I hear cull cows are sheep (cheap)

[BA Deere]

Area salebarn cows are $30 to $40, man that`s sheep. Not that long ago I thought they were $70. 

Here`s Zumbrota from Dec 7, they were still in the $50s and $60s

http://cla.crinet.com/page8027/ZumbrotaMarketReport2016-12-07  

You suppose there`s deep culling going on or a isolated blip?

[r3020]

Hasn't been much to cheer about in the cattle market lately. Those $400 bucket Holsteins are just now ready. I don't even want to add up the numbers. At least calves now are $85. The main trouble is the kill numbers. 105-6% of a year ago. Then a lot of cheap pork and chickens.

[RJG640v8]

for the average Midwestern beef farmer to sell culls at a salebarn is the laziest and stupidest thing known to man.

I sell between 60 and 80 culls per year as freezer burger, and I could get rid of more than that with little effort.

So, if you want to add red ink to your bottom line do the easy thing and take them to the sale barn. If you want to make a profit on your culls , get out there, enterprise a little and you can make an easy profit of $1200 per cull.

Now, it might cut down on how much time you can spend on an internet chat site squawking and bellyaching about how bad it is, and how everyone is worthless except for yourself, but beleive me, it's worth it.  

[BA Deere]

So how do you get people to buy cow meat?  Tightwads that would go for cow meat, might also have bouncy checks.   80 culls a year, whadda have +600 head?

[RJG640v8]

about 12-13 years ago I got sick of taking it in the shorts with culls. I rented a spot at the local Farmers Market for $250 for the season. Went every Saturday morning for a few hours with about 20 LBS of free samples and started building a list of interested people.  Cull cow burger still out shines anything you will find at the grocery store.........water laden, tasteless, nothing burger from who knows where.......

over time, I have come up with a list of over 700 people that have bought or want to buy. takes me less than 10 phone calls to get rid of a cow, to good paying customers, not everyone is like Trump and stiffs their creditors

Currently in the midst of calving 82, 1st calf heifers which should wrap up by the end of this month.  Then about mid January the 587 cows will start calving and run up until early April.

[r3020]

That's great. that's entrepreneurship. That's living the American dream. That is the perfect example of competition delivering a quality product at an affordable price. All without the aid of government. You make money. You pay taxes. The country moves forward and the customers are provided with a quality product at an affordable price. Kudos. Maybe that is how my son should get rid of his Holsteins. How much do you get rapped up in processing? Do you only sell burgers? Do you advertise them as cow burgers? How do you establish your price and how often do you change it?

[BA Deere]

Good for you, I don`t argue with success.   I will say that calling cowmen that run their culls through a salebarn ring are "lazy and stupid" is on thin ice.  I`m not so braggadocious to tell you  much better cowmen than me do just that.

[RJG640v8]

Processing is about $300 per animal. Yes only ground beef, packaged in one pound tubes. I let the customers know that it is ground beef, that is what it is, whether from a steer or cow or heifer. Pricing follows what grocery stores pricing is, I keep tabs on what it sells for there and follow it and price competitive with that.  I have seen a lot of guys price their freezer beef too cheap. Basically I have cut out the middle men and that has allowed me to capture a lot of revenue that would otherwise be lost. I pay for the processing and everything else, I then set my price with the margin I want.

I would caution your son to stay away from the prime cuts (steaks) when doing the freezer beef trade.  It is really hard to screw up ground beef, chuck roasts, briskets.... People remember their eating experiences and when they eat steak they compare it to the steakhouse, they get the prime grades and it has never been frozen, when steaks are frozen and then thawed, they just can't compete and you can end up with dissatisfied customers. Once he gets a good base of customers, word of mouth will be a great free advertising vehicle that will grow his trade. Word of mouth has brought me about 200 people , with no effort, time or money on my part.  There is a lot of mis-education that stems from the whole branded beef programs, make sure he doesn't sell him or his product short just because it came from a Holstein rather than a true beef breed. 

A really good good market to target is medical professionals..... does he have any friends, neighbors, relatives that work at a hospital ??  Network the heck out of that situation if possible .

[RJG640v8]

I just always try to build a better mouse trap.... I don't settle, I set. 

The average beef herd is 40 Cows, so 4 to 10 culls in a year. In a smaller op, you better be looking at any and every avenue to better your situation and maximize what you have.