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Question for direct marketers

A

ANGUS327

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 30, 2005
Messages
291
Location
north of the 49th
With cattle prices so high will you still try and direct market as many animals as you have in the past?? I noticed last week that 1450 lb steers brought .98 thats $1421.00 on the hoof add on $6-700 for processing and all the B.S. with marketing it is tempting to sell them all through the ring. Any thoughts. :roll:
 
I look at it a bit differently I guess. I have built up a great customer base of folks who depend on me for their families beef. The reasons they buy direct havent changed. Tired of recalls, wondering about where the meat in the supermarket came from, wanting to buy in bulk and better quality for every dollar spent. The strong cattle market is good news for all producers. My customers want/need the product that I offer. And they are willing to pay for it. That works plenty good for me! :D By the way, our processing comes to about $200 per head. It would not be fun to be paying $700 like you are. Sounds like you need to start up a meat processing house at those prices! :shock:
 
leanin' H said:
By the way, our processing comes to about $200 per head. It would not be fun to be paying $700 like you are. Sounds like you need to start up a meat processing house at those prices! :shock:
Click to expand...

H, do you do your own butchering and processing? I can't imagine any outfit in town doing it for $200. My last beef butchered in Dec '09 cost in the $700 range to go from on the hoof to the deep freeze. :shock: This was a 1500+ lb steer.
 
John SD said:
leanin' H said:
By the way, our processing comes to about $200 per head. It would not be fun to be paying $700 like you are. Sounds like you need to start up a meat processing house at those prices! :shock:
Click to expand...

H, do you do your own butchering and processing? I can't imagine any outfit in town doing it for $200. My last beef butchered in Dec '09 cost in the $700 range to go from on the hoof to the deep freeze. :shock: This was a 1500+ lb steer.
Click to expand...

No. We have our's processed at an outfit about 80 miles away. They do great work and have been in business for years and years. My Dad has been going there for 50 years. A beef averages about $225 on a 1300 pound steer. That is a custom cut & wrap job. If you have pre-made patties made out of the burger it is slightly more. Our customers pay for their own processing and it is one more reason they love our beef. It goes to their homes Clean, Packaged to last and they guarantee us that our customer get our beef. I won't go anywhere else even though there are places much closer. Again, for $700 a head, I'll start my own processing plant.
 
Hey H maybe I should send my steers down to your butcher. The plant we use now charges $85 to kill $.70lb for cut and wrapping $.60lb for grinding burger, patties and minute steak extra, $10.00 inspection fee $.08lb for disposal $10.00 a day for hanging over 14 days + tax. I took 4 steers there just before Christmas he waited until I had unloaded the cattle when he told me that the kill price had jumped from $35.00/hd to $85.00 hd even though I had booked them 2 months earlier, easiest $200.00 he ever made :mad: :mad:
 
The USDA plant I use is $45 kill fee, $0.65/lb ($0.75/lb for a quarterers) for cut/wrap and another $0.50/lb for patties with a 100 lb minimum.
 
We had 3 beefs and a market hog butchered in December and the total bill was almost $1100. The beef dressed 2 at 625lbs. each and 1 lightweight heifer at around 500lbs.

The hog dressed 210 lbs and cost $120 to buy and about $140.00 to butcher. :shock: :shock:
 
leanin' H said:
John SD said:
leanin' H said:
By the way, our processing comes to about $200 per head. It would not be fun to be paying $700 like you are. Sounds like you need to start up a meat processing house at those prices! :shock:
Click to expand...

H, do you do your own butchering and processing? I can't imagine any outfit in town doing it for $200. My last beef butchered in Dec '09 cost in the $700 range to go from on the hoof to the deep freeze. :shock: This was a 1500+ lb steer.
Click to expand...

No. We have our's processed at an outfit about 80 miles away. They do great work and have been in business for years and years. My Dad has been going there for 50 years. A beef averages about $225 on a 1300 pound steer. That is a custom cut & wrap job. If you have pre-made patties made out of the burger it is slightly more. Our customers pay for their own processing and it is one more reason they love our beef. It goes to their homes Clean, Packaged to last and they guarantee us that our customer get our beef. I won't go anywhere else even though there are places much closer. Again, for $700 a head, I'll start my own processing plant.
Click to expand...

H, do you mean $225 is your share for the kill and hanging, then the customer pays the rest? That would make more sense and be in line with what most of us are paying in total. But if you mean $225 for absolutely everything from the kill through to the deep freeze, that's unheard of these days. Our costs are $600-700 for everything, pasture to plate. When we start to make alot of sausage and jerky, it gets ugly quick. However, we do make it back on those products also.
 
ANGUS327 said:
With cattle prices so high will you still try and direct market as many animals as you have in the past?? I noticed last week that 1450 lb steers brought .98 thats $1421.00 on the hoof add on $6-700 for processing and all the B.S. with marketing it is tempting to sell them all through the ring. Any thoughts. :roll:
Click to expand...

Good question.

Just depends how much time and effort you have invested in ones branding and marketing efforts and what margins you have.

With most of our cattle it is costing us $700 to $750 depending on the extent of value added processing we get done.

The other consideration is how long this current market dynamic will last?

We have been at this for 16 years and would hate to pull out now only to have a BSE type boogie man jump out and slam us back on the ground.
 
Dylan Biggs said:
ANGUS327 said:
With cattle prices so high will you still try and direct market as many animals as you have in the past?? I noticed last week that 1450 lb steers brought .98 thats $1421.00 on the hoof add on $6-700 for processing and all the B.S. with marketing it is tempting to sell them all through the ring. Any thoughts. :roll:
Click to expand...

Good question.

Just depends how much time and effort you have invested in ones branding and marketing efforts and what margins you have.

With most of our cattle it is costing us $700 to $750 depending on the extent of value added processing we get done.

The other consideration is how long this current market dynamic will last?

We have been at this for 16 years and would hate to pull out now only to have a BSE type boogie man jump out and slam us back on the ground.
Click to expand...
It was BSE that got me into this side of the business in the first place. I was able to sell a few dry heifers for some pretty good money at the time and it has grown from there to about 25-30 steers a year now. 2009 I priced my own home grown 1000 # steers @ $.85 or $850.00 2010 they were $200.00 a head higher I have to use these costs in order to see if I'm making any money no matter how much I enjoy what I'm doing. The higher the cattle price is the smaller my margin is by direct marketing I can only charge so much for a side of beef then people back off. They want top quality beef but they want it @ Walmart price. I know there are exceptions to that but it has been harder to sell beef this year than other years.
 
PureCountry said:
leanin' H said:
John SD said:
H, do you do your own butchering and processing? I can't imagine any outfit in town doing it for $200. My last beef butchered in Dec '09 cost in the $700 range to go from on the hoof to the deep freeze. :shock: This was a 1500+ lb steer.
Click to expand...

No. We have our's processed at an outfit about 80 miles away. They do great work and have been in business for years and years. My Dad has been going there for 50 years. A beef averages about $225 on a 1300 pound steer. That is a custom cut & wrap job. If you have pre-made patties made out of the burger it is slightly more. Our customers pay for their own processing and it is one more reason they love our beef. It goes to their homes Clean, Packaged to last and they guarantee us that our customer get our beef. I won't go anywhere else even though there are places much closer. Again, for $700 a head, I'll start my own processing plant.
Click to expand...

H, do you mean $225 is your share for the kill and hanging, then the customer pays the rest? That would make more sense and be in line with what most of us are paying in total. But if you mean $225 for absolutely everything from the kill through to the deep freeze, that's unheard of these days. Our costs are $600-700 for everything, pasture to plate. When we start to make alot of sausage and jerky, it gets ugly quick. However, we do make it back on those products also.
Click to expand...

$225 is what my customers pay on average per whole beef. I deliver them to the processor for the price I charge and that doesnt include cut and wrap. The customer pays for their own processing as that works well when several families go in on a whole beef. Each can have their third processed to meet the needs of each family. I have a link to my processor from off of my website/blog. Their prices are as follows: Beef slaughter $35, cut & wrap .40 per pound and patties pre-made for burgers are .25 per pound. A #600 carcass is between $225 and $270 depending on each customer's wants/needs. Our hanging weights on our calves are pretty close to 600 on average.
 
Our processor gets around $300 he comes out and kill's at the farm. But he does get to keep the hide.The $300 includes the trip fee.
 

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