# Ground Beef



## HDRider (Jul 21, 2011)

Dog food costs a lot of money.

Sometimes an old cow might sell for 70 cents a pound. I might get 700 pounds of ground beef from that old cow.

Let's assume all in, it is worth $1 per pound. What if I feed two pounds per day to my GD?


Plus, them cow bones would be put to good use by the dogs too.


*Input?*

I'd keep the best cuts, but most would be ground for the dogs.


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## bluemoonluck (Oct 28, 2008)

Ground beef alone won't be a balanced diet for your dogs. If you feed other stuff along with it, it can be the base of a balanced diet though. Check out the Raw feeding thread pinned to the top of the Companion/Working pet forum here, or just Google "Feeding Raw to dogs" and go from there.


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## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

Old bones are hard and have collected whatever pollution the animal has been breathing, drinking, or eating. I think an occasional old cow would be fine, but keep to tails and ribs and necks. Your dogs would also need organ meat. I don't know if organ meat from an old animal has problems, do some research on that.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

It sounds cost effective; but not sure it would be healthy in the long run....maybe parts of the cow. (Now days I don't have a high level of trust for anything I don't raise myself.)


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## HDRider (Jul 21, 2011)

Thanks folks - You all are very helpful,,, as usual.

I will formulate for a balanced diet, and they will be animals I raise myself, mostly.

Just seems economical to me...


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## bluefish (Jan 27, 2006)

We raise our own and when we butcher, the outdoor dogs get everything we don't want. I leave the gut pile out for them til it appears they are done with it. They also get the head, skin and all the bones except the ones I want for soup. I see no reason why you couldn't what organs you wanted in with the ground meat and parcel that out as needed.

Since dogs like to chew and I'm rather lazy, what I've done is bought an old freezer just for the dogs. The cow is chunked up and tossed in there. Then I can pull out pieces to feed (thawed) as needed. I would give them pieces of organ meat 2-3 times a week also. That way they get meat and bone and entertainment. If it's a big bone, it can last a couple days, depending on the dog. The head alone will last my GP a little more than a week.


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## CAjerseychick (Aug 11, 2013)

HDRider said:


> Thanks folks - You all are very helpful,,, as usual.
> 
> I will formulate for a balanced diet, and they will be animals I raise myself, mostly.
> 
> Just seems economical to me...


Sounds like a great plan, probably MUCH better than the average dog food any day of the week... we give ours raw milk as we can, wish we had an old cow ready for the freezer...!....


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## hercsmama (Jan 15, 2004)

We recently took 2 steers to the processor, he saved all the bones, and organs for me, I also had them just toss about half the scraps in there, as we just don't eat that much hamburger. Plunked it all into my extra freezer, along with about 50 whole chickens, a nice deer, and 25 rabbits. Should be enough to last my two through the summer, and we'll do it all again next fall!:cowboy:


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