How Much to Buy a Whole Beef

So you lot're looking to counter the rising cost of beef by ownership a whole moo-cow for meat.

Purchasing meat in bulk may be a significant money saver, provided you have the foresight to program ahead and the room in your freezer. Information technology also gives yous the option to control what type of meat y'all are consuming – you can get truly grass fed beef or grain fed beef – and yous'll know how it was raised.

Many farms and meat processing facilities provide consumers with placing a beef order of purchasing a whole, half, or quarter cow.

The manner pricing works when buying a whole moo-cow for meat is that you're charged a dollar number for each pound of "hanging weight," which is the beast's weight before it gets aged and processed.

However, some butchers base the pricing on the cow's weight when it'southward yet alive (rather than pound hanging weight), then you'll demand to inquire nigh that with your butcher before placing your order.

The butcher will accept care of all the processing and packing, so all you lot have to do is place your lodge and option upwards your meat one time information technology'southward prepared. From the time of social club until pick-upwardly, the process typically takes anywhere from one to 3 weeks, depending on the flavour and availability.

Where to Purchase a Whole Moo-cow for Meat

Buying a whole cow for meat is a bit of an undertaking. Therefore, fewer people do it compared to those who accept the more convenient route of buying their meat in modest quantities at the grocery store. You can also look into just getting a side of beef or quarter cow.

For those who are determined to buy a whole cow for meat, the advantage is lower price and fewer trips to the market.

However, with that said, buying a whole cow for meat does accept its challenges, and y'all may have to get creative and devious off the browbeaten path to discover a source for buying cows.

If y'all haven't already, an first-class place to beginning is past asking your shut friends and family members if they've ever purchased a whole cow from a nearby farm. And so, inquire nearly their experiences – there's no meliorate way to learn virtually a local concern than past talking with a existent customer.

When in doubt, wait up your local options on the cyberspace . Try search queries such as "purchase whole cow + your area" in your search engine of choice. The results should requite you a range of at least a few options from which to cull.

Then look for an email accost or phone number to call . Don't hesitate to telephone the farmer and ask them personally if you have any questions. The farmer will inform y'all of the length of time y'all will be required to wait for pick-up. Buying a whole cow is not a click, click, online buy (yet).

Another option for finding a source to buy a whole cow from is to seek a butcher business on its own property . In other words, non the butcher at your local big chain grocery store. A butcher volition exist able to tell y'all who the local farmers are and give you their contact information.

One other source worth looking into is your local farmer's market. Ordinarily, yous'll merely be able to buy pre-cut meat at a farmer's market. Still, it also opens upward the opportunity to come across any farmer/rancher/butcher who sets up shop at the market.

If y'all strike up a conversation, you tin enquire as to whether they would be open to selling you a whole cow or fifty-fifty if they would raise a cow for you, and you can adapt to pay for it.

One time you've found a cattle rancher or farmer , it'due south usually a pretty simple process to option upward as long as you have a vehicle with decent space. Load your boxes into your auto and get to the address. A complete cow's worth of meat can be transported in a truck or SUV.

Available Cuts

I of the perks of ownership a whole moo-cow for meat is having every possible cut of the cow available to you lot.

Prepare ahead of time by doing some preliminary inquiry and thinking about what your family unit enjoys eating: more steaks or more roasts, for case.

Would you like to have more ribs or more hamburgers? Would you similar to take more hamburgers or more meat for stews? How practise yous programme on cooking your steaks?

The meat yous become may be stripped of backlog fat and be well-marbled, depending on your tastes. Know what you desire in accelerate so you can let the butcher know if you lot want a lot of fat or if y'all desire most of information technology trimmed off.

Vacuum-sealed tubes contain the ground beef, while vacuum-sealed numberless incorporate the other cuts. As a result, you lot'll probable receive a finished product that weighs slightly more half of the total hanging weight.

The answers to these questions volition guide you lot in the right direction for what yous want the butcher to prioritize.

You have a great bargain of command over how your beef is processed when you purchase it this way.

For example, steak thickness and the number of cuts or pounds of meat in each parcel may all exist customized past the processor.

In other words, if you notice that usually your family needs an additional half-pound or pound of footing beef for dinner, or if you know that a one-pound bundle is usually too much for y'all and your household, you may adapt your purchases to preclude waste.

Benefits of Buying a Whole Moo-cow for Meat

To someone who has never bought a whole cow for meat before, they may await at you crazy if yous tell them you lot're thinking nearly doing it. However, there are various benefits of buying a whole cow for meat. Here are merely a few of them.

You save a lot of money on your meals if you eat a lot of beef.
One time y'all have a whole butchered moo-cow in your freezer, you lot don't have to brand equally many trips to the market.
You have more control over each individual cutting of meat (and get otherwise expensive cuts like the tongue and skirt or beefiness knuckle).
You have the selection of buying only a grass-fed moo-cow, which is more than natural and healthier than meat from typical grain-fed cows.
You'll be able to load your freezer with meat from a cow that roamed on lush meadows and gained weight organically while eating grass. Compare this to the cattle that were removed from their mothers at an early historic period, kept in cow-lined stock pens, given corn, unnatural supplements and antibiotics, and growth hormones.
You get to support minor local farmers and ranchers

What to Enquire Yourself, the Rancher & Butcher

How long do you think it will take your family unit to consume a whole cow?
Will y'all require a larger freezer?
How far will you accept to travel to collect the meat?
How long will the beef remain good for you to eat once it has been frozen?
What volition the price of the meat exist per pound?
Is my payment dependent on the hanging weight or the weight of the butchered end production?
Is there an boosted charge for processing the meat?
When can the meat be picked upward from the farm?
What kind of quarter exercise you want to purchase?
Is it a mixed quarter or just the forepart or the rear quarter?

Price of Butchering a Cow

How much should you anticipate paying for a whole cow? When purchasing a cow for meat, information technology's customary to pay a "market rate." Almost always, ranchers will give you an estimate of how much the hanging weight will be so that you can determine how much it volition cost.

The cost you pay per pound covers annihilation from footing beef to steaks that you would probably pay more than $ten per pound if purchased separately. So one of the benefits of buying in bulk is that you lot save money .

On average, yous tin look to pay around $5.lx per pound, which is quite a chip cheaper than ownership shop-bought beefiness, which comes out to approximately $7.40 per pound.

And then that's a 25% savings. It'south an even bigger savings compared to loftier-quality beef that you lot might detect at an online retailer like Crowd Cow, Porter Route or Snake River Farms. For 750 pound of beef from a 1200 pound cow, that works out to $4200.

Go along in mind that you can also request for the butcher to include the bones, marrow, heart, tongue, oxtail, and liver, which have many uses, from making your own soups and even soaps.

By buying a whole cow, you get to apply the unabridged animal, eliminating costs on things y'all would have already purchased, like soap or goop.

How a Cow is Weighed

If you lot oasis't purchased a whole moo-cow directly from a farmer, you lot may be perplexed past some of the terminology. Cows are weighed in various means that you should be aware of so you take a better idea of what the overall price is going to be.

Starting time-time customers demand to understand that even if their half cow weighs 1200 pounds while alive, you lot won't receive that much meat.

It's common for processors to dry-age the meat for several days, which reduces the amount of moisture present in the meat, and thus the weight decreases.

Bones and undesirable organs are removed from the carcass during the butchering process, lowering the overall weight. Of grade, you tin can request for these parts to be included if yous want. You can expect to see nigh 750 pounds of meat from a 1200-pound half cow, depending on various circumstances.

Alive Weight

Equally the term implies, live weight refers to how much the cow weighs while still living. Yous tin wait a live cow to counterbalance an estimated 900 pounds at the age of one-2.five.

Hanging Weight

Hanging weight is the cow's weight after it has been killed, skinned, and gutted. In most cases, this is the weight at which frozen beef is normally sold.

Have-Home Weight

Have-home weight is the weight of the meat you have dwelling house with you after it has been sliced and/or ground to your liking. Depending on the cuts you choose, you should expect this to account for effectually 60% of the total hanging weight.

Required Freezer Space

You volition most likely crave more room than is already available in your kitchen. Because in that location is a lot of meat involved (fifty-fifty if information technology's all in tubes and packaging), the ideal solution is to prepare a specialized freezer in a garage or basement for storage.

Prices for freezers capable of storing beef range from a couple hundred dollars for a model capable of housing a quarter cow to more than a thousand for bigger versions with more storage space.

A quarter cow can fit into around a iv-cubic-pes freezer. A fully-butchered cow will need a freezer of well-nigh sixteen cubic feet almost likely.

One time you've returned habitation with your marbled treasure, beef will stay adept in the freezer for 9-12 months.

That's a long fourth dimension, but keep in mind information technology's a lot of meat , and so it's a good idea to consider your household's electric current monthly beefiness intake so that you lot don't purchase more than you need. If yous don't call back your household would consume a whole cow in that amount of time, or you're unsure, you tin ever start with a half cow or quarter cow and and so reassess.

Storage temperatures range between 10 and 15 degrees Fahrenheit, with the meat being taken out of the freezer one day or two before existence used. Prevent repeatedly warming and spooky the meat to avoid spoiling the meat.

FAQs About Buying a Whole Cow

Here are a few FAQs about buying a whole cow.

Is it worth it to purchase a whole cow?

It's worth information technology to buy a whole moo-cow if you swallow a lot of beefiness, yous intendance about where that beef comes from, you lot want to salve a lot of money, and you take the storage infinite to preserve your meat while you eat it.

How much meat do yous become from a 1200 pound cow?

Yous can expect to meet about 750 pounds of meat from a 1200-pound moo-cow, later removing organs and moisture, depending on various circumstances.

How much meat do y'all get from a 1000 pound cow?

Y'all can expect to meet almost 625 pounds of meat from a 1000-pound cow, after removing organs and moisture, depending on various circumstances.

How much meat do yous become from a 800 pound cow?

You can expect to see nigh 500 pounds of meat from a 800-pound cow, later removing organs and moisture, depending on various circumstances.

How long does it have to raise a cow for slaughter?

If the average daily weight gain for a 500-pound calf is ane.5 pounds per 24-hour interval, information technology will take well-nigh a year (367 days) to abound it to 1000 pounds – source.

How much should a whole cow cost?

It depends on the market rate, just at $five.60/lb, the meat from a whole cow would be $4,200.

How much should half a cow cost?

It depends on the marketplace rate, but at $5.60/lb, the meat from a one-half cow would be $two,100.

How much is a i/4 of a moo-cow cost?

It depends on the market rate, but at $5.lx/lb, the meat from a one-half cow would be $one,050.

What do you get when yous buy a whole cow?

Y'all can become really whatever you request from the farmer and butcher. Most butchers volition exclude the organs and will dry out historic period the meat to remove most of the wet.

Last Thoughts

Depending on where you get your meat, you lot may too benefit from developing a personal connexion with the cattle rancher who raised the moo-cow so y'all can get a meliorate idea of where and how the fauna was grown. That aforementioned goes for your relationship with the butcher, who can work with you to figure out what kind of cuts you like virtually and things like how much fat you keep.

Buying a whole cow for meat is an involved process that is a lot less convenient than just picking upwards a couple of steaks here and in that location from your local grocery store. Nevertheless, the final result volition exist a freezer full of beef that you can eat for upwardly to a year, one less incentive to go grocery shopping, and a large amount of money saved on your grocery neb.

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Source: https://www.priceofmeat.com/2565/buying-a-whole-cow-for-meat/