Wife and I were talking today about the possibility of feeding out a steer on our place to have our own source of beef. To be clear, I understand we wouldn't be "saving" money vs going to Wal-Mart/Sam's and buying our beef, but there's a lot to be said for knowing what we are eating, and it would likely be of better quality.

I worked at a large feedlot in Colorado fresh out of college, but that was over 20 years ago, so you could say I'm well out of the game. We are on a small place (just over an acre) in the unincorporated county. We have the back 1/3rd of the place fenced off for our critters and I was thinking about fencing an area to feed out a steer. I'm assuming our best option, since grass isn't really an option, is to buy a 600lb or so steer and feed it out with rations and some hay?

I know this would likely cost us more than we would like, but I was thinking of just keeping half the beef and potentially selling the other half to off-set costs. And it would be a fun project for the kids to be involved with to really see where their food comes from. We do chickens, ducks, and turkey.... so may as well add a steer lol.

Where do you live? I have a couple of show steers that were supposed to be shown at the Ft. Worth steer show but it was cancelled due to Covid.

The steers were raised by me and my kids projects. So looking to get them off my feed bill and have the kids recoup something back on their project. I'm wanting $1.25 a pound on the hoof.

Is there a feedlot anywhere nearby? You can sometimes buy one that's already "straightened out" and finish him for as long as you want for the size/grade you want.

Not sure what the conditions are like in your area but lockers in my area are booked solid through 2021 into 2022 for cow or hog processing. May want to check around first before getting a steer you can't get slaughtered.

putting cost aside, i think this is a great idea after seeing how people panic during a crisis. when covid first started up and with this cold front the grocery stores were empty of meat.

i'm greatful i dont have to buy any meat from a grocery store after seeing the ideocracy from the last 18 months.

AgResearch said:

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Not sure what the conditions are like in your area but lockers in my area are booked solid through 2021 into 2022 for cow or hog processing. May want to check around first before getting a steer you can't get slaughtered.

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Didn't even think about that. We are near Denton. Had planned on using Hess' in Muenster, but will contact them to see how far out they are booked.

How complicated does that get with timing your grow out time with your butcher date?

And yeah HV, this has got me wanting to be as self sufficient as possible. We already have chickens and I'm planning on adding rabbits and quail. Add a steer grow out and we'd be pretty well set on our own meat at home.

Another question for y'all. If we had a family member wanting to go in for a half beef at the processor, how do those arrangements usually work out? Split the cost of the steer and feed costs as well? Or just they split the processing costs?

I know you said steer but there's some heifers for sale on the Classifieds board

https://texags.com/forums/50/topics/3185520

I'm not opposed to a heifer either if price is right. Just figured a steer would grade out better?

That's a good deal though if was closer to D/FW

I've been wanting to do something similar for awhile, not because of the shortages last year, but more just to be able to say I've eaten beef we raised. Probably will hold a steer back from my dad's operation one day.

You'd be surprised, if you can get it right it's not much more expensive than store bought, maybe even a touch cheaper. At least that's what I figured on the spreadsheet when I ran a budget on it, and that's including the lost revenue from not taking it to the sale barn in our case of holding one back. Was something around $4.75 processed weight including packaging, at least what I was figuring on but I haven't looked in a few months.

Just be careful feeding and make sure you know what you're doing, they need the proper amount of roughage in the diet. You don't want to just take a steer that's been solely on grass and throw it on a straight feed diet, you'll have to transition it slowly. I didn't show as a kid so I reached out to an extension agent to get some info on various feeding plans and make sure I didn't get the animal sick and wouldn't waste too much feed by putting too much out. It's all about efficiency.

agfan2013 said:

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Just be careful feeding and make sure you know what you're doing, they need the proper amount of roughage in the diet. You don't want to just take a steer that's been solely on grass and throw it on a straight feed diet, you'll have to transition it slowly. I didn't show as a kid so I reached out to an extension agent to get some info on various feeding plans and make sure I didn't get the animal sick and wouldn't waste too much feed by putting too much out. It's all about efficiency.

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My job at the feedlot I worked at was bunk checker/feed caller. I know all too well what happens if you don't ease them in to grain. But that was over 20yrs ago. Going to take some research, talking to folks to get myself back into the program.

You need to start them out on a starter ration feed and mix in some Purina PreCon. Feed some good coastal hay have a round bale out to eat at all times. Get them going on that for a bit to they are acclimated and gain good weight. Then you can slowly change to a finisher feed. When changing feeds you start mixing slowly until steer acclimated to the new ration. To get some extra finish you can add cooked stream rolled corn and stream rolled barley usually a pound of each at each feeding. I use a big crock pot to cook it in and have to add to my feed.

We feed Lyssy & Eckel show feed and also I use them to mix up a range feed for our cattle in the pasture.

In Gainesville. Last we checked with Hess they were a little over a year out. That would have been Septemberish. Went ahead and sold the beef we had up, figured we would have to strategize better.

Here's the ABC steer that we raised that sold at San Antonio show this past week. We missed being in class 1 by 2 pounds on the weight breaks and got put in Class 2. We were out weighed by 200 pounds. If in Class 1 probably win the class but the steer is good and we made the sale even though giving up 200 pounds in class 2

Depending upon where you are, I've got some calves that are on wheat pasture now. I have a range of calves from 600# to 800# and 2 steers that will go 1000#. One of those is headed to my freezer and maybe the second one too.

If you have interest, we can sell you a calf with a varied length of commitment to get it to size to send to the packer. I'm in the Texas Panhandle so location may not be ideal but I'll be hauling these calves when we get into spring and grass bounces back out of dormancy.

I echo what most have said about needing to adapt the steer to a finishing ration. I would not necessarily put out a round bale to do this since cattle tend to waste a lot (~15 to 20%) of the hay you put in a ring.

There is a livestock nutrition center in Saginaw and they will make some step up diets to feed. If I were you, I would look into getting something like that.

If you buy a 6 weight calf, you can expect that he will eat around 18 lbs per day during the adaptation phase.

I would plan on adapting them over 28 days by increasing the grain in equal proportions in the diet every 7 days. For example: start them at 60:40 (roughage:concentrate) for 7 days. On day 8 go to 40:60. On day 15 go to 30:70. On day 22 go to 20:80. And finally start a 10:90 ration on day 29.

If this guy is eating around 18 lb, then that would be about 3 50 lb sacks of feed each week. If you have a bit extra, just feed him in that step a day or two longer.

I think it is an excellent idea. Teach those kiddos that meat is not made at Kroger.

My parents did this with two steers back when I was a kid. One thing I remember is that from day 1, the steers were named "Hamburger" and "T-Bone". As a result, we never became emotionally attached to either one. In fact, I have memories of sitting at the dinner table, eating a steak, and asking my parents if it came from "Hamburger" or "T-Bone".

That place in Saginaw is only 30 miles from us. Will definitely check them out.

I got a black angus show steer with butcher date next week if you don't want the hassle. Due to COVID and snowvid we couldn't get this one in the shows we wanted. Im about to post for sale to try to make back a little money for my kids next show animal. Dm me for price.

After the extremely cold weather last week you oughta think about postponing the kill date at least a month. That calf used the fat in the marbling to keep warm and it hasn't had time to build it back up yet.

Real easy: buy a 500-600 pound heifer or steer calf, purchase Morman's protein supplement and mix according to directions with crimped corn. That's it! When calf reaches 1100-1200 lbs, have it processed.

Don't let the kids give it a name- you never name what you are going to eat....

I've already informed them it will be named T-Bone, Chuck, etc.

Maybe we'll name him "Chuck" Schumer. Nutless wonder that needs to be sent away..

How much of an option would something like this be? I'm assuming if we don't have grass and are trying to feed a steer out on hay and feed that the cost in hay would be prohibitive until it reached the point could pretty much be solely on ration?

Are we much better off starting with a 600-800lb steer?

AgResearch said:

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Not sure what the conditions are like in your area but lockers in my area are booked solid through 2021 into 2022 for cow or hog processing. May want to check around first before getting a steer you can't get slaughtered.

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We recently received our state license to begin custom livestock processing. After doing wildgame processing for years and getting multiple calls per day inquiring about livestock processing, we decided to expand the facility to handle both.

I can attest that it is really rough to find an appointment time that is not way out in time. A lot of the calls we are getting right now are about livestock show animals and the people can't afford to keep feeding them for 6 months or more.

If you are in the San Antonio area or just feel like taking a ride, we have appointments that can get you in much quicker (for now).

Central Texas Processing

Not wanting to use this site to solicit, so staff if this is not allowed please remove, but there is a real lack of these facilities and appointment time out there and some people are desperate to get their animals processed.

Not afraid of a little drive... But how big of a problem would shrinkage be driving from D/FW area? I imagine that would come into play a little vs a local processor?

It never should have been cancelled.

Player To Be Named Later said:

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Not afraid of a little drive... But how big of a problem would shrinkage be driving from D/FW area? I imagine that would come into play a little vs a local processor?

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Yeah D/FW is a pretty good haul.

From my understanding, shrinkage depends on age, sex, feed type, and other factors. Cattle can lose between 2% to 9% BW over a 12 hour travel period without food or water with a large percentage of the loss coming at the beginning of the trip.

Would be interested in hearing what someone with more knowledge on this thinks. We are getting calls from as far away as Corpus so being able to give them more accurate advice would be helpful.

We generally expect 4-6% shrink to be conservative, but generall y are closer to 3.5%. Mainly water weight and since folks own the cattle, and are not selling them, that really isn't much of a concern.

Well, called Rendon Meats in Burleson and they can fit us in for a kill date of October 4, so I grabbed it for now. Anyone know anything at all about them and if we should avoid or if they're good to go?

The other dilemma that I can see potentially is that this kill date puts us looking for a 800lb steer around the first week of June or a little earlier if we went with a 600lb beef? Is that going to make things more difficult with producers wanting to be rid of them earlier than that with grass drying up?

I would think not. If you want to buy direct from a producer, there should several in your area starting to wean around the time you are looking to start. But I think you may be looking for a bigger steer than you realize. If you start in June and feed a 800lber until October, that's at most 120 days on feed if you kill at the beginning of October. If you go to 1400 lb (industry standard today) you would need 5 lb adg. Not likely. Not an issue of you kill earlier, but greater chance of having less marbling than you would like. Just keep in mind that most of us are feeding 180 to 200 days with calves that start between 600 to 700 lbs (4 to 4.5 lb per day). And that's cooking with hot grease.

I was just guesstimating. Would certainly be willing and able to start earlier if it's better.

What would y'all be looking for and when for a first week of October kill date?

Edit - looking at your math, I need to get on the ball sooner rather than later on securing our steers. I suppose it's also possible I could call that processor and push the kill date back if needed.

You are correct either way. I would either getting moving quick or move back to expected kill date. Either way, your kids will love getting to do something like this and will likely be appreciative their whole life.

I'm hoping so. Step son is in 4th grade so I'm hoping this pushes him towards wanting to get into FFA and possibly showing.

215 days until an Oct 4 kill date, so that really doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room to get prepared, set up, and procure our animals.

We used Rendon for a steer we split with another family a few years ago and were happy with the outcome.