Direct sasles

[grefer]

I know this topic has been tossed around before but I would like some opinions again.I have had about enough of all the B.S. since and including B.S.E. and am considering cutting back my cow herd and selling direct to consumer.I have been doing it on a casual basis for a few years with good response and it is very obvious that if I could do it on a larger scale,I could make more profit with fewer head and less frustration with all the problems that keep hitting the cow/calf people.I have a Black angus herd.First,what are your opinions on whether I could find a regular customer base to purchase halves of beef in and around the Saskatoon area.Secondly.I don't want to feed alot of grain to these black angus girls or their calves to grow them out to slaughter so should I cross with something else and if so,what?Any comments from those already doing this would be appreciated.I have the feeling that the market around me will not be as strong as for those of you in parts of Alberta,who are already doing this.Thanks

[grassfarmer]

Grefer, I would think there would be plenty
opportunity - you have smaller populations but likely
less suppliers too so it might be about a wash. On the
retail side - make it an internet business - build a
website, advertise on eat wild.com and the buyers will
come. Farmers markets and door to door selling are
likely a waste of time. Don't limit yourself to
Saskatoon, Regina isn't far to go if you deliver 5 or 7
processed cattle at a time. If its like Alberta your
buyers will be city dwellers - the rural guys know
where to get it if they want it.

On the production side you will only be limited by
your potential to grow and manage grass and your
genetics. I don't know how much more heat you get
than me and to what degree your grass will lignify
and turn brown earlier in the season.
We never feed grain to cows and I don't see any
reason too. The weaned calves get wintered on grain
silage/and or hay accompanied by 3lbs of pellets
during the 3 coldest months. This is always followed
by around 150 days on straight grass/legume. This
might concern Dave but it doesn't concern my
customers who all get this explained to them upfront.
We feel this is an appropriate system given the
conditions we live in and our growth/quality targets.
We can butcher the bigger half (size wise) of our calf
crop to average 600lbs HHW at 17 months by this
method. Other systems using straight hay in winter
don't grow them fast enough in my opinion and
usually result in needing to winter them a second
time. It's a clearly different system to feedlot
produced beef with 80% grain component in the latter
stages even if our friend from the Chilcotin doesn't
agree.

On the genetic side I believe I've got the best breed
out there for producing grass-fed, either as a
purebred or in the crossbred situation - the butchers
we use are always really impressed by the beef
anyway. I don't expect anyone to believe that in this
breed competitive world and I i'm not on here to
procure sales but there it is. Anytime we have used
straight Angus genetics we have found a proportion
don't fatten on grass - likely a result of feedlot
influenced growth/gain selection for the last 30
years.
You get cattle in most breeds that can do it on grass
but the problem is predictability/repeatability.

[ASRG]

grassfarmer: I have a guy quite close to me who raises some black Galloways. He has some yearling heifers near the road (on straight grass) and they are real little butterballs! I suspect they would produce a pretty good carcass right now?

[grassfarmer]

They could make good carcasses ASRG. The problem
with Galloways in my experience, if these are 17
months old and unless they are out of big crossbred
cows they likely only weigh in the 8-900lb category. I
find it tough to make animals that small pencil given
the fixed cost components of custom slaughter.

[grefer]

Thanks for the input grassarmer.Do you sell your culls as hamburger or take them to town?I know little of Luing cattle.What kind of cross would they make with Black Angus?My cattle are moderate framed blacks.

[grassfarmer]

We have used the occasional cow but prefer to keep it
simple - selling the entire carcass as a whole, half or
quarters so we generally ship cull cows to auction. I
have no interest in running a butcher shop selling it
by the individual cut. With the cost of custom
processing I would find it hard to price ground off
culls at a price reasonable for the customer and
profitable for me. That could change if cows go back
to $200, lol.
We use Luing on commercial type red Angus cows
and they produce an excellent carcass for our
purpose. They would do the same job on blacks but
I'm not sure how the color deal would work out as
you are crossing red on black.