November 2022 Newsletter

“It’s that time of year…”

The cows are now eating mostly hay, but they still have plenty of room to roam!

Fall has fallen

Yes folks, it is that time of year. The leaves are falling, Thanksgiving and Halloween are past and another pasture season is “in the books”.
Here at Zettel Family Farms, where our entire production plan is centered on grass and grazing, this is a bittersweet moment. It is the end of the grazing season, when the cattle transition to their winter diet of dry hay. No more moving of electric fences to give fresh grass morning and night. The wires are rolled up and the watering troughs put away for another winter. The last batch of pastured chickens is in the freezer. November 1st is the official deadline for draining outdoor watering facilities. From here on in, temperatures low enough to freeze water and break pipes can come any time.

Pig Parade

Special thanks to Jesse for capturing this beautiful shot of the sunrise behind some of our pigs.

Sunrise Steers

Our bull and some steers enjoying the sunrise in the corral.

Happy Hogs

Another view of the sunrise and some pigs having their breakfast.

The main herd of cattle, which consists of mothers and their un-weaned calves, have access to a “winter pasture” of 12 acres of hills and forest which they love. All winter long they have the option of resting in deep bedding of straw in the barn or going out on the hills. We have learned over the years that farm animals will choose the spot that is healthiest. Locking them in the barn leads to big problems. Fluctuation in outside temperature creates humidity in the barn and poor air quality can quickly translate into respiratory disease. Then there are days which, as the old saying goes, are “not fit for man or beast” with wind, cold rain or sleet. The animal instinct is to seek shelter at times like this so the door to a dry place with food and water must always be open.

The “teenagers”, who live on another farm after weaning, must be separated by gender on the last day of pasture season. For obvious reasons I don’t have to explain, the boys go to one barn where the bull also resides, and the girls have their own lodgings in a third facility. This sorting job is one of the great challenges of the year. Cattle that have been out in the field all summer can be more wild than domesticated. The moment they perceive that someone is attempting to intervene in their freedom, the flight instinct of prey animals kicks in. Get them worked up and all is lost. Under the pretense of moving them onto a fresh piece of grass, we lure them into a laneway where we can slowly and carefully select a small group.

First 12 steers; they go home to the barn and right through the yard into the field with the bull. Then 15 heifers. They go in the barn, and are loaded in two trailer trips to the other farm. And so on until all 60 head are off pasture and safely segregated for the winter months awaiting the growth of new grass next April, and the beginning of another pasture season. This year it went pretty smoothly.

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Ordering a Quarter Cow

Here’s how it works:

First, whether you order online or directly with Ted, we ask a few questions. Do you want lots of roasts, or just a few? As many steaks as possible or best only? Stewing beef? Soup Bones? Braising Ribs? Liver, heart, tongue or oxtail?

We deliver 100lbs of steaks, roasts, ground, and (if you chose it) stewing beef. A standard selection of choices would result in 15lbs of steak, 25 lbs of roasts, 50 lbs of ground beef, 5 lbs of stewing beef and 5 lbs of other cuts. You pay $950.

Ordering a Side of Pork

Here’s how it works:

Questions we will ask you are: Hams, smoked or fresh, roasts or ham steaks, bacon smoked or fresh, chops yes or no, shoulder roasts yes or no, ribs, yes or no.

You receive approximately 14lbs of ham, 7 lbs of bacon, 10lbs of chops, 3lbs of ribs, 12lbs of shoulder roast, 10lbs of sausage, 4 tubs of baker’s lard, and 5lbs of neck bones. Anything you decide not to get becomes more sausage.

Beef by the Quarter/Pork by the Side

A new presentation

After wrestling with this question off and on for years, ZFF is breaking with tradition and leaving behind the age-old practice of selling quarters of beef and sides of pork based on “Gross Hanging Weight”. Those of you who are familiar with this term know that the GHW is the weight of the carcass before processing. In both beef and pork, the losses during cutting (drying, bones and fat discarded) amount to around one third of the weight. So, for example, while your invoice for a quarter of beef stated a weight of 150 lbs. GHW, you would only receive 100 lbs. of actual product.

For new customers, this seemed like an odd way to do business, and was confusing. The obvious question, once we explained, was ; if a quarter cow is 100 lbs of meat, why not describe the product in those terms and leave GHW out of the picture? When we analyzed the question closely, we saw that the history of selling by GHW is rooted in a time when many people raised one or two animals, and brought them to the butcher, along with the specific instructions for cutting. Since the size and quality of animals varied widely it was absolutely essential that the customer got the meat from their own animal back. So “custom cutting” was the norm, and the exchange between Gross Hanging Weight and the finished product was widely understood. You took your cow in, and took back out everything that came from that cow.

Discussion with our processor helped us to realize how our system of managing orders was making their job more complex and leading to errors. If we had two animals ready to process, we would give them 8 sets of separate cutting instructions with variations as to more or less steaks, more or less roasts, ground beef, stewing beef, braising ribs etc. With sides of pork the logistics were even more intimidating, since each customer has the option of cured or fresh in addition to adjusting the proportions of pork chops, ham roasts or steaks, bacon, shoulder roasts and several different kinds of sausage.

After analyzing the pros and cons, we concluded that giving our meat cutters one set of instructions, and assembling the quarters and sides in our packing room would lead to less mistakes, and allow us to customize more effectively to match the needs of you, our customers. An added benefit is that we have everything in inventory (in theory at least) and can reduce the turnaround time between receiving and order and delivery. Every side of pork or quarter of beef will have a predetermined weight and cost, and we will not have to explain what Gross Hanging Weight means.