How Many Lbs of Beef Do You Need for a Family of 4
Raising all of your own meat for the twelvemonth, that'south a lofty goal, especially for a beginner!
How much meat will you need to programme on raising and what combination of animals should you lot programme to enhance?
A family of four volition need 892 pounds of meat for a year, on boilerplate, consisting of 232 pounds of beef, 209 pounds of pork, 385 pounds of chicken and 64 pounds of turkey.
| Meat source | Pounds eaten (per year, family of 4) | Meat animals needed |
| Beefiness | 232.iv | half a steer |
| Pork | 209.6 | two pigs |
| Broilers | 380.4 | 109 (three.5 pound chickens) 76 (5 pound chickens) |
| Other chicken | 5.6 | 2 stewing hens |
| Turkey | 64 | iii (22 pound turkeys) 4 (16 pound turkeys) |
I did a fleck of rounding on the pork and beef, to give a sensible total.
To be specific, the 232.4 pounds of beef would be a chip more than a half of a steer and the 2 pigs needed for pork is really closer to one.5 pigs.
The chart to a higher place will give you some thought of what you are shooting for, if y'all are looking to use boilerplate meat consumption numbers (This is a cracking table on the National Chicken Quango site, with data back to 1965!)
Equally mentioned, these numbers are averages. They will give yous a ballpark effigy, but you'll need to get more specific to find the right mix for your family.
Figure upwardly meat needed for the week
You lot'll demand to take some idea of how oftentimes yous cook and how much meat you melt per meal. Use numbers that reverberate your current eating habits.
If yous don't pay also much attention to planning your meals, first past keeping rails of what y'all normally exercise for a few weeks, so figure this out.
Count your meals not eaten/cooked at home
Be sure to account for all of the meals y'all are eating abroad from home.
Recall, at that place is no right or wrong here, simply figure out what your typical eating week looks like.
If yous don't similar the numbers y'all see, adjust the plan or make two plans.
One plan showing current meat consumption and the second programme showing your family'south ideal meat consumption.
Utilise leftovers for additional meals
Remember to count leftovers from something similar a large roast or a whole chicken.
Cooking in one case and getting multiple meals is easiest to see with a broiler: the first ii days you'll have enough of roasted chicken and on the third day make chicken noodle soup.
That'southward iii days worth of meals from one broiler!
Raise meat you like to eat!
Now that you accept an idea of the amount of meat you need for your family, we can start considering which animals to raise.
For this example, we'll stick with the generic 892 pounds (.half dozen pounds per person per day) from the chart above and figure out possible combinations of animals that you can raise to "meat" your needs.
Meat animal combos for a family unit of iv
| Brute | Number to heighten | Meat each | Total Meat |
| Broilers | 100 to seven.v pounds | five pounds | 500 |
| Pigs | ii pigs to 300 pounds | 165 pounds | 330 |
| Lamb | 2 lambs to 100 pounds | 32.five pounds | 65 |
| Layers | 5 stewing hens | ii.5 pounds | 12.five |
| 907.5 pounds | |||
| ***** | ***** | ***** | ***** |
| Steer | 1 steer to ane,000 pounds | 430 pounds | 430 |
| Pigs | 2 pigs to 300 pounds | 165 pounds | 330 |
| Broilers | 25 to 7.5 pounds | 5 pounds | 125 |
| 885 pounds | |||
| ***** | ***** | ***** | ***** |
| Rabbits | 100 to 5 pounds | 3.5 pounds | 350 |
| Broilers | 100 to 7.5 pounds | 5 pounds | 500 |
| Ducks | 10 to seven.5-8 pounds | 4 pounds | forty |
| 890 pounds | |||
| ***** | ***** | ***** | ***** |
| Rabbits | 100 to v pounds | 3.5 pounds | 350 |
| Broilers | 50 to 7.5 pounds | v pounds | 250 |
| Goats | 4 to 100 pounds | 32.5 pounds | 130 |
| Turkeys | 10 to 25 pounds | 17.v pounds | 175 |
| 905 pounds |
You can put together your meat animal selection any way that suits you lot. These are some combinations I came up with to get you thinking.
I tried to listing a variety of animals, including some backyard friendly options to give you an idea of how you could put all this together.
The options and combinations are nearly limitless. Think about what makes the most sense for you to outset with and get working on filling that freezer!
Choose the types of meat you will be eating
Here is a quick summary of each of your main meat animal options, including how easy it is to raise and the pros and cons of each animal.
You can combine dissimilar types of meat animals (like the nautical chart higher up) to reach the total of meat you demand for the twelvemonth or enhance all i blazon of meat. The choice is yours!
Broilers are ideal for beginners
- Beginner appropriate
- Backyard friendly
- Fast growth, done in six-8 weeks
Ease: Easy to raise
Pros: Simple to order, backyard appropriate, family friendly, feed and supplies are readily available, finished growing in six-8 weeks, habitation butchering is mutual
Cons: Finding a processor, waiting for a later hatch due to heavy order book (spring), must exist processed on schedule, not heat tolerant, predators, must reorder chicks for each batch, specific feed requirements
Pounds of meat: 3.five pounds of meat from a 5 pound live bird and 5 pounds of meat from a 7.5 pound live bird
Broilers are a fast and easy beginner project and a great starting bespeak for anyone new to raising animals.
You'll need a brooder area and to exist vigilant on predator protection. Broilers will love your backyard or to scratch through unused sections of your garden.
Here'southward an article I wrote on the Red Rangers vs Cornish Cantankerous Broilers, check information technology out earlier yous order your birds.
Before you order your broiler chicks:
- Exist sure to have a butchering appointment set upward, the processor's schedule will fill fast!
- If you are going to butcher them yourself, accept all of your equipment at your house. Yous don't want to be on backorder when your birds are fix!
Continue laying hens for eggs then broth
- Already accept them for egg supply
- Wonderful for goop
Ease: Fairly easy
Pros: Simple to guild, backyard appropriate, virtually breeds are family friendly, feed and supplies readily available, can exist kept for multiple years, dwelling house butchering is common
Cons: Laying starts at v-half dozen months, can be escape artists, some breeds tend to peck, year circular care
Pounds of meat: 2.5 pounds per stewing hen (brown egg layers), less for light breeds (white egg layers)
While yous may not accept get-go thought of layers as meat birds, when they are finished laying, in to the freezer they get. If you've never had broth (a chef would telephone call it stock) fabricated from stewing hens, you are in for a treat, it'southward bully stuff!
Laying hens are adequately like shooting fish in a barrel to manage, merely practice demand care year round and volition be more active birds than a broiler, especially if you go a smaller brood chicken.
The wonderful opportunity with laying hens is that, if yous accept a rooster, you tin go on raising your own birds and never have to buy chickens again.
Or yous can hatch laying breed chicks and sell them to buy broilers or annihilation else, chicken or otherwise.
The merely caution here is that if y'all get a hybrid layer, like a golden comet, you can non hatch purebred chicks (since she is a cross). This only matters if information technology matters to you.
If you lot want to heighten purebred layers with an heart toward hatching chicks for auction or replacements, go a traditional laying brood like Barred Rock or Wyandotte.
If you are looking for a calm, friendly layer, read my article 20 Calm Chicken Breeds.
Pigs are economical meat makers
- Lots of meat per squealer
- Adjustable
- Lawn friendly
Ease: Moderate
Pros: Lots of meat per finished squealer, modest acreage friendly, like shooting fish in a barrel to fence with electric, feed and supplies like shooting fish in a barrel to observe, great meat poundage render for coin spent
Cons: More full money needed, can be difficult to detect feeder pigs, need 700-800 pounds of feed per pig, demand some equipment, need a sturdy pen, will need hauling, home butchering is non common
Pounds of meat: A 260 pound finished hog volition provide 144 pounds of freezer ready meat. A 300 pound sus scrofa volition provide 165 pounds of meat.
Pigs themselves are easy to raise and provide quite a flake of meat per animal raised. Raising your ain pork is a great identify to get-go "upping your meat game" when you want to fill that freezer!
I love pigs and relish having them around, until they endeavour to exit! That is why they are listed as "moderate" and non easy.
Pigs are strong and capable and will work on getting out of the pen. The easiest way to fix this is with electric fence, it works dandy for pigs raised outside.
While pigs can be butchered at dwelling house, unless you know what you are doing, it is not a great first fourth dimension projection. Make a processing appointment.
I exercise want to mention, raising pigs will have a decent amount of cash tied up in the pigs and feed, before you go any meat to your freezer.
Read my article Is Raising Pigs For Meat Worth It? for more information, including budgets.
Goats are pocket-sized acreage friendly
- Backyard friendly
- Family unit friendly
Ease: Moderately like shooting fish in a barrel
Pros: Goats are bang-up for dry climates, eating dorsum shrubby overgrowth, grow to market place size in a few months and are generally personable.
Cons: Goats are escape artists, do not graze (meaning they eat browse non grass), hate common cold and/or rain and getting meat genetics.
Pounds of meat: From a lxx pound market place goat you volition become 22.75 pounds of meat.
Goats are fun animals to have around. We have a few and I go a kick out of them, however, they are characters. They are amazingly agile and creative when it comes to getting out of a pen!
Since caprine animal are browsers, like deer, they will demand more than to consume than your lawn. If your goats are a meat caprine animal, like Boer or Savanna, they volition need some grain, every bit well.
Meat Goat Profitability is an article I wrote for anyone wanting to dig deeper into the numbers of goat raising.
Regarding pounds of meat, about people that enhance goats are selling them at 60-70 pounds, resulting in 22.75 pounds of meat.
If you want to raise your goats to a higher weight, realize that not all genetics will abound well to a larger market kid and it volition accept quite a bit longer.
Lambs are perfect backyard mowers
- Backyard friendly
- Family friendly
- Grow while mowing your lawn
Ease: Adequately easy
Pros: Lambs are great grazers, placidity, family friendly, small pellets of manure that breakdown into your backyard fertilizer, need merely water, fencing, shade and a common salt block.
Cons: Loftier estrus or humidity is hard on lambs, hay (if needed) must be high quality, hard to come across body condition under the wool.
Pounds of meat: For a lamb raised to 80 pounds, you will get 26 pounds of meat.
Lambs are wonderful meat animals to take and will grow while eating your backyard. They will need a contend of some sort, and, of class, h2o, shelter and a salt cake.
Overall, lambs are easy, however, when they take problems lambs seem to be harder to rehab than other animals.
This requires y'all paying attention to them and fixing potential problems as soon as yous run across them starting. An easy way to avoid nearly of your lamb related problems is to buy high quality lambs to begin with.
Hither is my article on How Many Bales Of Hay Exercise Sheep Need?, if you want or need to figure upward a hay upkeep for your lambs.
A steer is the most meat per brute
- The virtually meat per animal
- Nifty apply of extra pasture
Ease: Challenging
Pros: Lots of meat per finished steer, great meat poundage return for the money spent, supplies are easy to find, wonderful employ of extra pasture or unused grass areas (like right of ways)
Cons: Not backyard friendly, takes time to finish, need at least minimal handling facilities, will require hauling, more than total money spent for steer, not unremarkably home butchered
Pounds of meat: You can figure 430 pounds of meat from a one,000 pound finished beef breed steer. Dairy genetics will be lower yield, as will an unfinished beef animal.
I love cattle, but they do take a decent amount of acreage and tin can be challenging to handle, if you have no livestock experience. This is the reason why beefiness is listed as "challenging" in this section of meat options.
Cattle require some equipment, hauling, more than cash outlay and more fourth dimension than almost other meat animals.
All of this is well worth the time and the cost for me and anyone else who has eaten home raised beef! Just information technology may non be worth it to you, especially if y'all exercise not have the land available at low cost.
I have to admit, raising your own beef is a large milestone. I certainly beloved to come across a freezer full of awesome (A.Chiliad.A. home raised beef), simply feel obligated to caution the beginner. Starting with cattle will take a steep learning curve.
Unless you have a knowledgeable mentor, first with other meat animals and work your way upward to cattle.
How much is a steer going to price you? Read my article Is Raising Your Own Beefiness Worth Information technology?
Turkeys are backyard friendly
- Almost meat per bird
- Backyard friendly
Ease: Moderate
Pros: Easy to get poults, easy to find feed and supplies, quite a flake of meat per bird, backyard friendly, usually family friendly, broad breasted whites cease in 16 weeks, tin can exist abode butchered
Cons: Turkeys demand the more expensive feed (not craven feed), predators, finding a processor, can grow to crazy weights if you lot are not keeping rails of the dates, heritage breeds accept longer to grow and yield significantly less.
Pounds of meat: Per turkey y'all should get 31.5 pounds of meat from a 45 pound broad breasted white and 17.5 pounds of meat from a 25 pound heritage breed turkey.
Turkeys are a wonderful meat bird to raise! I am constantly surprised more people do not eat turkey throughout the year.
I enjoy the birds and love, love, love eating home raised turkey, simply they tin can be a challenge. We hatch our own turkeys and raising them seems to go great or terrible.
This is the reason I listed turkeys equally "moderate" instead of piece of cake. They tin can occasionally be a disaster. Not all of the time, but sometimes.
Predators love them and the poults are non very hardy. For this reason, I would start with the broad breasted white and see how it goes.
If you want a different brood the next round, super. Effort the BB whites for your first batch. They abound fast, are piece of cake to find and will pluck beautifully.
Wide breasted whites will reach butchering weights in 4 months and females will weigh less than males. These birds are plump and pluck beautifully.
Heritage breeds will accept 7 months and have more of a difference in weight betwixt males and females. These birds are not as meaty and will be more challenging to pluck, considering of the colored feathers.
x Breeds Of Turkeys will give yous my take on your heritage brood choices.
If y'all accept some butchering experience, give dwelling butchering turkeys a try. Turkeys are as like shooting fish in a barrel every bit broilers, you just need a bigger scalding container.
Rabbits are backyard superstars
- Amazing meat production power
- Family unit friendly
- Backyard superstar
Ease: Fairly piece of cake
Pros: Backyard friendly, family friendly, like shooting fish in a barrel to find feed and supplies, parents produce multiple litters per year, common through out the world, unremarkably home butchered
Cons: Not breeding in estrus or common cold, management is required from you, getting good meat type breeding stock, convenance stock is kept yr round, finding a processor can be difficult
Pounds of meat: Per five pound live weight fryer (young meat rabbit) you should get 3.5 pounds of meat. This is for meat breeds with parents weighing x pounds or more than, smaller breeds volition have smaller fryers with less meat per fryer.
Rabbits are wonderful as a raise your own meat brute choice. To me, rabbits are the ultimate enhance your own meat animal, since they are an option for most anybody.
Wondering how many rabbits you will need? Read my commodity Rabbits To Feed A Family Of 4.
The merely reasons they are listed equally "fairly like shooting fish in a barrel" (rather than like shooting fish in a barrel) is because they need some direction and y'all demand to butcher them yourself.
Since you lot keep the convenance stock and raise the fryers, you are responsible for breeding schedules, knowing kindling (birth) dates, selecting replacement stock and then on.
None of this is difficult, but it is more than involved than a meat animal that you just feed, similar broilers, and buy more for the next batch.
The second catch with rabbits is you need to butcher them yourself. Unless you are fortunate enough to have a processor close past with open appointments, you will exist the processor for your rabbits.
Here'south a tip for finding a processor (after looking online, of form): call the four-H Extension office for your canton. The county extension amanuensis volition know or can tell you how to observe out.
Ducks are fast growing and hardy
- Backyard friendly
- Family friendly
- Hardy, fast growers
Ease: Adequately piece of cake
Pros: Easy to find, fun to raise, hardier than chicks, backyard and family friendly, practise not fly (so tin can't go over your fence), volition come up to feed, end in 8 weeks (Pekins), wonderful feed conversion rate (feed needed to get one pound of gain) of ii.3, adjustable to nearly whatsoever area, do not need to swim
Cons: Plucking, messy with water, some breeds are "talk" a lot, finding a processor, pin feathers (depending upon week of butchering), cost of butchering, finding a processor
Pounds of meat: For a Pekin duck, you should become 5 pounds of meat for a 7.five pound live weight bird. Other breeds will abound slower.
Ducks are fun and wow can they grow fast! Pekin ducklings are ready to put in the freezer at seven-8 weeks! Ducks are fun to have effectually and a family friendly meat bird.
The down side of ducks is they are messy with water. It is astonishing to me how a cute little duckling tin guzzle water like that!
Looking for the math on raising your ain ducks? Check out my article, Is Raising Ducks For Meat Worth It?
The chief challenge for ducks as a meat brute, this is why they are "adequately easy" and not easy, is the plucking (for home processing) or finding a processor.
Aside from the plucking, I recollect ducks are easier meat birds to raise than broilers. Ducklings are hardier and more than capable than the typical broiler chicks. Plus, ducklings have some personality, broilers, non and then much.
Don't let the processing attribute keep y'all from raising your own ducks. If you can butcher broilers, you tin can handle ducks. Make sure your scald is height notch and be fix handle more feathers.
Another plus to ducks as a meat bird is you can keep back some of the ducklings as breeding stock and raise your ain ducklings from here on out. Additionally, ducks are wonderful layers, the Pekins volition surprise you on this.
Geese are easy intendance grazers
- Piece of cake care (once feathered out)
- Will graze the backyard
Ease: Fairly easy
Pros: Goslings are hardy, easy to raise, love to eat grass (when they are out of the brooder), don't need a swimming, you can find feed and supplies easily, common at nigh hatcheries and adult geese are hardy and can be kept back from your initial order to raise your own geese.
Cons: Goslings are more than expensive than near other meat birds, take a long time to grow, need more than space than smaller birds, eat more feed than smaller birds, processing tin be an event, predators like them.
Pounds of meat: Y'all can wait to go 8.four pounds of meat from a 12 pound and 12 week old goose.
Geese are a great choice if y'all have some grass, like your backyard, that you want your meat birds consume for you. Geese can wander about your yard, only will nevertheless need a perimeter fence to keep them dwelling.
If yous love the taste of goose, definitely raise some for yourself. The cost of oven fix goose online is high, you lot tin practise amend!
Every bit with all waterfowl, plucking is the event. Yous can habitation process geese, we do. If you plan on paying for processing, have your processing figured out before you lot lodge!
As far as breed goes, go the Embden to offset. They are the main meat breed for geese and will be the about reliable performer. If you want a different breed for the next batch, become for it. Start with Embden to go on it simple.
If you are a total beginner to raising your own meat, I would start with broilers or ducks. They will exist easier to acquire on, faster and a bit less expensive of a project to start with.
Desire more than details on raising your ain geese? Read my article Is Raising Geese Worth It?
Lucifer your wants with what you lot can/will raise
All animals volition excel in certain situations and accept more difficulty in other situations. Your all-time results will come from matching the animals yous raise to the resources you accept.
You lot have a backyard: Lambs, rabbits, broilers and turkeys would be bully in this situation.
If yous have a few acres of out of control, shrubby overgrowth: recall goats or pigs.
You have a modest yard with picky neighbors: rabbits and broilers.
You drive by acres of unused right of ways or overgrown pastures: steers, lambs, goats or pigs.
Enhance animals in multiple batches
A key mode to handle raising your own meat is to spread out the growing animals, when possible, over 2 or iii batches.
For example: if yous need to raise fourscore broilers, you can raise two batches of 40 or four batches of xx. Of course, you can practise them all in one big batch, if you take the freezer space.
The beauty of raising your ain meat is that you get to cull how you do things. Programme y'all meat raising activities to accommodate yourself and your family!
Start with small projects and work up
Hopefully this commodity helps yous remember of ways to get started or expand the corporeality of meat you raise for your family. Above all, do not be discouraged!
Make up one's mind on the showtime meat animal that you can enhance this twelvemonth and go started!
Once yous start to run into results, you'll gain confidence. Not also mention, have some brag worthy meat!
Everyone starts small, figures out what works for them and repeats. Give yourself a shot, yous'll be surprised at what you can larn!
Source: https://familyfarmlivestock.com/meat-for-a-year-how-much-do-you-need-to-raise/
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