Fillet

Fillet last Christmas.

We picked up the meat from Fillet, the first Dexter Steer we have butchered.  This is the steer I was worried about not being properly neutered so we had him butchered before he would have hit maturity, he was smaller than I wanted him to be but I felt it was time.  I had sold 3 friends ¼ his meat each and have us keep.  A week before we were to pick up the beef one of our friends realized he didn’t have enough freezer space and backed out.  That shouldn’t have been a problem because we had turned friends down of Fillet’s beef.  Darling Husband forgot to check with the closest friend that we had turned down so as I was dividing up the beef Darling Husband was making phone calls.  I had planned on 75 pounds of beef going into our freezer not 150 so I didn’t want to keep extra.  One friend came and picked up her 75 pounds and I delivered another 75 to a friend and we loaded an ice chest with the rest hoping for the best.  Yay it sold! 

Here is the break down on Fillet: We sold 225 pounds of grass fed Dexter beef at $5 a pound we earned $1125.  Purchase price is $500 + $533 for butchering and processing = $1033.  We came out $90 ahead and have 75 pounds in our freezer, except we fed him twice a day ($50 about month + $25 a month for fodder) , wormed him every 6 months kept him in water, fixed the holes in the fence he caused, hired someone to feed him when we were gone.  So I paid a little over $1000 or $13 a pound for my 75 pounds.  

Once again I am not being a successful farmer dollar wise. 

Fillet last month - he is furthest from the truck.

BUT the rewards of knowing we are eating healthy beef who lived a pretty happy life are priceless. 

Teaching my children the lessons and values we are learning by raising our own beef – also priceless. 

Hopefully as we continue our adventure we will have fenced our last pasture, be able to grow more fodder, possibly increase our cost per pound, and have a better system.  We are planning to butcher Minion in the spring he should be much bigger than Fillet was.

We had a chuck steak that we were eager to eat and so I only marinated it for about 45 minutes and it was the best steak I have ever eaten!  

Stick boy was full of questions for the butcher.