Just Another Reason I Don't Buy Meat At Walmart

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Screaminhelo said:
My brother in law looked into getting certified and it just wasn't worth it for the handful of animals that he sold. He can still sell them as grass fed with no hormones and have no problem selling them. When he first revived the family cattle business people actually started out trying to out bid on another when the folks seeking sustainable beef got wind of his operation. The funny thing about it is that he has enough land to expand and completely support his family on certified organic beef but he can't afford to get certified.
Click to expand...

Yep... like I said, it's a racket, basically. It's more about maintaining control and making money for the "certification" people, and limiting people's ability to get into it.

There's nothing that says someone cannot grow their produce (livestock or crops) according to certified organic methods and practices, just that they cannot "legally" use the "certified organic" label without having the certification. Of course they CAN produce and advertise their crops as "all natural" and then explain to their customer base something to the effect of "produced using the best management practices required for organic certification, but not legally certified organic due to onerous overregulation and high certification costs".

People don't realize just how "involved" growing stuff organically can be... it's a LOT more 'hands on' than raising things using more modern "big ag" practices... that comes with a cost of course.

Later! OL JR :)
 
evil ed said:
Luke,
I agree with y'all 99%. The 1% I question is not castrating calves for steers?
If y'all were closer, I know whewe I'd be buying my freezed beef. I'm hoping I can get on the list at a friend-of a friend's dairy farm and get one of their holstein steers they raise.
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Castrated calves do bring a *slightly* higher price at the sale barn; in recent years that's grown to where now the big cattle buyers want "preconditioned" calves-- IOW, all their shots, vaccines, growth hormone implants, de-balled, de-horned, you name it. Not worth the slight "premium" over just "run 'em in the trailer and haul 'em to the auction" price IMHO...

Now, that's from the cow/calf producer's perspective (and far from universal to be sure); the game changes a bit for the stocker operator selling heavy calves in the 700-1000 pound range into the feedlots for finishing and slaughter. We're selling 300-500 pound calves off their momma cows...

Later! OL JR :)
 
Wayne and I found a place near us where we get "natural" beef, pig, lamb and chickens. I say "natural" because, as others have noted, the rancher can't afford to get certified. Of course out in the desert you can't really call them "grass fed" since "desert fed" is more appropriate (out here it is "acres per cow" not "cows per acre"). I recently bought a whole pig (177#), a quarter cow (100#), a whole lamb (60#) and 4 whole chickens from the ranch and the price averaged out at $4.90/lb. I have no idea if that is good or bad price since it's been a long time since I've bought meat at a regular grocery store and Wayne does the shopping anyway. I can't compare the price to "regular" meat and since it isn't certified organic I can't compare prices with meat bought at Whole Foods or equivalent. All I know is that it tastes good and the other part is that the rancher is humane when it is time to terminate each animal and we can go (and have gone) out to the ranch anytime and see the animals and the living conditions.

My parents took a months vacation to Oregon and came back with Halibut, other Fish and crabs that they caught and then they spent the summer fishing in New Mexico and came back with ALOT of Trout. We share the meat/fish and I store most of it since they only have a small chest freezer. I am up to 2 refrigerator/freezers, a large chest freezer and a large upright freezer. What I need now is a back-up generator!

We used to grow our own veggies at our old house. Wayne built a greenhouse and stuck an evaporator cooler in it so we could grow during the summer, it is truly amazing how much tomatoes, zucchini, okra, etc. you can grow in a very small space. We used this book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1591865484/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Now we only grow citrus and herbs since we found a natural farmer who only sells what he grows located within a reasonable driving distance where we get alot of our produce, eggs and honey from November to June (in Arizona summer is NOT a growing season....). So mostly what we buy at the regular grocery stores is dairy products, produce we can't get locally and staples like flour. The upside to all this is I know where my food is coming from, how it was raised and what's in it (to the most part, you can't be 100%) which is important to me since I have quite a few food allergies for which I carry an epi-pen (dining out is always an adventure). The downside is that we have to cook all this stuff and frankly, you get tired of making food all the time and it takes time and planning. I've been caught out a couple of times getting ready to make something or other and the meat is still frozen solid.....:facepalm:
 
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Gary Byrum said:
Gee OL JR, you just don't know how to make a comment. For as long as I have been a part of this forum, you have written novels. Don't get me wrong, you do have knowledge in areas some of us don't. But can't you make a statement without turning into a 10 minute read?
Click to expand...

You know, whenever I see one of Luke's 'novels', I can't help but get the image of him sitting in a combine harvester, making such long replies to posts like 'how many times did the space shuttle go to the moon and mars' type stuff, and he ends up in the next county before he realizes it! :eek:
 
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