Buy direct and save

It really is economical to enjoy locally produced grassfed beef.

While visiting family away from home recently, I picked up a couple of pounds of ground beef from a local grocery store. We don't typically buy the cheapest ground beef available, because it's loaded with unhealthy fat, and there's no way to tell the condition of the animals that meat comes from. So I quickly grabbed a couple of packages of grassfed beef, the same kind of product we produce off the grocery store shelf. I was shocked when the cashier said, "That will be $13!" That's right, inspecting the label closer, I saw that they were charging $6.50 per pound for lean, natural, grassfed beef. I enjoyed that beef, but I sure like ours a lot better!

By buying direct from Sabine Creek Ranch, we'll bypass a lot of middlemen and split the savings with you. Sure you can find meat on sale or discounted as it approaches the end of its shelf life. Sometimes our beef is more than what you see on a shelf (though probably not for a comparable product), and often it's much less. But comparing apples to apples, you are going to get a great deal by buying direct from the ranch.

Beef prices are rising. If you watch the news, or fill up your gas tank, that's no surprise. It's because feed lot cattle eat corn. That corn has to be grown with large tractors and petroleum-based fertilizers, and shipped across the country. Feed lots are also now competing against ethanol plants who also need the corn, which is causing the price of all foods to increase. Cattle are shipped across the country to massive feedlots. They are later shipped to a processor. Then the beef is shipped across the country or around the world. All of this movement comes with a cost that is born by the consumer. And each middle-man has to get his cut. The traditional rancher receives only a fraction of the retail price for the animal he raises, so farms struggle against the price pressures of huge corporations.

There are some economies of scale that mass producers benefit from by packing cows into huge feed lots and not providing pastures for them to graze on, but for a price comparable to what you'll pay in a grocery store, you can buy your beef directly from Sabine Creek Ranch, and feel good about your purchase. Buy direct and save, and use your food budget to support the local agriculture at the same time.