8
This is a new venture for us, we have talked and wanted to do it for the past several years but couldn't make it work. Problem for us was the bank note, we couldn't afford to skip a year selling weaned calves to get them ready for butcher, and finally get paid, the following year.
Anyway, I think being in Oklahoma helps with some of the problems you all are having with more a more urban population. We have the demand, just not enough supply.
I don't understand the pricing issue, saying that Walmart sells cheap beef and it makes it tough to compete. From my experience, Walmart is the same as the local grocery store, ground beef is around $3.00 pound, strips $11/12 a pound, ribeye's $14 a pound, an so on. My idea on direct marketing is not trying to sell an individual ribeye steak to a single person, and I don't think you should have that mentality either. However, if you do, what do do you have in him after processing and feed, $1,000? $2.30/per pound? Why can't you compete with Walmart when your cost, regardless of cut, is $2.30/per pound?
If I'm selling a 1/4, 1/2, or whole beef, the number I look at isn't $ per pound, but revenue - expenses = ?? If I have a 1,200 pound steer on the hoof, maybe he is 720# hanging. I'm going to sell at hanging weight $3.25 per pound. That's gross revenue of $2,340 for that calf. If my total input was $500, then my profit is $1,840.
On the consumer end, if they are buying a 1/2, they are going to be paying $1,170, plus half the processing at $0.70 per pound hanging weight, $252, for a total of $1,422. They are paying $6.58 per pound.
That is an easy sell. The high dollar hamburger meat around here at Walmart sells for $6.00 a pound. The big thing nowadays is farm to table, hormone free, antibiotic free, on and on, anyone that cares at all about the food they feed their families will happily pay $6.58 per pound for a 1/2 beef. You just have to tell them about it.
I had a woman call me a couple years ago asking if I could sell her an antibiotic free beef, I told her sure, I can sell you a beef that doesn't have any antibiotics in it at the time of butcher by following the strict withdrawal periods listed on the medication, she says no, I mean no antibiotics ever. I explained to her that I had not kept records as to which baby calves had been sick that winter and were given a dose of Draxxin, so I couldn't tell her for certain if they had or not. After a quick lecture from her about antibiotics, I told her that I was not about to let a baby calf die, because some woman in Oklahoma City is paranoid and that she was more than welcome to go buy some land around here at $6,500/acre and raise her own damn beef. I did learn one thing, keep track of who I give meds too, because to that woman, I could have sold her a 1/2 for $8.00/per pound if it was "antibiotic free."
Recent Posts