Dexter Beef Breakdown

[Jac]

However, I agree that the problems come in selling, not producing them, at least in a commercial market. The problems I find is in selling the hinterland animals of 200kg+ - my private customers want the smaller joints that come from animals up to 180kg max, meanwhile most butchers seem to want them as big as possible and they feel like they're doing you a favour by taking the 'small' 220kg carcass.

Is it the case that the breed is only suited to a 'home business' situation and therefore efforts towards establishing a collective (commercial) outlet is doomed to failure? Not because it can't be standardised towards the middle ground but that nobody would ever be willing to take the breed (females included) at the median point as there just is not the margin there for the hard work involved.

[Rob R]

However, I agree that the problems come in selling, not producing them, at least in a commercial market. The problems I find is in selling the hinterland animals of 200kg+ - my private customers want the smaller joints that come from animals up to 180kg max, meanwhile most butchers seem to want them as big as possible and they feel like they're doing you a favour by taking the 'small' 220kg carcass.

From my own perspective I am not interested in producing large carcases I simply cannot handle them. I have no personal interest in breeding beef to supply to a third party (other than my own customers). Is it the case that the breed is only suited to a 'home business' situation and therefore efforts towards establishing a collective outlet is doomed to failure? Not because it can't be standardised towards the middle ground but that nobody would ever be willing to take the breed (females included) at the median point?

At one time I did want to be breeding some of my own and buying in steers to finish but I found it was easier, and cheaper, to breed my own animals so I could plan for the future. I've bought a few steers in and found that the finished ones offered for sale do tend to be the bigger ones, and they were overfat, with the joints too large for my customers. Then when I agreed to take future steers for finishing I found that, despite agreeing to sell you them, the vendors conveniently forgot and sold them on the open market. There was also the one time I agreed to take a steer and went to pick it up to find it was, in fact, a bull, "just in case you want to breed from it". Then of course the birth notified steers that turn out to be 'by a registered bull' or the heifer 'ready to kill' that turned out to be in-calf (the point at which I finally decided to give up buying any finished animals).

In the end it wasn't worth my time messing around. The margins aren't massive and are quickly erroded when thery come with extra issues. Consistency, particularly of supply, is paramount, so you need to know you're going to have the stock available in order to plan with any degree of certainty.

[Jac]

Perhaps it could have worked better for you if you set up a finishing system taking just weaned stock then you wouldn't have the problems of in-calf things and bulls although young stock tends to be expensive by comparison since the breeder has had to keep the cow and had expense of putting it in calf the risk of losing it and all the hassle weaning it.

[Rob R]

Maybe, but there just weren't the numbers of animals out there. You should never underestimate the hassle factor of dealing with lots of different people and breeding strategies.

For us the cattle are more important as a management tool these days so we need them to have the ability to survive and thrive on minimal inputs. The stock that are available vary so much with some being heavily reliant upon wormers and concentrates, etc. or even just on high-sugar grasses. Most people keep their cows primarily for the enjoyment of it, if that involves feeding them every day and trimming their feet every 6 months it's best if they just do that, and I'll stick to my type of animal because they're more predictable and reliable on our system.