Last year, we charged $1.75/lb for beef, based on the fact that we'd never raised beef before and we we weren't sure of the quality for a relatively young steer (about 13 months old). The quality turned out to be excellent for our tastes: very tender, flavorful meat, and lean, but not so lean that there was no flavor. We weren't producing marbled, corn fed steaks, but we were producing healthy, tasty meat. Compared to the richness of our pork, this was a good companion. Plus, Jen was raised on ground turkey and likes lean, ground meat.
We want raising beef to be an important aspect of our business, but not a dominant one. Most of our effort should go into our core, which is raising pork. Raising a few steers makes sense because the pigs don't eat all the pasture. A good ratio might be one steer for every sow. To that end, I don't expect we will ever develop a breeding herd of cattle--it's easier for us just to buy young bulls and raise them on our lush pastures.
And our pastures are really good. The goal of grass fed beef is to make sure your animals are getting an abundance of calories right before slaughter. For us, it makes sense then to only slaughter in the fall--that way they fatten on the fall pastures and it saves us from feeding costly hay over the winter. I'm still not sure what the ideal timing is: to buy young bulls in spring or fall or to buy slightly older bulls in the fall, but either way, we will likely be keeping them on the farm one winter and slaughtering the following fall.
Therefore, I'm confident we can produce high quality, lean grass-fed beef. If the quality there, the price I want to charge then depends on the cost of production. Here's a link to the spreadsheet I'm using to do the math:

steerplan.xlsx |
This seems like a reasonable plan to me, and $4/lb is indeed higher than what I quoted our customer to begin with, but it's still $.50 less than what she suggested I charge. Perhaps after another year or two of data I'll find that I do need to raise prices, but for now, this seems fair, and pays me a fair wage for my labor.