How much meat?

The rule of thumb is one cubic foot of freezer space for every 35 – 40 pounds of packaged meat. A quarter of beef will easily fit into a 5 -7 cubic foot chest freezer. A half beef needs about 8 cubic feet. A whole cow needs about 16 cubic feet.

We price our meat based on hanging weight. Hanging weight is the weight of the animal after it has been cleaned and what remains is mostly bones and meat. It is a guessing game on what the weight of that animal might be at hanging weight and also how much meat will be rendered.

For example, a 1000 lb live weight steer can have a hanging weight about 55-60% of it's live weight or around 450lb hanging weight. Or, you could say that the ratio of hanging weight to live weight is about 55-60%. Of that 450lb hanging weight, you should get about 50-58% of that in meat or 205 lb of meat cut and wrapped for the whole cow. In other words, your ratio of cut and wrapped meat to hanging weight is about 50-58%.

How do you calculate the Prices?

Here's how it’s calculated: The price is $4.65/lb hanging weight, but does not cover the butchering or slaughter fees.  The butcher charges $1.00/lb hanging weight for cutting and wrapping and $80 for the slaughter.  Let’s use a 500lb hanging weight steer to calculate the cost per pound of meat.  

Take the price plus the butchering cost or $4.65 + $1.00/lb which is $5.65/lb hanging weight.  Then, we divide that by our estimated ratio of cut and wrapped weight to hanging weight or $5.65/0.55  This gives us $10.27/lb cut and wrapped.  BUT!  The customer still has to pay for slaughter.  So, there is approximately 225 lb of meat from the 500 lb hanging weight steer, and $90/500 is $0.18 per pound of meat for slaughter.  So the total cost per pound of meat in the freezer for this size of animal is now $10.45. This amount will be dependent on the individual weight of the animal, so it may be more or less, our steers average 450-500 lb hanging weight.

While you may look at the price per pound and think only of hamburger, remember that your order includes steaks, roasts, and other cuts that are considerably more in the store for a lower quality meat, so it averages out as an economical savings.

Cut Sheet options

If you are ordering a quarter, half or whole you get to choose your cuts by filling out a cut sheet.

Organ meat can be chosen for the quarter, half and whole orders, as well as individual items.

Why can’t I just order steaks?

A cow only has so many sections and specific meat cuts come from a particular section. So you will only get one brisket from 1 cow and 2 flank steaks. Refer to the Cut Map at the top of the page to see what some of the cuts are the come from specific areas of the cow’s body. So as much as we would love to just have T-bones or Filets it is not possible due to anatomy. We try to provide as many steaks in each box as we can, as we equally divide everything when we sort it out for the size of order for each person. Please let us know any feedback you have to help us provide the best service we can.