Veal and Beef on the Homestead
(Page 3 of 3)
March/April 1970
By the Mother Earth News editors
A Mid-west farmer buys beef cattle to fatten for market. You can do the same. Usually, for example, a couple of car-loads of Western steers are brought into our County Seat each spring to be sold to local farmers and estate owners. These "feeder" steers are usually from 6 to 12 months old and ordinarily sell for $8 to $12 a hundred pounds. Obviously, they're not a cheap investment and you'd do well to fatten a few pigs or some sheep before you try a steer.
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In place of the intensive grain feeding program of the Midwest, there is another method that is probably more suitable for the small or part-time farmer. This is the "pasture method." It can be undertaken in two ways:
1.) High-quality pasture may furnish the sole feed.
2.) Pasture during the grass season and then hay and grain for 6 or 8 weeks to finish off.
Pasture doesn't make as finished a steer nor is it as fast as dry-lot grain feeding, but it is much cheaper and oftentimes more profitable even though the final beef doesn't bring so high a price. In addition the steer should have plenty of fresh water and a salt lick.
A new device that has made fattening a steer or two more interesting to the small farmer is the electric fence. A single strand of electric fencing is adequate to hold a steer and it is, of course, easy and inexpensive to put up.
Perhaps, however, the quick-freezer is doing still more to stimulate interest in home production of beef. The home freezer and freezer lockers mean that it is entirely possible for a single family to utilize the 500 pounds of dressed meat obtained from a good-sized steer. Five hundred pounds is not nearly as much as it sounds when you remember that the average annual consumption of beef is 65 pounds per person. If freezer space is limited remember that some cuts can be hung for weeks before cooking. Also you can make some corned beef, smoked beef, dried beef, or use the chuck in delicious canned stews. Another good plan is to divide your beef 50-50 with a neighbor slaughtering his steer one year and yours the next.
Suggested Reading:
Feeds and Feeding, 1,050 pages, $7.00. Tells how to mix feed for all farm a nimals.
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