How much should it cost me for 1/4 of a beast?

Just want to check I'm not being ripped off. Does $275 sound okay?

Without getting into the inevitable argy bargy about whether you are buying illegal or legal meat (legally, your beast must be killed in a licensed slaughter house, processed by a licenced butcher... in other words, selling homekill is illegal)....

If I were to sell a prime cattle beast to the works, I'd probably get in the region of $800. So the lost income to the owner NOT selling the animal to the work (assuming it's prime) is likely to be in the region of $200 per quarter.

When we homekill a cattle beast for our own use - and thus taking a food safety risk in the knowledge that the animal is being killed in a paddock (not the most hygienic location), it is not checked for signs of disease, and having personal knowledge it is not still within the withholding periond for any veterinary or other treatments - we pay $95 for the homekill guy and in the region of $350 for butchering (for a whole beast).

If the beast was 200kg or more on the hook and that price includes meat, killing and processing (or parts thereof) then I would say that is getting towards the top end of a pretty good price. Ours usually work out to $245/quarter or so all up, we charge around $3.00 - $3.20 per kilo to family that can afford it plus the proportion of the killing and processing. It usually works out to a total of $4.60 - $4.80 per kilo. Which is still a lot less than the cheapest cuts at the supermaket. All done through a licensed homekill butcher.

Working backwards from Crusha's post (which is sound advice), you should be receiving 55 kgs or more of meat in your freezer ($275/$5).
The loss you can expect from dead/hook weight to processed weight due to boning and trimming to waste is 33-38% (depending on breed and condition, and whether hook weight is immediately post slaughter or after hanging/pre-butchering) therefore to get 55kg in the freezer you would need to have had between 82 and 88kgs on the hook per quarter, or 328-356kgs for the entire carcass. That is about the expected weight of a prime 3 year old.

That would be the result for an honestly butchered beef carcass :rolleyes:

When pricing meat, it's worth doing it per kg than per side or quarter. ***Note I'm not making any assumptions about the legality of the killing/processing here ***

Assuming $100 killing fee, plus $1.90/kg processing, cost for a 40kg quarter in the freezer would be $101. Let's say the saleyard price (after costs like commission, cartage etc) for that size animal finished is $750, that's $187.5 per quarter, so wholesale price for 40kg would be $288.55. That's not compensating the farmer for the hassle of butchering either. So I'd say anything around the $7.25/kg mark is good buying!

Buzz, I'd be expecting around 35kg in the freezer at that price. How much the farmer makes from a given beast is really down to how well it yields.

FYI, I just asked Mr Google and Pilgrim Organics are advertising a half beast for $1000, and a whole for $1800. That's a premium price, but I couldn't find any others listing a price. Who knows what the PO beasts weigh though.

Crusha - unless my maths is wrong, or your processing is really cheap, you're getting less from your processed beasts than you would at sale if your hook weight is 200kg?

In order to bypass all the supposition here, do you have an idea of the weight/age/condition/breed of the beast in question?

WK, Your maths is not wrong. Perhaps I should have pointed out that is what it works out to for us and immediate family to kill, process etc our own 14 - 16 month old cattle by our local licensed homekill butcher. The last beast worked out at $4.78/kg for meat, killing and processing. That was at a rate of $3.20/kg on the hook (which was the butchers rate at the time).

We sold our 125 - 150kgLW weaners for around $320/hd this year, slightly more last year. So at market prices I'd still say that $275 is a good price for a quarter if the answer to Organix last question is favourable.

sounds alright to me. We paid $400 for a 1/4 beast earlier this year (inclusive of killing and butchering fees). Got 55kg of meat from it, all parts and pieces inc fillet steaks.

When we homekill we weigh every bit of meat that comes back, and as I help with the butchering I know that it all comes back. We value the animal at the weight that we would have got if it had been sent to the works. The meat that comes back from a human food animal works out at $4.50 to $5 per kg ..... mince, corned, roasts, sausages, stewing, steak. We don't count offal but use it for dogfood, and liver if young, kidneys, tail and tongue are "free".
Buzz, if this animal is not being killed and butchered in a licenced meat packing house (which is considerably different than a licenced homekill butcher), then don't tell anyone that you have done it.