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[lurine AT com-pair.net]

Depends on your grass.  Back in the day, when we had our butcher
shop, our steers grade choice straight off grass.  We seeded orchard
grass, perrenial rye, wild oat, bur clover and another grass I don't
remember.  Now, they were dairy calves but the guy used Hereford
bulls.  We also ran some Holstein cows and had our own horned
Hereford bull (Sir Redwood Reginald III, where do people get these
names <g>).

We sold almost all the steers out of our butcher shop (cut out the
middle man) but would occasionally sell one privately.  I always
required 50% upfront with no refunds, so the non-serious or inclined
to change their minds folks didn't even bother.

Lynda

---- Original Message ----
From: franksfarm AT aol.com

>Re Grass Fed Beef
>
>Hi Rob:)
>
>That's one of the real dangers: Customers canceling at last minute!
>Happened to me ,too, and I had little room in my freezer. Several
>hundred lbs of beef take up a lot of space.
>
>Folks don't realize just how long, and how much you have in that
>beef.
>
>You need to educate your customers, and get FIRM, non cancelable 
>orders.
>
>Even at $3.25 margins are not that great. With bottle calves you do
>have much lower costs than most grass fed beef producers.
>
>Also from my experience grass fed beef needs to be cooked more
>slowly, and with moisture -else it seems a bit tougher. My Angus
>cattle tend to be in Yield Grade # 1 because they are so lean. So
>it's healthier for you.
>
>I'm hoping to sell directly to a larger outfit at a premium price
>since it's hard to scale up in a rural area. Selling a handful of
>animals a year is not much of a business. Frank in KY -----Original