just specify the cuts. We've been doing this the past two years and will again. The processor is an amish guy in the community. He does a good job, but charges less than the certified place.
 
Peanut said:
Dairy breeds, beef breeds, apples and oranges. Simple economics, a bull calf that is holstein or other dairy breed will not put on as much muscle or at the same rate as a bull calf from a beef breeds, like angus.

If a farmer is going to raise beef to sell, he only wants calves bred for beef. He’s not going to waste time with a diary breed that grows slower and will be smaller for the same amount of feed as a beef breed. These days the profit margins for beef are razor thin. A Holstein bull calf is a waste of time, a money pit, for a beef man.

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Bottle calves here are at a premium also.
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One of my hay customers raises crosses of wagu and jersey. The wagu typically are not very good mothers for producing enough milk. The jersey are ubiquitous with mothering and milk production. She markets the meat directly.

Small niche market, but her customers appreciate the quality they get for the competitive price. Also, she's not 100% grass fed, but finishes with a fraction of grain (corn) than the typical feed lot. Like 25% of the grain used to finish a beef. So there's a health advantage too.

I was particularly interested in how she markets this product. Because in my experience, if you have to make a sale pitch that is over a sentence long, you lose people. And people are so highly programmed to extremes like "grass fed only" or "glyphosate evil" that it's difficult to explain if you do things differently than the big Ag that caused the problem and the bad reputation.

Most of her success comes from word of mouth. It works for smaller and niche markets. Maybe not so much for volume?
 
Peanut said:
There's a place couple counties over where unwanted horses, mules, donkeys are sold at auction. The guys doing the buying speak spanish. Their big semi's all have mexico plates.

Don't ask me what they plan to do with them... but i'd pass on street taco's south of the border.
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Junk horses go out of the country and are processed for food. I don't why we don't eat them here in the US. When I lived and worked overseas I preferred horse over beef.
 
Mountain trapper said:
Junk horses go out of the country and are processed for food. I don't why we don't eat them here in the US. When I lived and worked overseas I preferred horse over beef.
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At one time there was a meat processor in Arkansas that sold horse meat. Have not heard of them in years. Hay is so expensive around here that many gave up pleasure horses. We are still in extreme drought conditions.
 
It is expensive. We have our neighbor's buggy horse on a few acres of our pasture. I throw weeds over at her, too. And cherry tomatoes. She'll be moved when the grass runs out. We're not using the area. Has saved him on feed, but not for long. Around here, people rent pastures from people not using them, pay for months at a time, then put up a hot wire and move their animals on it. Our neighbor, for instance, found pasture 12 miles out to rent for his cows. Takes him forever to get out there, though, on a tractor.
 
Mountain trapper said:
Junk horses go out of the country and are processed for food. I don't why we don't eat them here in the US. When I lived and worked overseas I preferred horse over beef.
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It is legal to sell horse meat. It must be processed and sold at a different location than beef. It is more of a cultural rather than legal thing that stops us from eating horse. In France they have specialty butcher shops for horse meat. They are designated with a horse head figure in front of the store.
 
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Mountain trapper said:
Junk horses go out of the country and are processed for food. I don't why we don't eat them here in the US. When I lived and worked overseas I preferred horse over beef.
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We do all the time in the US, but nobody gets told about it.
I have eaten horse before also.
Growing up on a beef cattle farm, we became experts.
As an adult, I was helping at a giant Boy Scout convention at the state park.
Supper time came and hundreds of scouts filled the huge cafeteria.
They had 5-gallon tubs full of 'chili', supplied by the state.
Since I had eaten deer, and every grade of cow and hog, I found the stringy texture of the 'ground meat' in the chili puzzling.
I asked the cook straight up what kind of meat was in the chili, and he quietly replied: "horse".
No Virginia, old horses don't go to the 'glue-factory' anymore:rolleyes:.
 
Supervisor42 said:
We do all the time in the US, but nobody gets told about it.
I have eaten horse before also.
Growing up on a beef cattle farm, we became experts.
As an adult, I was helping at a giant Boy Scout convention at the state park.
Supper time came and hundreds of scouts filled the huge cafeteria.
They had 5-gallon tubs full of 'chili', supplied by the state.
Since I had eaten deer, and every grade of cow and hog, I found the stringy texture of the 'ground meat' in the chili puzzling.
I asked the cook straight up what kind of meat was in the chili, and he quietly replied: "horse".
No Virginia, old horses don't go to the 'glue-factory' anymore:rolleyes:.
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Scouts, "Always be prepared" I've got to ask, were you prepared for his answer?
 
Caribou said:
Scouts, "Always be prepared" I've got to ask, were you prepared for his answer?
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Yes.
I also know where all the 'shot out of season' deer go when they arrest people... and it ain't into dogfood:oops:.
Edit: What do you think people in state prisons eat? The answer = whatever they can cobble together that meets the nutrition guidelines, and cost nothing or very little.
 
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Supervisor42 said:
Yes.
I also know where all the 'shot out of season' deer go when they arrest people... and it ain't into dogfood:oops:.
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There is a soup kitchen in Anchorage. They get lots of game donations. The government inspectors found all this uninspected meat, threw it in the dumpster, and then dumped diesel on it. Many of the beneficiaries of this soup kitchen are Alaskan Natives. There was hell to pay for that stunt.
 
Supervisor42 said:
Yes.
I also know where all the 'shot out of season' deer go when they arrest people... and it ain't into dogfood:oops:.
Edit: What do you think people in state prisons eat? The answer = whatever they can cobble together that meets the nutrition guidelines, and cost nothing or very little.
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Around here, all the shot out of season deer go to the food pantry and if you hit one with a car, you can keep or donate it.
 
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