Alaskan KING Crab!!

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: DBCowboy

Are we talking wholesale prices, or retail, on the crabs?

I'm trading at wholesale prices. Retail prices you can add about $3/lb.

That's why I'm talking about large lots. Anything less than about 100lbs isn't worth it because the costs sky rocket (per pound).

Wholesale. More likely a "handshake" deal.

I know a guy who knows a guy. . .

You know.

We'll trade on quality and quantity.

SOund good?

a reply to: DBCowboy

Yep, I'm all in on handshake deals.

That's my daily life.

Do me right, and I do you right. And vice versa. Always.

That's the code.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I still like doing it that way.

Bought my last lawn mower on a handshake.


Some things just still work well that way.

a reply to: DBCowboy

Bought $75,000 dollars worth of hay and feed over the past three years on that same philosophy. (probably over a couple million over the past 30 years).

Met a lot of good folks, and have a big circle of trust for just about anything I need using the same.

ETA - In fact, one of my hay suppliers I can just call and tell him to truck me 150 tons of hay (roughly $30k). We don't discuss price, and he doesn't want any money on delivery. I usually square up with him sooner than he expects, and he and his wife get a nice dinner out of the deal too.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

To clear up,
I went from the Kenai in Seward
to the Homer spit to jump a Halibut Charter.

It was challenging. People were puking.
I was still dizzy for a week after I flew
back to New England.

There was a great bar on the Homer Spit.
The Salty Dog? Had a sister fishing bar in Cabo Mexico.
Dollars on the walls and sawdust on the floor.
The psychic Sea Mom was there.

I'll be damned if her words were not true.

Thanks for the nudge to recapitulate.

a reply to: Wildmanimal

Did you drive around over to the other side the sound on Turnagain Arm past Aleyeska and go to the Bird House? It's a famous bar partially buried in the mud from the earthquake. Did you ask to use the phone? LOL! (it's an inside joke). Just make sure you have a few bucks in your wallet when you ask!! You'll need them. LOL!!

Homer spit is cool, you could always find people to take you out fishing there. As I noted above, I knew some guys down in Seward so I usually went down there to go on charters. They'd always hook me up, and as commercial fishers they'd get me staggering deals. We boated some big halibut down that way.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I dont have anything to trade but damm i want some steaks..

I could trade you some money I guess..

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
I can ship whole sides too, on the hook.

Washed, aged, wrapped and shipped, FOB anywhere in the CONUS. 2 animal minimum (4 sides - 2,800-3,200lbs. total), LTL refrigerated freight. Can also ship packed, wrapped and frozen for .56lb plus hanging cost (market). (Probably about $2.50 this time of year). Figure about a 25% bone loss on animals this big (which is really good, normally about 35%).

I buy a hanging half here every year, grass fed organic. I kind of hate paying for the cost of the organic certification, it adds money to the cost. The overall cost complete after waste figured in an processing and loss from hanging it two weeks makes it cost about six bucks a pound, When they got the organic certification my cost jumped up about a buck a pound because of the fees they have to pay on the cows to be certified. I cannot taste the difference of the buck a pound extra, they were fed the same way before they got certified. I think the hanging weight was about two ninety five a pound last year plus the half butcher fee and fifty cents a pound hanging weight for processing. It freezes better hanging the two weeks though, it lessens the moisture in the beef.

This is the fourth farmer I have gotten beef from, darn guys keep getting old and die or quit raising beef. It is getting hard to find a farmer that has beef here, their cows and steer are all accounted for every year. I am satisfied with our present farmer, but someday they are going to retire too. We have a shortage of places here to get the animals processed too. the closest processor is sixty miles away, but it is near the farm where we get the cow. We used to buy a whole animal, but not anymore, I do not have employees to give bonuses to anymore.

a reply to: rickymouse

We don't do the certification, just a waste of money and time. If anyone has any questions we just invite them out to see the operation. It's pretty obvious.

The only reason people need hormones is if they're feeding out on corn. That in itself is pretty obvious to observe. Cows aren't designed to digest only corn, hence the hormones. I was actually worried a bit this year because we bought some oat hay which was cut off of a no-till corn field, so it had some stalks and stripped cobs in it. Thought if someone saw that they'd think we were feeding out on corn. Wasn't an issue.

We've had a wait list for over 10 years for our steers, and all our in-herd heifers are sold 3 years in advance.

BTW...sixty miles for a processor isn't too bad. I think our nearest processor is that far. (There's closer ones, but we don't use them).

ETA - This is the first year we've had anything to sell outright. We've got two yearling bull calves and a heifer I wouldn't sell to our normal buyer (because of her markings...she shows them). Thought we had the bull calves sold, but the guy vanished. Probably just take them to the sale barn here next month. Prices are down, but I can probably still get $1.50 for them, so meh, it is what it is.

This years crop we had one of our first bottle calves out of. That dang calf has cost me about 5 grand so far. I'll never get my money out of him. We were thinking he might be a good herd bull, but now I'm thinking we may have to cut him. I'll take it in the shorts on him, but we should do good on all the rest as they're all sold.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I live on a farm, with cows (mainly for dairy, though, but we do homekill, too).

I also live on an Island, in the Pacific. Lobster & crab are everywhere.

Lucky me!

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: Atsbhct

I'm IN!! Love lobster!!

Let's make a deal!!

200lbs of Prime beef..sirloin and higher. All grass fed, no hormones. Freezer packed and shipped, 2lb portions.

Whatcha' got?

Let's trade!

ETA - I can do 100lb lots too, strip and higher, including the tenderloins. !!

ETA2 - Are we talking New England lobsters here or something else? I'm IN for NE lobsters, whole and live, for this year's beef, fresh off the hoof. Langostino's, ummm, maybe not so much, but we could talk.

ETA3 - I will ship samples (in 3lb lots) at no charge just for trust.

PM me if you're serious!

Oh no sir! Maine/NE lobsters are good....but Nova Scotian lobsters are incomparable! The season is done so maybe next year!

a reply to: Atsbhct

Even better!!

I'll look forward to it!

YUM!!!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

The people we buy our beef from sell to the coop and to another store that sells organic foods. They also sell to a couple of restaurants that sell certified grass fed burgers and steaks and roast beef. I think they do about thirty cows and steers a year, all limosine.

The increase for the cost of the certification came out to about a buck a pound between the inspection costs and the per head cost paid to the regulation agencies. It does not make the beef much healthier to eat from what they originally had and also it does not make it taste better. Years back we used to get ours finished on organic grains from them, just a small amount of a mixture of malted barley and organic corn. The meat was a little fattier but good. The Limosine they use seem to do really good just eating in the pasture and the meat is great just eating grass, but it needs to be aged a little more. Two to three weeks is perfect, but you get more shrinkage, you have to put some water into the roaster and the roasts get way bigger when you cook them, absorbing the water and expanding.

Some of their customers like really lean burger so when they butcher we get some of the fat added to our burger at no extra cost from the other half and the other cow. There is nothing bad about grass fed organic fat, it's lipid profile is actually good for you.

Since they went totally grass fed and adjusted their minerals, they haven't even needed to have any cows treated with antibiotics. I told them if they do get a cow that needed antibiotics once, I would buy half, it only happened once, it was a buck a pound cheaper when we got it. When a cow is given antibiotics they have to seperate it to a different field, the ground has to be certified too, so they keep a little pasture non-organic on a different property. I am not afraid of a cow having medicine once in a while, I am not obsessed, if a cow gets sick it is more humane to treat it instead of abandoning it. It does bother me that it has to be taken out of circulation with the other cows permanently though, it doesn't get to socialize.

When we go there to visit the cows are very active, prancing around like they are healthy, not like most places where they just stand there and graze and lay down all the time. I see a big difference in the health of a grass fed cow compared to the ones that eat a lot of grains. Those cows do not make prime rating though, fat content is too low. We used to buy a limosine angus cross from a farmer before, that was always rated prime and was good tasting. We bought one from his brother, fully grain fed, and that made prime but was way too fatty, it did not have a good taste either and there was almost forty percent loss at the processing plant.

The mix of grasses our farmer uses in his fields makes the meat taste really good, he is serious about keeping the best taste he can. He has been raising cows for thirty five years, and he has perfected the mix of grasses over the years to enhance the taste of the meat. Once you set the pastures, it is simple. I never asked him what combinations he uses in the fields, now the grass seed needs to be certified organic, so it costs a little more.

There is a lot of work to raising beef, I am sure that you know that well. Finally more people are starting to give respect to farmers around here that raise good quality products, I am glad I saw this return in my lifetime. Raising livestock and crops more naturally is gaining some ground again, I am so happy to see this happening, I grew up on a farm and back when I was young, farm kids were considered inferior by most of the kids in school, I was actually a little ashamed that I worked on the farm in the summer. I made ten times the money during the summer as the other kids in school working on the farm and doing some contract cleaning jobs though, but they thought they were better.

The wife and I once in a while will buy a roast from the store, like a prime rib because we have all our ribs cut into steaks. Boy, we never learn, we always regret buying the tasteless piece of meat. It is always her idea to do that, she forgets how inferior commercial beef is and has to be reminded occasionally.