Friend wants to go in on beef - need advice

[ohiofarmgirl]

hee hee...sorry getting late here.....

check out craigslist in the farm/garden section and you'll see people advertising "freezer beef" - or thats what we call it around here. its smaller farms that sell their beef direct to customers or 'on the hoof' and you pay the farmer and the processor separately (avoids some food laws).

we see signs for this - as well as advertised online

 

[PamsPride]

If you are not personally raising it I would say NO until it is hanging at the butchers and then take half! What if the cow dies on them?? Are they going to give you your $400 back plus the $100 or are you just SOL?? What if it was their fault the cow died because they fed it something they shouldn't have. Having to upfront the money BEFORE it is sent off to butcher does not sound like the way to go if they are raising it. I just see a million ways this could go wrong, sorry! Are these people really good friends that you are going to give the $500 to? They are not going to take the money and then suddenly stop talking to you are they?
That does seem like a REALLY high price....but then again I do not live in CA.
I believe someone on here just had a pig deal go south and that was with family!
I would settle on a price per pound at butcher time and not hand over any money until then. But, then again we have farmers all around here that you can buy whole, half, or quartered beef from.

 

[Dace]

See I knew this dumb city girl needed guidance!

Aly & Ernie that was a lot of very good info. Tell Ernie thank you.....sorry to have disrupted his show AND caused a heated debate I can be troublesome!

Ohio....outside of the grocery store, meat is really hard to find in our area. Buying part of an animal is either not very common OR kept secret so that people keep their connections to themselves. I think it is easier to find drugs than clean meat!

Pam, you make very good point about paying up front! I never thought about something going sideways but of course it is possible! I will never forget Justusnak's story about her sister's pig and then the same thing happened to this very friend who wants me to go in on the animal!

So here is as much as I know: One of my cheer coaches has a friend (Lisa) who has a small property in a local rural town (Ramona) Lisa has a connection for meat. She buys the animal, they raise it up, she pays butchering fees and gets the meat. I am not sure if these are the same people that she uses for pork or not.

I have no idea how big the cow is now but the text I got said "We pay farmer $800 (divided by 2) Jan 3 then he eats oats for 3 mos, then hangs for 21 days" So he must be pretty big and maybe the $100 is just to buy enough oats and molasses to supplement his pasture diet?.... then when I asked about pasture I got back "The last few months of life he gets molasses and oats. Guess it's a flavor thing, never any 'feed'"

So I need to have a real phone conversation and ask some of the good questions that you all pointed out.

I just don't want to be one of the dumb city slicker chicks who get scammed.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

nah.. you wont get scammed.. you're asking all the right questions!