anyone ever do a 1/4 or 1/2 cow?

[houseforjoy]

if you did it and know how much *take home* meat you got would you mind sharing here what it was. not hanging weight but actual meat you put into your freezer! (and what kind of beef -grass fed, hybrid, grain fed, etc)

thanks!!

[backtobasicsmum]

We buy half a beef twice a year.

Last one was 320lbs hanging weight and our actual meat we put in our freezer was just over 220 lbs. I think its considered average to have about a one-third decrease in hanging weight to take home weight.

[2sunshines]

fantastic question! We buy a 1/2 cow regularly and it fills our freezer, but in hindsight we always think that we should have done a final weight to compare it to the hanging weight.

This year we went with a 1/4 cow and dh actually did do a weight for the first time. But I have no idea what is it, I just remember what we determined was our actual price per usable meat pound. I will ask him when he gets home (and posted here so that I would be reminded when it pops up...).

[greengirl19]

I think a 1/4 was around 200 lbs (take home) at the place we get meat.

[Allison]

We get a 1/4 whenever we can. Here's a very short post I did on it a few years ago that outlines what we got with our 1/4. http://www.oursmallhours.com/quarter-grass-fed-beef/

[FaithnPraise]

Originally Posted by Allison

We get a 1/4 whenever we can. Here's a very short post I did on it a few years ago that outlines what we got with our 1/4. http://www.oursmallhours.com/quarter-grass-fed-beef/

Ours was similar to this, but I didn't bring all of that home we split the 1/4 amongst a few people. So we sectioned out all the ground beef (that was easy), then put all the special cuts in the middle like "there are 8 t bones, everyone can have 2 or if 2 people like them you can split it 4/4; and then when we get to the sirloin we'll split that 4/4!"

[SamRose]

Originally Posted by 2sunshines

I just remember what we determined was our actual price per usable meat pound. ).

What was that?

[flowermama]

Can I just answer the question in the subject line? My dh and I were going to buy part of a cow from a friend of ours (they raised it) to put in our freezer, but it didn't work out, and instead I became vegan. Seriously. . . right around the same time. . . when buying the cow didn't work out, I instead decided to try being vegan for a month and then kept with it, and that was close to 14 years ago. Anyway, your question reminded me of that.

[Soliloquy]

With a good, reputable processor, you lose about 1/3 of the hanging weight. That's regardless of whether it's grass-fed or not.

One time one of our farmers switched to a different processor and his clients only got half the hanging weight. Needless to say he switched back very quickly.

If you make broth, ask for all the bones, there's no extra charge. Kidney tastes terrible but I feed it to my dogs.

[houseforjoy]

see we just got done with it and i am just i spent hours researching farms, and then the processor who does the farm we went with. yes i ask for extra bones and the suet to make tallow for soap. the live weight for our half was 603, hanging 366 and our take home was 195. WITH the organ meats and stuff. we only have 66#s of ground. i talked several times with the processor saying i felt like it was low and could they try and walk me through why that might be, and i just went in circles with them. i am trying to decide if i should bring it up with the farmer or just let it go.

[RiverRock]

Originally Posted by houseforjoy

see we just got done with it and i am just i spent hours researching farms, and then the processor who does the farm we went with. yes i ask for extra bones and the suet to make tallow for soap. the live weight for our half was 603, hanging 366 and our take home was 195. WITH the organ meats and stuff. we only have 66#s of ground. i talked several times with the processor saying i felt like it was low and could they try and walk me through why that might be, and i just went in circles with them. i am trying to decide if i should bring it up with the farmer or just let it go.

What was the cost/lb. of usable meat? I'll see if I can find our most recent cost. We have bought 1/2, 1/4 and 1/8 of a cow in the past. I didn't reply before because our experience has been with different sized cows so the amounts have varied greatly. The price also increased if I asked for sausages or beef jerky.

[The Tickle Momster]

I'm not sure what our poundage is. We pick up our next quarter next month. I think ours works out to about $5.99/lb for grass fed, organic beef.

[RiverRock]

I just looked up our prices but I don't have information on the overall weight of the cow. I think we had bought a quarter. For grass-fed, non-certified organic it was $4.30/lb. for hanging weight and $5.82/lb. for useable meat.

[jenny_islander]

You can get it for $5/lb. hanging weight here, which works out to less than $7/lb. take-home weight--still incredibly cheap compared to storebought beef; only fattier types of hamburger and beef shanks cost less than that! It looks as though 1/4 cow would give us beef once a week for a year. Of course we would have to factor in the cost of firing up the big downstairs freezer, and we would have to actually have the cost of 1/4 cow on hand. As it is I can wring out enough money for a pound and a half of lean hamburger once per week, which my husband begged me to do even if it meant sacrificing variety in our fruits and veggies, because if we kept eating cheap chicken all the time he was going to grow feathers and cluck!

[Soliloquy]

I would call the farmer and ask what the typical loss is in processing.

I should clarify that we have always bought a 1/2, not a 1/4.