Sustainability : On Beef, Pork, and Venison

Photo: Our happy charolais cows on pasture and hay, about 30 days prior to slaughter.
If you live in Colorado, you have probably seen a Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) somewhere along the way. This is in effect assembly line meat. The animals are kept on dirt lots with no shelter from the sun, wind, or snow. They are fed a grain based diet. What is wrong with this picture? Cows, pigs, goats, and sheep are grazers and browsers and all are nomadic. They cannot fulfill their natural desire to graze and roam in these confinement situations. In addition, these confinement situations are a management nightmare when it comes to waste. These animals are meant to fertilize the ground they trod upon and spread it with their own "engines." Lets not forget all the grain that is grown in this country that is fed to meat animals. Nearly 80% of the grain grown in this country is used to feed animals to produce meat, which is extremely inefficient (I'll blog another time about the feed and seed industry)

I am not a vegetarian by any means. I like chicken, pork, beef and venison...pretty much in that order. I refuse to feed my family commercially produced meat. It contains antibiotics required to keep animals healthy in filthy confinement operations. It also contains hormones purposefully injected or implanted into the animal for optimum growth and production.

Our cows are happy cows. They eat grass, like they were made too. They aren't fed ANIMAL BY-PRODUCTS, which are frequently fed to feedlot cattle. Cattle are HERBIVORES folks. My cattle have a clean place to lie down, room to run around, and a shelter from blowing snow or driving rain. Rarely do they need antibiotics, because they are not in a stressful and filthy environment. Some people tell me our beef tastes different than meat they buy at the supermarket. I think our meat tastes BETTER. It is also lower in fat. I know my cow was happy and healthy and EXACTLY what it ate from the time it was born until the day it died.

We eat a lot of pork. I like sausage and pork chops. Not together. But anyway. I haven't gotten the courage to venture into raising pigs, but I think I will try this year. I buy my pork from a family farmer in Sidney, NE. They keep 10 sows, and feed them an all-natural diet. I pay $3.00 per pound for my pork, vacuum packed and delivered to my door. You can't beat that.

Braden hunts for deer and elk each year. With the cost of the tag to the D.O.W and processing fees, venison and elk meat end up costing about $2.00 per pound. I am only in favor of hunting if you plan to eat your kill. Or, if you want to trophy hunt, cough up the money to have the animal processed properly and donate the meat to a worthy cause or a friend or neighbor in need. Lets not be wasteful people.



So, if you live in town and can't raise your own meat, how can you go farmer direct?

1) Purchase a chest freezer. Cattle are usually sold by the 1/4, 1/2, or whole. A 1/4 cow will be approximately 100 lbs. of meat. This will feed your average family of four eating beef a few times a week for a year. In Colorado, you will pay anywhere from $3-$6 per pound for the meat, but this is for ALL CUTS. So basically, you are getting roasts, t-bones, and ribeyes from the same price per pound as ground beef. The price range varies between producers and their practices. We charge our friends and family $4.50 per pound.

2) Go to Craigslist. Click on the "Farm and Garden" section and type "beef" "pork" or "hog" into the search engine. If there isn't any, post a wanted ad. Here are some of the terms you might run into:
A) Live Animal, or "On the Hoof" means you are paying by the pound for the weight of the live animal. You will most likely also pay the processing costs directly to the slaughter house and be able to provide your own cutting instructions and wrapping instructions. Market price is currently about $.90-$1.00/lb on the hoof for beef. Then, you will pay a processor a fee to slaughter the animal (usually between $40-$60) and by the pound for cutting and wrapping. Your average 1,000 pound cow will hang at about 650 lbs. and result in about 425 lbs. of meat for your freezer.

B) Hanging Weight means you are paying by the pound for the weight of the live animal with the limbs removed (below the knee), head removed, and viscera. You will need to ask the producer if they have included the costs of slaughter and packaging in this price. Sometimes they have, sometimes they haven't. If they have included all costs, you are probably going to be paying around $2.50/lb for hanging weight for beef, as of the date I write this.

C) By the 1/4, 1/2, or whole. The meat will be cut, wrapped, frozen and ready to deliver. Typically you end up with about 1/3 ground beef, 1/3 roasts, and 1/3 steaks. Depending on the type of beef (organic, all-natural, grass fed, etc) and your area, it will cost anywhere between $3.00-$8.00 per pound. This is a good route to go, since the per pound cost won't change.

Obviously, these specs will be different for a sheep, goat, or hog and usually they are only sold by the half or the whole, not by the 1/4.

3) Call your local Cooperative Extension office.
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/
Nearly every county in the country has a Cooperative Extension office. Ask for the Livestock Agent. If they are worth the tax dollars you are paying them, they should be able to provide you with names of producers in your area.

Hopefully this will get you started on your quest to find local meat that is both of better quality and nutrient value than anything you can find in the supermarket.