What does it cost to raise a steer for beef?

Short answer

About $3,650 to finish a bought 820-lb steer to 1,550 lb — roughly $6–7 a pound of beef in the freezer before the butcher

Missouri's October 2026 budget buys an 820-lb steer at $302.50 a hundredweight ($2,480.50), feeds it 210 days at 3.5 lb a day to 1,550 lb for $502.45 of feed, and totals $3,654.52 a head once labor, vet, hauling, overhead and interest are counted. A 1,550-lb grain-fed steer hangs at about 961 lb (62%), shrinks to about 903 lb in the cooler, and comes home as roughly 610 lb of bone-in beef or 519 lb boneless (K-State, Oklahoma State). That is about $5.99 a pound bone-in or $7.04 boneless before processing — and processing is the one line only your processor can quote.

The arithmetic

Buy: 820 lb × $302.50 per hundredweight = $2,480.50 (Missouri G683, revised 10/2026). The steer is 68% of the total.
Feed: 1,550 − 820 = 730 lb of gain; at 3.5 lb a day that is about 209 days, and Missouri budgets 210 days and $502.45 of feed — about $0.69 per pound of gain. Missouri prints the dollars, not the pounds of feed.
Everything else: labor, vet, hauling and marketing, machinery, insurance, overhead, interest and ownership come to $671.57 a head in Missouri's budget (our subtraction: $3,654.52 − $2,480.50 − $502.45). Total: $3,654.52.
Take-home: 1,550 lb × 62% = 961 lb hanging; 6% aging shrink → 903 lb; × 67.5% bone-in = about 610 lb, or × 57.5% boneless = 519 lb. $3,654.52 ÷ 610 = $5.99 a pound.

Why do some people say a steer costs $2 a pound to raise and others say $6?

Mostly because they are dividing by different pounds and counting different bills.

Live vs. hanging vs. packaged: The same $3,654.52 is $2.36 a pound of live steer, $3.80 a pound hanging and $5.99 a pound of bone-in beef in the freezer ($7.04 boneless)
Bought feeder vs. raised from birth: Missouri's from-birth budget, a 50-cow herd, comes to $3,229–3,376 for a 1,440–1,460-lb steer: $2.24–2.31 a live pound against $2.36 for a bought feeder (different years' prices — see the table)
Which overhead you count: Missouri charges $112.07 for marketing and hauling, $110.48 of farm-business overhead and $131.83 of operating interest — $354.38 of the $3,654.52. Count only what you actually pay and the number falls; count your own time and it rises
Cattle price vs. freezer price: At Missouri's $240 a hundredweight the same steer sells for $3,682.80 after 1% death loss, only $28.28 over total cost. The cattle market pays by the live pound; your freezer is worth what those cuts cost at the store

"$2 a pound" is usually total cost divided by live weight, which is how cattle are quoted. "$6 a pound" is the same dollars divided by what comes home in the boxes. Both are true of the same steer.

Divide by packaged pounds, count the lines you actually pay, add the processor's whole bill, and you have a number you can compare to the store.

What changes your number

Feeder price. The biggest line by far — 68% of Missouri's total. Every $10 a hundredweight on an 820-lb steer is $82 a head; $250 against $302.50 changes the freezer price by about 70 cents a pound.
Overhead you may not pay. Missouri's budget charges hauling, marketing, farm-business overhead and interest that a homestead may not pay — or may pay differently. The calculator's "other cost" field starts at Missouri's $671.57 so you can take out what doesn't apply.
Weight at harvest. Missouri finishes at 1,550 lb after 210 days. Every extra 100 lb is about 29 days at 3.5 lb a day and 62 more lb on the hook, but also more feed, more interest and a bigger cut-and-wrap bill.
Grass-finished. Missouri's ration is corn, silage and distillers grains. Grass-finished steers dress lower — 56–58% against 60–63% for grain-fed (Kentucky) — and none of the budgets we cite prices a grass-finishing program, so treat the calculator as a grain-fed estimate.
Split it. One steer is about 610 lb packaged — 15–20 cubic feet of freezer at 30–40 lb per cubic foot (Kentucky). Most families split a half or a quarter; the cost per pound doesn't change, the check does.
What it's really worth. Compare against what that mix of cuts costs at the store, not the price of ribeyes — most of a steer is roasts, ground beef and stew meat.

A number we won't give you

A processing price. Kill fees and cut-and-wrap charges vary by shop and region, and no extension service publishes a figure we would stand behind; the calculator starts processing at $0 so it can't pretend. Also missing: the cost of a one- or two-cow herd. Missouri's from-birth budget assumes 50 cows, and we found no extension budget that models a handful.

One steer, 820 → 1,550 lb, before processing

Feeder price	Steer	Total per head	Per lb, bone-in (~610 lb)	Per lb, boneless (~519 lb)
$250 a hundredweight	$2,050	$3,224	$5.29	$6.21
$302.50 a hundredweight (Missouri)	$2,480.50	$3,654	$5.99	$7.04
$350 a hundredweight	$2,870	$4,044	$6.63	$7.79

Feed at $0.688 per pound of gain and $671.57 of other costs held constant, though interest would move with the price. Packaged weights use 62% dressing, 6% aging shrink, and 67.5% bone-in or 57.5% boneless of the carcass.

Bought feeder or raised from birth?

Missouri budget	Finished weight	Total cost per head	Per live lb	Per lb packaged, bone-in
Finish a bought 820-lb steer (G683, 10/2026)	1,550 lb	$3,654.52	$2.36	$5.99
Raised from birth, fall calving (G684, 10/2025)	1,440 lb	$3,229.31	$2.24	$5.70
Raised from birth, spring calving (G684, 10/2025)	1,460 lb	$3,375.67	$2.31	$5.88

G684 is a 50-cow herd and includes cow-herd feed, replacement cows and bulls, and ownership costs. The budgets use different years' prices (10/2025 and 10/2026), so don't read the gap as a verdict. Packaged weights of about 610, 566 and 574 lb use the same yields as above.

Run your own numbers

One steer from 820 to 1,550 lb at Missouri's October 2026 prices — put in your feeder price, your weights and your processor's quote.

Your steers and your prices

How many steersPrice paid per steer ($)Missouri's October 2026 budget: 820 lb at $302.50 a hundredweight.Other cost per head ($)Missouri's remaining lines: labor, vet, hauling, overhead, interest. Drop what you don't pay.Starting weight (lb)Market weight (lb)Daily gain (lb)Missouri plans 3.5 lb a day.Feed cost per lb of gain ($)Missouri's feed bill, $502.45, over 730 lb of gain. It prints dollars, not pounds of feed.

Processing — ask your processor

Kill fee per steer ($)Cut & wrap, $ per lb hangingCuts

Processing starts at $0 because we won’t guess your processor’s prices. Dressing 62%, 6% aging shrink, bone-in 67.5% or boneless 57.5% of the carcass — the same figures as the beef yield guide.

Cost per pound in the freezer

$5.99 / lb

Per steer, all in: $3,654
All 1 steer: $3,654
Feed per steer: $502
Per pound of live weight: $2.36
Hanging weight: 961 lb
Packaged meat per steer: 610 lb
Time to market weight: 209 days

Where the money goes

For a bought feeder steer, the animal is 68% of the total ($2,480 of $3,655), the feed 14% ($502) and everything else — labor, hauling, overhead, interest — 18% ($672). Processing comes on top. The number to shop is the feeder price, not the feed.

Then stop planning from averages

The calculator is the estimate. In Homestead Paradise you log the weigh-ins and the feed for each animal, and the processing record takes the hanging weight and the cut sheet, so you see your actual cost per pound when the boxes come home. 14-day free trial, no card.

Start your 14-day trial — no card

Keep planning

What does it cost to raise a pig for meat?How much meat do you get from the hanging weight?How much meat do you get from a pig?How much meat do you get from a steer?How much meat do you get from a lamb?What does it cost to raise a lamb for meat?

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from a land-grant university extension service, a government agriculture or energy agency, or a breed registry — never from another blog.