# Grass Fed Beef Profits



## OSUman

I was wondering if it were possible to make more money raising feeder calfs on straight grass then using the same amount land for crops.  My friends' net profit last year was 9000 but i think the costs will take alot of that out of that.  I read Salatins book and he said that you can keep 1 cow on 1 acre and he has 15 total for farming.


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## Lorenzo Poe

The secret to making money is to find someone who values your product. My 14 yo son started with10 free range hens and now has 65. He has worked hard at developing a customer base and has an arrangement with the local farmer's market to sell any his customers don't buy. 
When I was selling grassfed beef we spent more time marketing than working cows. We had adds in the paper. notices at TSC and the Sale barn. The majority of our sales were from word of mouth by talking to people that we worked with, then their relatives heard, then their friends. 
During my studies at school I had a sustainability project where I kept 22 cow/calf units on 10 acres of pasture one summer. Pasture was divided into 4 roughly equal sections plus one smaller section that they had access to at all times and one they had no access to. No external inputs other than using a sprinkler for two of the three rest days. At the end of the summer, the four managed pastures had better quality grass than the other two.


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## elevan

Finding your customers is the most important thing.

I have a former teacher who had great success using Facebook this year.  He sold all of his product in just 12 hours just by posting a "status" on Facebook that his grass fed beef was ready.

He said to sell it all in years past took him a few weeks worth of ads and word of mouth.


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## freemotion

Contact the local....and not quite as local....chapters of the Weston A. Price Foundation.  Its members value pastured animal products of every kind, and will generally travel and pay for good stuff.


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## Bossroo

Salatin may be able to raise 1 cow on one acre in his neck of the woods, however there are States out West where one will be hard pressed to raise 1 cow on 100 acres ( too hot and dry, poor soils, little rainfall). Without the benefit of supplemental feed and at least 90 days in a feed lot with a high grain consentrate feed, that cow will be nothing but a bag of bones.Too, when the ground is covered with snow in the North for months on end, that 1 cow will starve on that 1 acre eating snow and dirt.  The nutrition from grass and grass varieties varies with the seasons as well as it's maturity level. newly growing grass is watery, while when  mature will have lots of seed heads with lots of feed energy value. When fall comes or rain/ irrigation is lacking the grass will dry out loosing it's nutrition value rapidly. Remember the old Scottish saying... " The eye of the master fattens the cattle" ! So, it depends of where you are, the conditions you have and who you are       (your management skills).          Did you mean gross profit of $9,000 then taking out operating expenses?  Net profit is what you put in your pocket after all expenses are paid.  Good luck.


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## herfrds

What Bossroo said is correct.

You never know where you might get customers. I made $6 tonight selling 2 jars of pickles. I wasn't even looking to sell them.


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## Beekissed

One would have to read about Salatin's methods to learn about just HOW he manages his grass and his cattle before passing judgement on how regional the information would be.

I'm not too awful fond of the man but he does have some excellent methods that can be adapted to just about all climates...the key is correcting those poor soils, choosing breeds that do well in hot climates, rotating pasture in certain ways during certain seasons to gain maximum feed without overworking your grass...however scanty it may be. He doesn't just place a cow on an acre and say, "Well, there ya go, that's your ration for the year!"   

Yes, he lives where grass and rainfall are more plentiful than in some areas of the country but his neighbor couldn't feed one cow on one acre of HIS grass....I've seen his grass compared to Salatin's and he wouldn't be able to sustain his herd on what grass he has.  

New Zealand and Australia have some of the best methods and best profits from grass fed cattle and we all know their land isn't composed of just verdant plains nor do they possess the most abundant rainfall.  

"Out West" used to support millions of buffalo...before man came along and fenced it, plowed the good topsoil away and planted crops on it.  Those buffalo rotated their grazing on a large scale and the plains used to have grass as tall as a horse's shoulder.   Some of that grass had roots 15 ft. deep and the soil was rich and black.

Your grass and your farm is only as good as the intensive management and time you put into it....yeah, it's easier to throw beef on a feedlot and fatten them on grain and you will certainly yield quicker profits.  But you will still only ever have poor soil, poor grass and a dependency on grain you have to buy. 

Every time someone mentions grassfed beef on this forum someone shoots 'em down.  If you or someone close to you have never tried it, it would be fair to say your experience and knowledge base on the outcome is fairly limited.   There are many, many successful grassfed beef farms all over this country who are out there laughing all the way to the bank and charging more per lb. for their beef than are the feedlot boys.


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## herfrds

beekissed it's not shooting him down for bringing up grassfed, but the fact that each part of the country is completely different.
Do you think we could do grassfed finished cattle up here in Montana?
Nope. They get sent south to be grass fed finished.
It depends upon the person raising the cattle. Grass is slow coming this year. There are still pastures in the mountains south of us covered in snow.

Sorry I don't know Salatin or their process, I just know what works out here.

Grass hay swathed, baled and put up for the winter. Along with hay barley and straw for bedding.


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## Beekissed

herfrds said:
			
		

> beekissed it's not shooting him down for bringing up grassfed, but the fact that each part of the country is completely different.
> Do you think we could do grassfed finished cattle up here in Montana?
> Nope. They get sent south to be grass fed finished.
> It depends upon the person raising the cattle. Grass is slow coming this year. There are still pastures in the mountains south of us covered in snow.
> 
> Sorry I don't know Salatin or their process, I just know what works out here.
> 
> Grass hay swathed, baled and put up for the winter. Along with hay barley and straw for bedding.


In less than a second Google yielded many sites in Montana where they have grassfed and finished beef.  Look at this link:

http://www.eatwild.com/products/montana.html

Of course each part of the country is completely different!  It doesn't mean Salatin's methods, of which you admittedly know nothing, cannot be adapted to other climes.  If you cared to read his book you would find that his methods don't just involve placing cattle on a field and hoping the grass will grow well this year.  

He actually has developed the soil and grass on his land for years, uses intensive rotational grazing methods, breeds for specific traits that do well on his graze-he doesn't just raise one breed but culls for certain traits in the breeds he has/produces.  He also has taken time to establish reservoirs to hold water for drought months, utilizes native grasses instead of overseeding and has carefully fenced off riparian areas and woodlots that also help sustain healthy grasslands.  

His approach is more than just using grass...he has a multidimensional approach to developing pasture, building rich soil, maintaining and breeding for cattle that do well on grass finishing, moving his cattle to fresh graze each day, parasite control with natural means, developing and preserving ponds from which to siphon water for his cattle.  

I don't agree with everything the man says or does, by any means, but I've seen his farm, read his books, tried a few of the methods with my own little plot of land and have found them to yield results even on small scale. 

I would think one would at least read up and become informed about how others are doing this in your area before pronouncing it cannot be done there.  As the OP hasn't divulged his locale, one cannot even tell if his efforts would be advisable.



> Sorry I don't know Salatin or their process, I just know what works out here.


If you haven't even tried to adapt to using different methods, I can't imagine how you can say "what works out here" with any assurance.  Montana used to be a "cattleman's paradise" when it was first settled and I'm sure they had no way to plow and produce grain on a large scale back then so I'm assuming them meant the rich grasslands they found there.  If they once existed, they can again.  

Funny thing is, the local farmers where I live say the exact same thing....."That wouldn't work here!" when Salatin and a growing number of bright young farmers are doing it right over the state line.


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## Royd Wood

Strictly grass + hay fed (NO GRAIN) lamb and beef is what we do here and I notice on the link bekissed there are a few Galloway herds in Montana . 
Pasture management, choice of breed, investing in some really good purebred breeding stock and patience waiting for 2 winters - 26 to 30 months but the results are fantastic and demand is huge.

edited grass and HAY fed


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## herfrds

you google places in Montana and sit there and try to tell me about how we are stuck in our ways saying we are not willing to try things.

Ok what was the lesson in the Dirty Thirties? Do you know the lessons taught then? I do from all the stories from my in laws.
Did you know a neighbor south of us was the first farmer in Montana who started farming in strips instead of large blocks? we learned from him. We still do the strips while so many have jumped on a band wagon of chem fallow no til. No fire breaks either. We cut a wheat crop in 2001 in a terrible drought when the chem fallow guys had nothing to cut.
Hmmm, what do you know it works here.

Why in the world would I want to read some guys book on raising cattle? I just gotta talk to the other people around here to discus different ideas and suggestions. Is this guy out here? Nope. Is he raising cattle out here? Nope.
As for Montana being the "paradise" of long ago take another look. Look up Charlie Russel and take a look at his work, "Last of Ten Thousand."
The range was overgrazed and the mild winters lead the cattlemen into believing they had no need to put up hay. Then the winter of 1886-1887 hit.
Look up the Grant Kohrs ranch. One of those guys quit after this winter saying he will never have an animal that he could not care for again.
they also discovered the Texas longhorns are not winter hardy enough to survive a winter without hay.

I think it is so funny that you are praising this guy and I cannot count on both hands ranchers that have been doing what you discribed for years.

By the way you have no idea of what we have tried or done in the raising and maintaining our land and cattle. So don't preach to me.


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## herfrds

If you think those guys did not feed their cattle HAY then you are not as informed as you think you are.

Cows cannot dig grass out of 3 feet of snow. Horses can though.

Definition Grass Finished Beef since you like to google.

http://www.beefboard.org/news/files/factsheets/Grass-finished-Beef.pdf


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## Beekissed

herfrds said:
			
		

> If you think those guys did not feed their cattle HAY then you are not as informed as you think you are.
> 
> Cows cannot dig grass out of 3 feet of snow. Horses can though.
> 
> Definition Grass Finished Beef since you like to google.
> 
> http://www.beefboard.org/news/files/factsheets/Grass-finished-Beef.pdf


Sweety....hay IS grass.    When we term a farm or cattle grassfed we mean strictly fed on pasture and hay~dried and stored grass~ without supplemental grain.  

Your post was so disjointed it was hard to understand just what you were trying to convey.  No one has been trying to tell you how to raise cattle in Montana...we are just trying to state that, until you have tried it you cannot say with assurity that it will not work in your area~or the OP's area, for that matter.  

Men come from all over the world to study Salatin's farming methods...yes, from each state and from many other continents.  He has a waiting list for people who want to intern on his place and the local colleges give college credits for students who work his farm.  He has sold millions of books on the subject and his books continue to sell.  He is paid to give talks on it all over the US and Canada and his private tours of his own farm are booked far in advance~and they are expensive, I can tell you.  

I'm not trying to stroke the man's ego, it's big enough to fill half of Texas already.  I'm just saying that the grassfed beef industry is here to stay and is a rising star.  If someone wishes to ask questions or post about it here they should be allowed to discuss it without people immediately telling them it just _won't __work._ It does indeed work in many areas of the US and the world and it bears discussion on this forum.  

You don't have to like it or agree with it but at least let a beginner ask questions about it before you inform them that it just won't work.


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## Royd Wood

Must admit that I had never heard of this guy until a couple of months back - was told about him from a customer. I'm just doing what my dad did back in England and am keen to avoid any gm crop going into my animals - just a personal choice


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## Beekissed

Royd, your cattle look great!!  And your grass is lovely.  Whatever you are doing, it must be right!


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## herfrds

I'm not your sweety so keep that crappy type of comments to yourself.

Read the definition again. raised strictly on grass, not HAY! Duh!
Hay is a dry grass that is put up for feed during the winter.

You want to talk disjointed you came across as a know it all for all the land types here in the US.


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## DuckLady

http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/misc.php?action=rules

Thank you for your participation


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