Red Barn Family Farm Lamb

[GDR]

What kind of forage are they on?[/QUOTE]


Just an Alfalfa/Timothy/orchard grass mix but it's pretty nice stuff put up early. Havent tested it but pretty nice 1st cut and they came off grass with lots of flesh. I don't disagree with you that it would be a challenge to fatten over winter on forage. Lots of guys trying the grass fed direct marketing are using smaller frame easy keeping cattle.

[grassfarmer]

So the beef from grass fed is generally yearlings or two year olds? Forgive my ignorance.

Most people fatten spring born cattle in the fall so 24-30 months depending when they calve/slaughter. It can be done in 18 months in areas with better grass growing potential and better management.

My heifers this year could tell a different story, had to quit using feeders because they got too fat, havent seen a grain pail, hoping calving goes ok!

What kind of forage are they on?

[GDR]

Not that they don't fit the description - no-one has the quality of conserved forage to fatten through our cold winters.

My heifers this year could tell a different story, had to quit using feeders because they got too fat, havent seen a grain pail, hoping calving goes ok!

[Sheepwheat]

Not that they don't fit the description - no-one has the quality of conserved forage to fatten through our cold winters. Even if they did a lot of the health benefits attributed to grass-fed are lost as they aren't grazing green, photosynthesising plants. Quality grass-fed beef will always involve a short, seasonal slaughter window in the late fall on the Prairies.

So the beef from grass fed is generally yearlings or two year olds? Forgive my ignorance.

[grassfarmer]

Do you feel beef on a complete forage diet over the winter do not fit the grass fed description? I don't see how dehydrated grass vs fresh grass really changes the category, more of an anti grain issue?

Not that they don't fit the description - no-one has the quality of conserved forage to fatten through our cold winters. Even if they did a lot of the health benefits attributed to grass-fed are lost as they aren't grazing green, photosynthesising plants. Quality grass-fed beef will always involve a short, seasonal slaughter window in the late fall on the Prairies.

[Sheepwheat]

Yes. We sell pork, turkey, chickens, honey. Quite a few other experiments in the works, both plant and animal based. There is quite an appetite for these meats at good prices. I got into a bit of trouble on here when I was negative towards supply management because I would like to be able to raise as many birds as I wish with no limitations! Lol.

[GDR]

I wouldn't agree with that - high quality grass-fed beef is pretty scarce and not cheap. Producing that product is a niche too. I see a lot of the grass-fed beef direct marketers advertising just now that "new supply" will be available soon. If they are killing in January or February it isn't grass-fed and it's not going to be good. Still room for lots of amateurs it seems.

Do you feel beef on a complete forage diet over the winter do not fit the grass fed description? I don't see how dehydrated grass vs fresh grass really changes the category, more of an anti grain issue?

Just for the record, we've done 2 beef as grass fed and will not happen again here, not against it just prefer flavour of grain fed meat.

[grassfarmer]

I see your point Sheepwheat - on the other hand virtually everyone eats beef, not that many eat lamb. I'm surprised actually at how many posters do, maybe a throw back to their farm roots at a time where mixed livestock were more common? We used to survey our customers for interest in other products and built up a market for pasture raised pork as a result. Only ever had one or two people interested in lamb so never pursued it. Our partners here in MB are finding the same and have discontinued sheep production for that reason. I found pasture pork to be the easiest sell - the fact it doesn't taste like the smell of a hog barn is pretty persuasive to first time customers.
Anyways good luck with it - I can certainly identify with your enthusiasm for this type of production/marketing. It's like you find the door and step out of the gloom and darkness of commodity agriculture into the light.

[burnt]

Lol. We did under price some products initially. Think we are figuring it out finally. And I don’t mean to scare everyone off from ordering some. We are very competitive (much cheaper) with the likes of pineview farms, prairie meats and other places like that.

It seems to be more common for farmers to under-price their products than overprice. I am/was a prime example.

It took me years to set my beef prices at butcher shop price plus - whatever amount.

Because what I learned was that the butcher shop made most of their margin on their killing and butchering, not on the animal itself.

Also, I saw butcher shop owners sitting ringside and commonly buying the cheapest animal, not the best. And I always butchered my best and sent the lower end into the commodity market.

Now, our sons are selling freezer orders of corn-fed beef and English Black pork. At prices that I would have been afraid to ask!! And getting it sold for a very decent margin.

Good on them!

Hey, sheepwheat, now there's an idea for you if you have the room and the time - raising heritage breed hogs like our one son does. They are mostly pasture raised but grown out with limited choice grain.

He recently had a repeat customer take a whole market hog, cut and wrapped, for almost $1100.00.

Yup, there's some money to be made there even after the butcher takes his slice, so to speak....

[Sheepwheat]

I wouldn't agree with that - high quality grass-fed beef is pretty scarce and not cheap. Producing that product is a niche too. I see a lot of the grass-fed beef direct marketers advertising just now that "new supply" will be available soon. If they are killing in January or February it isn't grass-fed and it's not going to be good. Still room for lots of amateurs it seems.

Hey grass, I agree with you 100%. I do think you maybe missed my point though. I can walk in any store in western Canada and find generic beef, because it is abundant, an for the most part a mass produced commodity. Lamb is hard to find. But then try to find Canadian lamb? It is like trying to find quail eggs or duck, or grass raised turkeys. And trying to sell a whole beef for 8 to 18 plus dollars a lb is pretty tough I would think? Then try to sell your whole production of say a couple hundred steers into this kind of market?

In my view, as soon as you raise a lamb, you have a niche product in Canada. If you want to not be in the commodity game.

I hear you on the grass fed niche or the Kobe beef niche. Real niches for sure. But with plentiful beef everywhere you look, much harder to tap into, to find buyers for... I could be wrong, been there before, making assumptions and all.