Breaking Even

When 2020 hit the only thing I knew about the beef markets and processing industry was that I would put an animal on a trailer. She would go through the sales barn and I'd receive a check three days later for whatever the buyer felt like paying.

I knew that grocery store beef tasted different. I thought small butcher / meat shops sold local meat. And I didn't know how just how much mass production and efficiency played into the price of beef that you paid at the store level. Or how much more expensive it would make the beef that I would try to sell to you.

In 2020 we were paid $0.40 per pound live weight at the sales barn. They would use any excuse they could to pay me the lowest prices. Old dairy cows were treated as a waste product.

In 2020 I could butcher that same cow locally, sell a pound of ground for $4 , and make a $600 profit over the sales barn. For 12 cows that's an extra $7000 for the year to keep the farm running.

Today in 2025 I can sell the same animal for $1.25 per pound at the sales barn. If I tried to sell her meat locally I can only hope to break even at $6.50/#.

When you visit our webstore next, you'll see $7.29 burger. The "extra" $0.50 (after discounts) goes to cover the freezers, webstore, licences, and gas.

To sum it all up that's $7.29 for a whole muscle burger grind. If you'd add in that 15-20% suet fat, your pound of beef would be comparable to the store prices of $6.20-$5.83. 

Would you believe that even as I now "know" all of the above, my mind still likes to tell me that " I can't be cheaper because I am just a bad farmer".