Our Beef

Buying Beef Direct from the Farmer

cows fighting over grassIf you have never purchased beef directly from the farm before, we are happy to carefully walk you through the process. For starters, here are some things you should know. This is very different from going to the grocery store for a cut here and a cut there. You are going to get a lot of different cuts of beef including roasts, ground beef, ribs, steaks, and, if you wish, organ meats and other specialty cuts. When you by a 1/4 beef, you are getting literally 1/4 of the entire animal. On the Product & Pricing page, you’ll find a good approximation of the amount you will receive in a 1/4. Typically a 1/4 will fit in an empty standard kitchen freezer and is a good amount for a beef-eating family of 4 for a year.

Price and Weight. When we are selling beef, it is difficult to predict exactly the weight each animal will be or how efficient the animal is (percentage of muscle, hide, bone, fat, etc). So that is why we cannot predict exactly how much meat you will receive and what your final take home price will be. After the processing, the weight is substantially reduced (not the whole animal is meat). After the processing charges are added, your final take home price/lb will turn out to be somewhere around $6.00/lb to $6.50/lb depending on the size of your order (wholes and 1/2’s get you a better price per pound than 1/4’s or 1/8’s). We can only specify pre-processing price, however, the final price varies based on the processing, your cutting order, how much or little bone you will have in the end product (steaks & ribs which have more bone than ground beef will alter the price/weight ratio), and any extra services you may request (like pre-formed hamburger patties, wieners, cubing, etc).

Three Young CowsAvailability: Since we breed, calve and wean the entire herd all at the same time, we have cattle ready for market at roughly the same time every year. We have beef in the deep freezers for sale all year round but the new beef is ready for sale between the end of April and beginning of June each year.

When you purchase a quarter from us, you are really getting a “split side” which means the side of beef is evenly divided into 2 lots (quarters). Classically, when you purchase a “quarter”, you are either getting a front or rear quarter of the entire animal. Since the front and rear of an animal have significantly different possible cuts of meat, it’s somewhat confusing and somewhat inconsistent. In order to make our sales balanced, we use the split side method instead and give everyone getting a 1/4 beef a fair share of the cuts. When we sell 1/8 beef, we have to do the best we can to give everyone a good mix of meat.

Specialty cuts (heart, liver, tongue, etc) are available upon request. If you are not interested, no problem!