The Savvy Life

Tuesday, October 20^th had been marked on my calendar for months – Auction Day!  Dante and I left Redwood City at 8:00 am and headed to Camp Haze in Chowchilla. Paul really wanted to go with us, but he had to stay behind and teach at Fearless. Secretly, I think he was relieved that he wouldn't have to get up so early (8:00 am is the crack of dawn for him) to make the drive. 

Dante and I arrived at Camp Haze and my dad immediately put us to work adding a few panels to widen the corral the steer was going into. I then cleaned out a bin for his hay and grain and scrubbed his water container. Confident, that we were ready to house him, we headed to Madera for a quick lunch and then to the auction yard.

...The New and Improved Budget Savvy! 

In this second part of the Cowpooling story, I will go into detail about the process of purchasing and raising the animal including our projected costs. The information below is pulled from the email that I sent to the steakholders:

Hello Everyone,

It's time to get this project off the ground! My dad, Dante and I will be heading to the auction yard in Madera on October 20th to purchase the first steer for "Camp Haze Cattle Company". We will be accompanied by my dad's cousin, Bob Campbell who is a longtime cattle rancher.

We have been advised to purchase a steer at 700 - 800 pounds. At the time of this writing, the price per pound for the crossbred steer we want is $.80.

Feeding
It will cost us approximately $1.10 per pound for each pound we want the steer to gain. Our ultimate goal is to have him reach 1200 pounds. This will take approximately 90 - 120 days (mid January or February).

The steer will be kept at my dad's ranch (Camp Haze) in his own corral. We will start him off with as much good quality hay as he can eat. After approximately 10 days, we will give him 3 pounds of grain per day. Ten days later, we will increase that amount to 6 pounds. Every 10 days we will increase the grain until he is consuming 15 pounds of grain per day.

We will purchase the feed from Evans Feed in Chowchilla, CA. Roger Evans, the owner and a good friend of my dad's has been advising us on the feed process.

Processing
We will be using Gus' Meat Locker in Madera to kill and process the steer. The steer will be put down at the ranch instead of at the meat locker in an effort to keep his stress to a minimum. This will positively affect the quality of the meat. The price to have the butcher go to the ranch is $70. He will then take the animal back to the meat locker for processing.

The cost for butchering and shrink wrapping the separate cuts of meat is $.65 per pound.

The Secret Budget Savvy Project that I have been working on for the last year is... Cowpooling! For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the term, cowpooling is when a group pools together to purchase an entire (or sometimes half) of a steer for beef. The purchase is made directly from the rancher so the meat is usually less expensive than what you can get at Costco or the grocery store.

Our cowpooling project is a little different. Instead of purchasing meat from a cattle rancher, we are raising a steer ourselves. If you are one of my neighbors, don't worry about turning me into the City of Redwood City. My father, has been kind enough to offer up an empty corral at Camp Haze and is feeding and caring for the steer.

Why would the publisher of a budget living magazine who moonlights as a martial arts instructor want to buy a steer? Most of you who read this blog know that I was raised on a few acres in Fresno, grew up on horse back and raised dairy cows, sheep, ducks, geese and the odd turkey. Despite living in the San Francisco Bay Area for the past 15 years, our family's long term goal is to purchase 2 - 5 acres so I can raise animals again and extend my garden. Paul is excited about the idea of having acreage to build a skate ramp. My "dream a big dream" is to purchase a few hundred acres to raise beef cattle.

It was on one of our horseback rides last fall that my dad and I were talking about my dream ranch when the conversation turned to the idea of cowpooling. Somewhere along that hour-long ride, we talked ourselves into going into the cattle business now and not waiting until I have my own property. Dad, who is very excited about the project, volunteered an empty corral at Camp Haze. He also volunteered to care for the steer.

When I got back to the Bay Area, I mentioned the idea to a few friends and they jumped at the chance to invest in the project. In all, we have seven "steakholders" (an accidental pun made by dad that has stuck).

I spent the winter researching the process of cowpooling. I stumbled on a few resources on the Internet and in June, Time Magazine published an interesting article on the subject. By far, the most helpful resource was the people my dad introduced me to who are in or associated with the cattle business.

Bob Campbell is my dad's cousin and he has been a cattle rancher all of his life. He was very generous with his knowledge and answered all of our questions about raising the animal. He even offered to meet us at the auction to help us choose a steer.

Roger Evans is the owner of Evans Feed who has stores in Chowchilla and Madera, CA. Roger was kind enough to walk me through the process of how to fatten the steer and what the costs involved would be.

By May, I was confident that I had enough information to proceed with the process. However, on the advisement of Bob Campbell, we decided to wait until October to make the purchase. The summers in Chowchilla are brutal, with most days reaching over 100 degrees. That can be tough on an animal which can affect its appetite taking it longer to add weight. Although I was ready to jump in right then, I trusted Bob's advice and opted to wait.

In my next entry, I will post my research on the cowpooling process including our projected costs. I will follow that entry with the tale of Tuesday's adventures of purchasing the steer.

On Thursday, I will be unveiling a Secret Budget Savvy Project that has been in the research and planning stage for the past year. That's all I will say for now. I'm afraid of giving it away.

Ok, I have to admit. It's Budget Savvy to have in-laws that own a vacation home on the Russian River.

Paul, Dante and I spent the weekend at the Tosetti family cabin in Healdsburg. We drove over after the last class at Fearless on Friday night and arrived about 10:30 pm. The late night drive was worth it when we woke up on Saturday morning.

We headed outdoors and spent about an hour on the river bank watching Dante throw rocks into the river, something he has talked about incessantly since our last visit.

Around noon, Paul and I changed and, leaving Dante with Grandpa, headed out to explore a few wineries. We stopped off at Hop Kiln Winery first. We opted not to purchase any of their wines, but did leave with several jars of gourmet mustard.

We then headed over to Quivira. I was impressed that they offered 7 tastings for the $5 fee. In addition, they wave the fee for every bottle you purchase.

Quivira is one of the first wineries that I have visited that I had a difficult time deciding which wines to purchase. They were all delicious. We ended up with a Zinfandel and the Grenache. We paid a little over $20 for each bottle, but our tasting was free.

The Zinfandel was savored that night over steaks and fries that Paul's dad prepared. (That man can cook!) The Grenache went home with us to be savored at a later date.

As much as I enjoy a good glass of wine (and beer for that matter), I really enjoy the whole wine country vibe. To me, it's about agriculture, good food and relaxing with friends and family.