Grass-fed Beef

I've ordered grass-feed beef and pasture pork for the past two years. I've been very pleased with the price and the quality of the meat. When you order beef and pork in bulk, the price is very good and you will save ALOT of money compared to purchasing beef in the grocery store. Iain Aitken at Medicine River Luings delivers to Canmore and Calgary. He is starting to take orders now for fall 2012. See below for more info:

Hello,

In planning for our 2012 meat retailing business we find ourselves in a very different position from recent years. After several years of depressed prices in commodity beef production, leading to a national herd reduction, the pendulum has swung the other way. A shortage of cattle has now forced market prices to their highest level in a decade, with the potential to go even higher. While this is a welcome relief to us it also presents some challenges regarding how we price our grass-fed beef. I could sell my cattle now into the commodity system and make the same net return as putting in all the work and effort of fattening, processing and delivering the beef in the fall. However, I appreciate that our customers have helped us through the lean years by buying direct and we intend to stand by them as we enter a new era that will likely see the price of beef in the store rise substantially.

We sold a whole beef last fall to Andrew Stevens “the East Coast chef” who is the executive chef at the Vintage Chophouse and Tavern and Rush Restaurant in Calgary. We were delighted to get grass-fed beef on the menu at such prestigious eateries and honored when Andrew said we had the best grass-fed beef that he had tasted in Alberta. I don’t know about it being the best but we hope you continue to enjoy our product and find it good value for money. I compared grass-fed beef prices offered by our Alberta competitors advertising on the EatWild website and our prices on average will be 10% lower on quarters and 15% lower on halves/wholes.

Unfortunately we will not be able to increase our beef supply this year as we had a pneumonia outbreak among the young cattle in December and lost a few animals as well as treating several more with antibiotics. The ones that were treated have been removed from the herd and sold at auction so we are only left with the same number of cattle to fatten as last year. I expect we will sell out earlier this year as we have had several new customers approach us already because their previous supplier has stopped selling direct and gone back to selling into the commodity system.

Grass-Fed Beef

We need to increase the price on our beef quarters to $3.25 per lb* (hanging weight) as we pay an additional $100 an animal for getting them processed into quarters and with the price structure we used in the past we were only recovering $30 per animal of that from the customer. This price increase of 10c/lb equates to around $15 per quarter.

The price on halves or whole beefs will remain at $3.10 per lb* (hanging weight).

Clear plastic vacuum wrapping is again available as an option at an additional cost of 5 cents/lb hanging weight.

*Note: Prices will be confirmed in July when order forms are sent out due to the possibility of the processor raising his fees.

Pasture Pork

We plan to raise some more hogs ourselves this year in addition to the ones reared for us by a friend in the area as we find the demand is always growing. The pork price for 2012 will be $2.80/lb for half or whole hogs. Clear plastic vacuum wrapping is now available as an option for pork too at an additional cost of 5 cents/lb hanging weight. The pork will hopefully again be ready in September/October so that we can deliver it along with some of our beef orders.

Please let us know at your earliest convenience if you are considering buying beef or pork from us in 2012 and an indication of quantity. There is no binding commitment to purchase on your part until you send back a completed order form/cutting instruction sheet by the end of July deadline. Letting us know your requirements now however guarantees you supply and allows us to manage our inventory so that we know when to stop accepting new orders.

As always if you have any queries about this information or comments about anything you purchased from us last year please let me know.

Thanks,

Iain

***Please note that I receive no benefit for posting about Iain's farm. I received his contact info via a friend and now I'm just passing along the same info.***