Raising cattle for home grown beef

14 Aug, 2019

Raising homegrown beef

My family has been raising our own meat for about 10 years. We joined 4-H with my son and started in the market lamb project. At first, we were lost if not for our project leader. We fed it and he grew and he was sold, but what we did not know at that time was the science behind it. Growing good quality meat is not just letting your animal eat anything, their diet has to be controlled by you. Pasture animals who have lush green grasses to feed on their whole entire life may be what you are thinking, but I live in California and this state is named the Golden State, not for the sunny skies like I thought when I first moved here, but because for much of the year, everything turns golden yellow. If we are lucky, California in my area (south gate to Yosemite) has- rain from fall through May-ish…the past couple of years, we have received a tremendous amount with record breaking rainfall for 2018-2019, but we also lived in drought for about 5-6 years prior to 2017. Anyway, what I am getting at is that pasture is not readily available to everyone.

Our babies are born on our farm to Stanley, our bull, and Stella, our cow (cows are called heifers before they have babies). Our pair naturally conceive without hormones and we have been lucky to have a calf each year. Each calf is allowed to grow for 18-24 months before they are processed for food. It has been such a wonderful experience raising these majestic animals. Stanley and Stella were both bottle fed as babes and they were kept apart until Stella was 2 years old because we did not want them to breed until she was big enough to carry a calf without taking away from her own personal growth. Stanley is Charolais and Stella is a Black Angus/Holstein cross. We chose the Holstein cross for frame size because Charlolais are large and we thought the smaller Angus could run into complications at birth.

Stanley came from a nearby ranch that had too many “drop calves” that year. Stella came from a dairy. Stanley was found abandoned by his momma in a muck hole at only a day old. The ranch had several orphans that year and could not keep up with the bottle feedings so my friend, who was the ranch manager, talked the owner into selling him to me. He has been spoiled ever since. Stella was a craigslist find and I picked her up from a dairy lot. To a dairy farmer, a baby cow is competition for his mother’s milk and an extra cost. “Drop calves” are often sold to the highest bidder at stockyard auctions throughout the country. When we went to buy Stella, there were rows and rows of babies all in single holding pens barely big enough for them to turn around. They sat or stood in their pen which had a milk bottle propped at the front. I don’t know how long they live like that, but I would imagine that if we had not bought her, she would have been herded onto a truck and sold at auction too.

Stella had her 1st baby at around 3 1/2 years old. The calf had a large head like his daddy so I helped pull him out. His name was Silver and he was a silver gray bull calf. So adorable and soft. He was all knees and head at birth, but he filled out quick. He was our first born on our farm and I had imagined that I would keep his hide, but at time for slaughter, I found that to be too cost inhibitive. We have a slaughter service gentleman who comes and completes the first part of the process on our farm. He shoots, skins, guts, halves the carcass and delivers it to the butcher, where we pick up beef. He has a special truck with a winch that hangs the beef.  The beef will “age” under refrigeration to add flavor.  The butcher calls me to ask how I want my beef cut up - how thick do I want the steaks? How many per package? Etc. etc. Don’t assume they know what you want. Ask questions if you don’t know. I like the tendons and that’s not usually included. I don’t use any of the organs so I don’t want those. I like Korean short rib BBQ cuts, that’s not the usual, things like that. After the 1st time, the butcher usually keeps your cut info and the next time he will know what you had so you have a starting off point.

Growing beef: So I had some help from my friend, Ron, who had been a real life cowboy and ranch manager who knew everything there is to know about cattle. He knew about annual vaccinations, general fencing tips (fences need to be strong!), when to breed, etc. That was my intro. Then, I researched and sparked up discussions with 4-H kids who raised cattle. I was trying to learn as much as I could anywhere I could get it. The final piece of my learning came from having cattle. I had a bull, a cow, and a calf, a cattle family. We do not have enough pasture to sustain our cattle so they are fed a combination of hay and grain. They receive alfalfa and forage hay, more alfalfa in the winter, and then they get a mixture called Old Mill Mix from a nearby grainery which is a combination of various grains, molasses, almond hulls, and pelleted feed. We buy it by the ton and feed all species (cattle, goats, sheep, horse, llama) with it and supplement each species as needed (goats get a mineral supplement and sheep get fortified with show feed). Raising our own beef and eating it ourselves, I can say that the quality of grain your cattle receive has a great impact on the end product. Grains marble the meat and add flavor to the fat (which is where all the flavor is!). If you choose to pasture your cattle, consider graining them at least 4 months before slaughter.

Generally, our cattle grow out to be about 1800-2200 pounds live weight at time of processing. Our slaughter service does the job at our house and the sides of beef leave with him in his truck. He keeps the hide. Then the butcher will call me in about a week to tell me what the ‘wet weight’ was at time of arrival which is usually about 800-1200 pounds and I tell him how I would like my cuts. The beef hangs in their cooler to ‘age’ for a couple of weeks which loses approximately another 30% in weight and then is cut to your liking. When I roughly calculate what we spend in hay and grain, add slaughter, and butcher cut and wrap fees, I estimate the cost to about $5 per pound across the board for all the cuts. Seems slightly less than the store, but the difference is that you know what your animal ate and how s(he) lived.  

I can say that the savings in money is not worth the effort of daily feedings, cleaning pens, general care, and fence repair if you did not truly love it. Don’t raise cattle just for the fabulous beef if you can’t provide a good home for them. Feed and care is very important. They should not be mistreated or raised in small enclosures where they cannot run around. Costs will vary depending on the availability of good pasture and feed. This is my beef story and it may not be yours, but hopefully it gives you an idea of how one family does it. Thank you for taking the time to read this : )