American prairie. What's the issue?

[antlerradar]

If I didn't hunt, we would get our meat from a family friend, who runs a completely free-range outfit on mostly private. That's where my parents and sister get there's.

How much of that gap in price for the producer could be made up by either streamlining the middleman, or eliminating him entirely?

I am all for people getting there meat from someone like your friend.

You can make up quite a bit of the price gap, maybe even come out ahead by getting rid of the middlemen, Problem is you are also adding in extra costs and time. Middlemen are pretty efficient and for many of us there is simply not enough days in the year to take on the extra work.

 

[antlerradar]

And if you try to put it in native pasture, that damn for sure, will not work. Native grasses suck for cattle.That is why they planted it all in brome.

I disagree with this. Big Blue stem, Little Blue stem, Idaho Fescue. Western Weatgrass, Green Needle Grass, Side Oats Grama and just about all of the other native spices make excellent cow food. People planted Smooth Brome and other non natives because they are cheap, easy to establish and readily available. It is also likely that non natives out compete the natives because many of the things that eat them besides cows are left across the Atlantic.
In the Sixty's the forest service plowed up 1000s of acres of native range land and planted it in a pasture mix in an effort to improve forage production. The pasture mix contained Smooth Brome and the Brome out competed all of the other spices. Now it is almost a mono culture of brome. It might have seamed like a good idea at the time, but it proved to be a disaster. If I could get rid of all of the Brome in my pasture and replace it with natives, I would in an instant