Why Are Cattle Slaughtered So Much Younger Than They Used To Be? (1977: 21 Months. Today: Under 16.)

Cattle age at slaughter has dropped by roughly a third in fifty years. Here's how it happened, and what it has to do with my wife's 27-year-old Suburban.

Big news in the Farmer Josh household....

My wife, Amelia just got her dream car.

AKA a 1999 Chevy Suburban.

That is not a typo. My wife's dream car is a 27 year old land boat. I think she just wanted to MOG the rest of us by having the oldest rig in the fleet (did I use that right Gen Z readers?)

It has 180,000 miles on it, which means it's just getting broken in. These things routinely run past 300,000 when well maintained (as this one clearly was)

And as the person in charge of maintaining it, I am thrilled by how simple it is. Nothing in it talks to a satellite or needs a software update. There are ZERO screens (this is the appropriate number of screens for a heavy metal box you are driving very fast). And the heated seats work without a subscription, which I found out today was something BMW tried to pull off this year 😂

Despite the fact that it's a Chevy, I love the thing.

"They don't make 'em like they used to" stopped being a cranky-old-man line

"They don't make 'em like they used to" used to be a cranky-old-man thing to say.

But with trucks, it's just.... true

Certainly I could not be the cranky-old-man?

Somewhere along the line, the people running car companies decided wildly expensive, electrical nightmares were more profitable than quality cars built to last.

You might be thinking "oh no, Josh is ranting about old trucks again, is he ever going to stop with this?"

To which I say....

#1 - No I will not

#2 - This is relevant, because cars aren't the only things that got simultaneously more expensive and worse over the last few decades.

I happen to know another industry that made the exact same speed and profit over quality deal with the devil.

Cattle age at slaughter: 1977 vs. today

In 1977, the average American beef steer lived about 21 months before slaughter.

By 1999, while our Suburban was rolling off the line, they'd already whittled that down to around 17.

Today? Under 16 months.

How do you shave a third off a cow's life?

Through Agricultural innovations like....

• Hormone implants for extra "growth performance"
• Antibiotics in the feed. Not for sick animals, for faster weight gain
• Feedlot rations formulated over decades to put wait on faster and faster.
• Genetics selected for speed to maximum slaughter weight

....yum?

Big Auto and Big Meat made the same trade

The similarity between Big Auto and Big Meat doesn't end there.

Massive consolidation has made meaningful competition basically a myth, so consumers don't have choices and can't reliably compare quality without doing something out of the norm like buying a 30 year old SUV or a Half Cow and Free Freezer from a farmer they met on the internet.

(On the consolidation point specifically, here's who the Big 4 Meatpackers are and how they control 85% of America's beef.)

The problem with things that are made with a focus on quality, is that they take longer and cost more to make.

What 24 to 30 months buys you instead

Our steers live 24 to 30 months, out on pasture, gaining weight at the speed grass grows.

Some seasons and years are faster, some are slower.

Compared to a 16 month old feedlot steer, that's 60%+ more time moving, eating 50+ pasture species, and just being cows.

That extra year is where the deep, actually-tastes-like-something flavor comes from.

(For the full version of our side of this, here's how long it takes to raise grass-fed beef and why patience beats industrial scale. And here's the 40+ plants they eat while they take their time.)

Why we don't need planned obsolescence

Happily for us, we don't need planned obsolescence, because our customers tend to just eat all their beef (somewhat ravenously I might add) and order more.

Which is why our business plan gets to remain very very simple.

Give you a FREE chest freezer with your first Half or Whole Beef Share to get your foot in the door of the Bulk Beef Lifestyle.

Offer excellent customer service along the way.

Blow your mind with the quality of our beef.

Then fill that freezer back up every single year.

That's the whole thing. A flawless plan.

But because we take our time, and our customers come back over and over, there is a bit of a waitlist. We think that's a reasonable trade, and so do the families who tell us they never want to go back to the grocery store.

So, if you'd rather feed your family beef raised for quality not industrial speed, you can reserve a Beef Share with a free chest freezer here.

Your Farmer,

Josh

P.S. If you also drive something older than some of our customers, reply and tell me what it is. Coolest old car might get a feature.