How Much Does Raw Beef Cost

Raising livestock for straight-to-consumer meat sales requires careful record keeping and analysis to determine profitable pricing.

It doesn't matter if you are selling halves, quarters or single cuts, y'all need to know your cost of product first. What are your costs of raising that animal from day ane until the solar day of slaughter? In any business organization endeavor, keeping good records is essential to knowing if you are going to be profitable or not. Once you know your cost of production, there are some tools you can use to help y'all determine what price you may want to attach to your fine, farm-fresh production.

Mike Debach of the Leona Meat Establish in Troy, Pennsylvania, has a bang-up process you can utilise that will assistance you lot figure out your costs afterwards processing so yous tin determine your retail price. For this instance, understand that the cost of product will vary depending on the breed of the animal and production methods (i.e., grain-fed, grass-fed). According to Dr. John Comerford, retired Penn State kinesthesia, the percentage used to determine the "carcass weight" varies depending on what kind of animal information technology is (beef, hog, lamb), what breed the animal is, and the method of production. Then, for this example, permit's say nosotros have a grass-fed, Angus steer that dresses out to a hanging carcass weight that is 58 pct of its live weight and your price to get that animal to slaughter weight is $ane.35 per pound of live weight.

Determining the cost of your beast

1. Start with your per pound toll of the live animal (as mentioned before, your price to raise that fauna).
2. Divide this amount by 58% to get your "hanging toll." (That animal is now a "carcass" after it is slaughtered. This determines your new cost per pound at "carcass weight.")
3. Add together in your processing fees, trucking, etc., to the "hanging cost."
4. Divide the total by 65% to go your "cut-out" cost (breaking the carcass down into individual cuts of meat).
5. Split up your cut-out price by the percent mark-upwardly you desire to attain the "retail value" price yous will ultimately charge.

Example

1. Toll of the alive animate being = $1.35 per pound
2. $one.35 divided by 58% = $ii.33
3. $2.33 plus $0.65 (per pound processing fee) = $ii.98
4. $two.98 divided past 65% = $iv.58
5. This is the last cost of your animal becoming single cuts of meat
   $4.58 divided past 75% = $6.11

A sale price of $6.11 per pound would give you a 25% render on your product.

As you can run into, in every step of the process there is a reduction to your final yield of finished product. And so, your price per pound volition become up with every pace from alive animal to cut and packaged product. The above example volition give you a rough estimate which can help you to remain profitable. Keep in listen, it is a "rough" gauge. A lot of variables tin can alter these percentages. For case, how much fat was on the creature? What kind of cuts are you requesting? Are you getting bone-in or boneless cuts? If you want boneless cuts, this will reduce the total pounds of production returned to you from your butcher.

What kind of animal you are processing will also make a difference in the percentage of product you lot ultimately receive. Dr. Christopher Raines, sometime Animal Science professor, has a handy sheet that describes the average percentage of yield in the butchering process for pork, beef and lamb.

Dr. Raines' document says when converting an animal into a carcass, the average pct of yield for pork is effectually 70 per centum, beef 60 per centum and lamb l pct. Turning that carcass into individual cuts of meat; the average yield for os-in cuts is 75-80 percent of carcass weight for pork, 65-70 percentage for beef, and 70-75 percentage for lamb. Dr. Raines points out that aging and further processing tin can subtract your last product weight. If your butcher is hanging (crumbling) the carcass for two weeks, there is moisture loss due to evaporation. If you are curing hams and bacons from your hog, applying a heat procedure to your meat cuts may also reduce your final yield.

Using these tools, you lot should be able to brand a rough approximate on the corporeality of product you will have for sale, what your costs are, and what you will demand to charge your customers to remain profitable.

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Source: https://extension.psu.edu/how-much-should-you-charge-pricing-your-meat-cuts