Is canning veggies cost effective?

[Marianne]

Okay, you sold me, now I gotta try canning beans. I suppose there's a couple threads buried here somewhere?

 

[Wifezilla]

Kev, when my uncle raised calfs for beef, he would get one in spring after the grass was already coming up, bottle feed it for a bit then get it on pasture. When fall hit and grass started to die off, that is when it went to the butcher. Unless you are breeding cows and trying to build your own herd, you don't have to worry about winter feeding.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Quail_Antwerp..thats very interesting.So do you grow or buy your winter hay.? Also, how much pasture would one need to raise one steer a season,,? Sounds like a pretty economical way to obtain a healhy beef supply.I suppose it could get expensive if you had to buy a good quality hay for winter feeding..? What doesn't go in the freezer to eat, would provide alot of canning meat for chile, stew, etc...i would imagine..!

Right now we buy our hay, but when I first met my DH they had enough land that they either owned or leased to cut their own. Only reason we don't bale our own right now is we don't own the equipment.

Plus, we don't really have an area set up to store enough hay for the whole winter.

We usually buy 1 round bale a month - but that was when we had a pony out there, too. For the heifer, it's a round bale every other month in the winter and it costs us about $35.

Most people don't raise their beef for butcher out as long as we do. We usually raise a steer up over spring, summer, fall, winter, and then butcher before the second winter.

We've had our current heifer since last January, so she is a year old. If she was a steer, we'd be butchering her this fall.

Normal people (but we're not normal) butcher out before the first winter, and they like that because they feel the meat is better and more tender off a younger steer.

I like raising ours out to 1000#'s because

1 - bigger steaks
2 - I have a large family, so butchering at a larger size works for us
3 - last time we raised one out to 1000# she fed our family for 2 years.

With the way we do it, we have another 18 month old or so ready for butcher by the time we've eaten our way through the last butcher.

And Wifezilla is right, you really don't have to winter one over, and if you do it the way she suggested, then there's a lot less cost involved with no winter feeding. It's just personal preference.

We are trying to build our own small herd, so we won't have to buy calves to raise out anymore.

 

[Wifezilla]

The decision to raise your own is also going to depend on calf availability in your area. My uncle lived next to a dairy and was friends with the owner. A male calf was always really cheap for him.

 

[freemotion]

I remember as a kid bringing a dairy calf home in a large appliance box in the back of my dad's Volkswagen van! I think he paid $10 for it. We named him Quarter Pounder.

Hey, QA, our cow when I was a kid was half Angus and half Holstein. Her name was Angie and we got her from a small dairy (same as above dairy) because her rear teats were unusually small and difficult to milk and she only gave four gallons a day. She was a very sweet cow. Her bull calf we named Big Mac. He was delicious!

She was sold and we got two goats because four gallons a day was too much. If we'd had the internet back then, I bet my mom would have kept her and made more cheese. She just made farmer's cheese, if I remember. She must've used vinegar because she put the whey into everything and everything took on a sour flavor....I hated it! We obviously didn't have a pig then!

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

She was sold and we got two goats because four gallons a day was too much. If we'd had the internet back then, I bet my mom would have kept her and made more cheese. She just made farmer's cheese, if I remember. She must've used vinegar because she put the whey into everything and everything took on a sour flavor....I hated it! We obviously didn't have a pig then!

I would love to be getting 4 gallons a day!!

With the kids, we go through close to a gallon of milk a day - and i'm buying it! ugh!!

And that's not counting E having it in his coffee!!

I think 4 gallons would be great -- I see cheese, yougurt, cottage cheese, homemade BUTTER, milk for raising out extra calves for butcher....for raising goats???

oohhh and maybe just maybe - a pig? or two??

Ah milk! Farmers Gold.

 

[freemotion]

Angie's butter was very white and not as flavorful as Jersey or Guernsey butter. But I think Mom may have made it in the winter and not when Angie was on grass. Can't remember. She only made it once. We didn't really have her that long....not a year, I don't think. Mom was still kinda a city girl and was a bit overwhelmed. She caught on really fast, though! She's my inspiration!

 

[justusnak]

I was thinking of getting a little calf to raise for the table. Around here, the little ones are going for $150 AND UP! We don't really have a "pasture" more like 4 paddocks. They are all about 60x80.My 3 sheep can not keep the grass down in ONE of them...so, maybe I could get a cow and rotate through the paddocks? Would there possibly be enough grass?? We have never raised a cow, what else do they need, other than grass? Salt? Mineral blocks? I really want to get one...while they are cheap. sorta. LOL

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

I was thinking of getting a little calf to raise for the table. Around here, the little ones are going for $150 AND UP! We don't really have a "pasture" more like 4 paddocks. They are all about 60x80.My 3 sheep can not keep the grass down in ONE of them...so, maybe I could get a cow and rotate through the paddocks? Would there possibly be enough grass?? We have never raised a cow, what else do they need, other than grass? Salt? Mineral blocks? I really want to get one...while they are cheap. sorta. LOL

An all stock mineral block works for a cattle. We get them at the local feed stores.
E said in his opinion, if you want to raise out a calf to eat since your bottle ones are so high out there, try to get your hands on one that's alreay weaned - what we call a feeder calf. that way you only have the initial investment of the feeder calf and not milk replacer as well on top of that. If you're thinking of butchering by this fall, that is.

He said it should be fine to rotate it through the paddocks. Our one cow can't keep up with the 3 acres of pasture she has to herself. It looks like a beautiful hay field right now

if your calf did eat through the paddocks faster than planned, you can feed them hay until some grasses grow back in, or until you butcher, whichever suits you.

 

[moolie]

Wow, 6 pages! I have read all of them and now have some more things to think about! I've also got a large freezer, a dehydrater, so now there are other methods with which to preserve food to think about. I only used the dehydrater for deer jerky! Does anyone recommend a book(s) that can explain in detail canning? I bartered with a fellow to cut down a large tree, he gets to keep it for the firewood, than I can expand my garden. This is why I asked for the info of price of canned/store bought. I will have a lot more room for more garden.
Meat is taken care of, its veggies/fruit I want to get into preserving. Thanks again everyone!
Any other input is greatly appreciated!

In the US it would be the Ball Blue Book, in Canada it's the Bernardin Guide to Home Preserving (same company, different brand names).

You can usually find them wherever you buy your canning supplies, and most libraries have them as well.