You Can't Do That Here! (Photos)

[Blkbuckaroo]

Thanks for the info ben,sounds like you're on the right track with your operation.My old niehbors where from Maine,they moved back to go in buisness taking down old barns and restoring them for resale.Lots of neat folks out there.That Whole Foods deal your buddy has is a gold mine.i was in Reno the other day and they have a HUGE new store there,pretty spectacular.Locally grown food is the niche to be in.Sell at the yard when there's culls or the price is good.Do you have the book Grass Fed Cattle-byJulius Ruechel?You'd probably like it if not.Good luck.Keep us posted.

 

[RobertMac]

500 LBS of burger will get ya $2740.00

That's an exaggeration...you got to knock off at least $300-$400 for processing. :wink:

Ben, a couple of thought for you...

I used to calve May/June and winter the calf on the cow(9-10 months). One drought year, Nature forced me to wean early and put the calves on winter annual pasture...both cows and calves came through the winter in better shape. For you, that means more pounds of meat to sell from both...particularly the cow. The key is having an economical feed for your calves.

There shouldn't be that much difference in yield between the two plants. Considering that the USDA processor was lying to you about the State inspection when you and I know he knew better, I would suspect he was skimming a little of your product!!

I was headed in the same direction as you, where everything that comes off the farm, goes through the processor. But, my processor stopped doing USDA labeling this paste year...and there is no one processing State or USDA beef in MS or AL. You got a good plan, stick to it!!

 

[Ben H]

All good points. I have that Grass Fed Cattle book, a must read. A guy I know used to work at the USDA plant, he won't take animals there. He says they waste too much, don't take the time and too much ends up in the barrel.

We got a Nor'Easter Sunday, I was out there fencing in blizzard conditions, got it done though. I broke down and gave the cows some hay bales. I do have some pics I'll try to get uploaded of them grazing through a little more snow on saturday after Friday's storm.

 

[andybob]

It is good to see more ranchers sucessfully cutting out the middleman!
Robert Mac, why has your loca plant stopped the USDA inspection? and how much does that limit your marketing?

 

[Soapweed]

It is good to see more ranchers sucessfully cutting out the middleman!
Robert Mac, why has your loca plant stopped the USDA inspection? and how much does that limit your marketing?

But how would you feel if you were a middleman?

 

[Denny]

It is good to see more ranchers sucessfully cutting out the middleman!
Robert Mac, why has your loca plant stopped the USDA inspection? and how much does that limit your marketing?

But how would you feel if you were a middleman?

Well I have no interest in the retail side of the business.I don't like peddleing product and I don't like processing animals.The real money is in the cutting and wrapping of someone else's livestock.I just purchased 2 butcher hogs they weighed 200 lbs. and I paid $129 for the pair I will bet you the butcher bill will be more than the purchase price.I myself don't want or need all the headache that goes along with retail sales.I've done that type of business for 20 years and quit last spring sure don't miss it.Good luck to you fella's that like spending your saturdays catering to yuppies I'd choke them.

 

[Soapweed]

It is good to see more ranchers sucessfully cutting out the middleman!
Robert Mac, why has your loca plant stopped the USDA inspection? and how much does that limit your marketing?

But how would you feel if you were a middleman?

Well I have no interest in the retail side of the business.I don't like peddleing product and I don't like processing animals.The real money is in the cutting and wrapping of someone else's livestock.I just purchased 2 butcher hogs they weighed 200 lbs. and I paid $129 for the pair I will bet you the butcher bill will be more than the purchase price.I myself don't want or need all the headache that goes along with retail sales.I've done that type of business for 20 years and quit last spring sure don't miss it.Good luck to you fella's that like spending your saturdays catering to yuppies I'd choke them.

Middlemen do have thier place. That is why it is hard for me to begrudge the packers making a little profit on their end of the deal. Running a butcher shop and peddling meat isn't my cup of tea either. It takes all kinds of people to make the world go around. :wink:

 

[andybob]

It is good to see more ranchers sucessfully cutting out the middleman!
Robert Mac, why has your loca plant stopped the USDA inspection? and how much does that limit your marketing?

But how would you feel if you were a middleman?

Been there Soapweed, and have started again in a limited way aready, so that I will have established markets in place when I get the stock up and running again.

 

[RobertMac]

It is good to see more ranchers sucessfully cutting out the middleman!
Robert Mac, why has your loca plant stopped the USDA inspection? and how much does that limit your marketing?

But how would you feel if you were a middleman?

Merry Christmas, Soapweed, I hope you and your middlemen have a profitable New Year!!!

I don't begrudge middlemen and packers making a little profit, but I have a problem when a large packer gets involved in limiting the profitability of my small packer and eliminating my ability to access the market place...you should be concerned too.

 

[Soapweed]

It is good to see more ranchers sucessfully cutting out the middleman!
Robert Mac, why has your loca plant stopped the USDA inspection? and how much does that limit your marketing?

But how would you feel if you were a middleman?

Merry Christmas, Soapweed, I hope you and your middlemen have a profitable New Year!!!

I don't begrudge middlemen and packers making a little profit, but I have a problem when a large packer gets involved in limiting the profitability of my small packer and eliminating my ability to access the market place...you should be concerned too.

The one law that really needs to be changed is the one that doesn't allow state inspected meat to be transported across a state line to be sold in another state. That is malarkey. If it passes the test in one state, it sure ought to be healthy enough for the next state. If this law was changed, a lot of small packers would have a much better chance of making a good go of their businesses.

Merry Christmas, RobertMac. You are off and running with a very worthwhile occupation, and I wish you the very best.

 

[RobertMac]

It is good to see more ranchers sucessfully cutting out the middleman!
Robert Mac, why has your loca plant stopped the USDA inspection? and how much does that limit your marketing?

Andybob, I apologize for not getting back to you sooner.
The "reason" he gave was that he couldn't take the liability of having an inspector take a customers meat because of E.coli. He had a positive test come back on a grassfed animal...first in 40+ years. He took it personally.
The inspectors wouldn't allow any re-test...even at the expense of the owner of the meat. They wouldn't allow the meat to be labeled "Not For Resale" and let the owner take it home and eat it himself. At a large plant, they would be allowed to sell the meat to a processor that will cook the meat and sell it. USDA's hypocrisy...if a sample test negative, it only means that the sample meat was negative. If a sample test positive, it means the whole batch is positive.
My personal feeling is that my processor saw this as a signal to get out of USDA labeling of beef. To my knowledge, there are no processors in MS or AL that custom process beef for resale...State or USDA inspection. Two inspectors that came by my place for my yearly inspection confirmed this. They said the large packers were pushing increased testing to make it too expensive for them to process for resale. One of them had just come out of a large pork processing plant and said the large plants ARE the problem.
Does it limit my marketing? You bet!!! I'm at the point that everything that comes off my ranch would have gone through the processor. Now I have to take cull prices at the salebarn...and my cattle are eared and not black.

 

[andybob]

Robertmac can you still sell within Mississippi? I started to sell specialised products to expat South Africans/Zimbabweans, in NC, then moved on to boxed 1/4 beef. As my growing herd was too small to keep up with the growing demand, I had to source from some other small local producers, it was a lot of work, but it was essential if I was to succeed in growing profitable cattle enterprise. Is something along these lines a viable option?

 

[RobertMac]

Robertmac can you still sell within Mississippi? I started to sell specialised products to expat South Africans/Zimbabweans, in NC, then moved on to boxed 1/4 beef. As my growing herd was too small to keep up with the growing demand, I had to source from some other small local producers, it was a lot of work, but it was essential if I was to succeed in growing profitable cattle enterprise. Is something along these lines a viable option?

I anticipated losing my label 3 years ago and began selling by the whole and half carcass. Technically, the consumer is buying the live animal. I have to provide the processor with the name and address of the consumer before he is allowed to slaughter and the consumer is required to pay processing cost. My state regulators(the same as the USDA regulators) allow me flexibility in pricing...they would allow me to sell by the quarter if I wanted to, but, as you know, a split half doesn't come out with equal number of cuts, so I make the consumers divide up a half.

Like you, I have far more demand than I have production. I decided to develop a loyal consumer group that would be return customers and this method allows me to use a custom processors. The meat is labeled "Not For Resale".

I had a friend that went the direction you are talking about...developing the marketing end and out sourcing production. He was doing well until the company he was using as a distributer when out of business and stuck him for many thousands of dollars...put him out of business! One of the problems he was having was the quality of product from his producers...if you are going to sell a specialty product, it had better be special!

It is a viable option and required to reach certain markets where volume is required. You need to have like minded producers that are paid like partners and take some of the risk like partners. This is how I see producers taking back control of our industry...producer run branded beef programs. But don't try to compete with Tyson and Cargill...produce and sell something they can't and take advantage of the fact that consumer trust buying from producers. Good Luck!!!