Need someone that can do beef math for me (price of beef)

[Timberstalker]

There absolutely is a way.
Find someone that has beef over by you. Buy a half, show up when they kill and have the butcher load it in your rig. Take it home and go to work.

[PlateauNDN]

There's places here in the Yakima valley that do that. My grandma (dad's mom) had a farm for many years and she would sell cows on the spot if someone paid cash. You show up, kill it, butcher it and clean up your mess.

[Sandberm]

I raise my own beef, with all that goes into it I wouldn't sell for less than $5 a pound, and you pay for cut and wrap, plus your part of the kill fee.

So you raise it to butcher just for yourself/family/friends?

[ctwiggs1]

I wish there was a way I could buy a cow, or half a cow, have the carcass loaded into my truck, and let me cut it up myself at home for a lower price

My cow is pregnant.  Call me in 2 years and you may hear about a steer for sell. 

[kselkhunter]

You're getting a good deal on your chuck rolls.  My input is don't get a side of beef unless those extra cuts matter to you.  Or if you wanted to get something different, ie grass fed, prime rating, etc.

If going for a side of beef, get to know your local farmers that are raising them.  Plan in advance.  Some butcher their own, and some send to a butcher.   I'm not as familiar with WA, but I worked on cattle ranches for 7 years in Oregon early in my life and you can find some good deals on a side of beef by getting to know the rancher/farmers in your area well. 

Another option is get to know a farmer and buy a feeder cow to finish at their farm.  You can work out all sorts of rents/barters when you get to know folks.   Buy feeder stock for much lower prices and raise them on somebody elses land and your costs really drop.  Heck, some of the beef we got in my youth was bartering services with folks raising cows.   Building fences, barns, etc.  We did all sorts of work for free beef.  And reading your prior posts on chuck rolls, you are quite adept at the butchering and packaging process.   So, there are other avenues.  But from what I can tell, your current process is working fine. 

[Romulus1297]

Go to the Toppenish auction and bring 1 home

[hambone]

The best way to do it is buy cryovac primals and cut them your self if you can hanging beef if you don't use every thing including the bones is not wroth the money just my thoughts i have been cutting meat for about 36 years

[Romulus1297]

Or get 3 800 lbs steers the owner can't take care of. Then haul them to Toppenish. They will be there pretty soon.

[Buzz2401]

Never been a big fan of buying the side of beef.  Usually don't save much money and is hit or miss with the quality. 

[LDennis24]

I raise my own beef and usually use something like this to determine finished product.

[Gringo31]

I sold an open heifer to a buddy a couple months ago.  He sent me the following breakdown that may be helpful.

   Weight   Cost   Recovery from Live Weight
Live Weight:   880   $        528   
Hanging Weight:   560   $        336   64%
Cut meat:   184      
Hamburger:   123      
Total Finished:   307      35%
         
Kill charge:      $          60   
Cubing:      $             3   
Credit card fee:      $          12   
         
Grand Total:      $        939   
Cost per Lb:      $       3.06   
         
Potential Cost Allocation:         
Hamburger Cost assumption:      $       2.50   $  307.50
Cut Meat Cost:      $       3.44   $  631.50

[DoubleJ]

Thanks everyone

Only thing I wish was better at C&C is the beef rating.  They aren't marked that I can tell.  The first one was GREAT for burger.  Very lean, solid meat.  I've bought a few of varying quality but all are at least good. 

The one I butchered yesterday was AWESOME.  So much marbling, I had a hard time not calling it Prime.  While butchering, I couldn't resist and cut off a few chunks and threw them in a pan.  2"x2" chunks and after about 1 minute per side, they absolutely melted in my mouth.  These chunks didn't come from the chuck eye area either.  I had already removed the chuck eyes.  This was from the 3rd chuck roast in from the chuck eye area.  I went ahead and steaked out all of the roasts I had cut, it was that good.  Even the spare rib area that I normally grind was marbled really nicely.  I only got about 10lbs of grind from this one because I steaked out most of it, cut 3 packs of spare ribs (which I never do) and sliced off some 1/2" marinade steaks.

The only difference is all of the other chuck rolls I buy are in the 26-28lb range.  The one I butchered yesterday was 34lbs.  I'll try to stick with larger ones from now on

I wish I could see into the cryovac to see what I was buying.  I have confidence that I will always get at least good beef but man, this one was GREAT!

[Boss .300 winmag]

I wish there was a way I could buy a cow, or half a cow, have the carcass loaded into my truck, and let me cut it up myself at home for a lower price

That's a nice thought, but that's a metric butt load of work. Think an elk on steroids.

[LDennis24]

I wish there was a way I could buy a cow, or half a cow, have the carcass loaded into my truck, and let me cut it up myself at home for a lower price

That's a nice thought, but that's a metric butt load of work. Think an elk on steroids.

I might do my own in a few months, I'll let you know how it goes if I do!
Also a few posts back I posted a PDF at the bottom of my comment. You guys should check it out. It has great info

[Boss .300 winmag]

I wish there was a way I could buy a cow, or half a cow, have the carcass loaded into my truck, and let me cut it up myself at home for a lower price

That's a nice thought, but that's a metric butt load of work. Think an elk on steroids.

I might do my own in a few months, I'll let you know how it goes if I do!
Also a few posts back I posted a PDF at the bottom of my comment. You guys should check it out. It has great info

I checked it out, it jives with my beef raising/buthchering experiences. 

My tend to be the over marbled ones, I like some flavor in my beef.