Curious about beef prices--what do you pay?

[monarc23]

Hi there!
A lady I distribute hatching eggs for (while mine are barely laying) also has beef cattle she grass feeds as well as natural feeds (corn and other things grown on thier own farm, no hormones etc). I asked her today if those were her cattle and she said yes and said that she also sold their beef. Hubby and I have always wanted to buy farm raised beef instead of store bought.....so what are good/acceptable prices? Never bought like this before so very novice here. Either way we will be purchasing from her...just curious is all.

Half is something like $275 vaccume sealed and cut up however we want it.
Quartered i don't remember the price but again vaccume sealed and cut up however we want it.

She's going to give us more information after she talks to her father who is incharge of taking the cattle to get slaughtered.

My other concern is our freezer, it's one of those verticle half freezer half fridge types. So I'm concerned about space.....is it possible to store a whole half of a packaged up the way we decide (ground and steaks probably) or would it deffinatly be smarter to go with quartered? I asked her about how BIG is a quarter, and she couldnt tell me either ha ha! *again it's her fathers thing*. Just curious if anyone who knows way more than me about this subject can give me some pointers, common prices and such.

800 lbs before slaughtered if that helps, they are half angus.

Thanks!
Niki

 

[Cara]

My husband is partly paid in beef (I'm completely serious!). I couldn't help you with the cost of beef, but we get just under a dollar per lb live weight. In terms of storage, you'll probably want another freezer. We have a beef freezer, it's the vertical type deep freeze, probably 6.5' tall and 2' deep. It holds just under half a beef, depending on how it's cut and packed.

We get a few roasts, T-bones, ribeyes, quite a lot of ground beef (20-30lbs), some round steak and cube steak, and 15-20lbs of sirloin. Our butcher allows us to pick which cuts we want, I think he calculates it by price per pound, otherwise everyone would want 200-300lbs of steak

We get 1/4 beef every 6 months, and never finish one before we get the next. It's just my husband and I though, and our dogs when we run out of dry dog food.

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
Thank you Cara!!!

This puts things in better perspective for me!

That's funny you mention your dogs....planning on seeing if they mind bringing us bones and such that would just other wise be pitched...(or sold for cheap) dont know if they can/will but worth a shot to ask

Thanks again!

 

[beak]

we have a 21 cu ft freezer. A side of beef fills it. Last time we got a side of beef it was about 800 lbs hanging weight, meaning skinned and gutted. It was a limousin which is much heavier than an angus.
We aged ours 14 days and had them mix the sweet meats into the hamburger. It makes the hamburger much tastier. You should try it. Most butchers will give you dog bones if you buy a side of beef from them.

 

[monarc23]

Quote:

sounds great! thanks!

 

[Beekissed]

You are getting your beef very cheap, especially for all-natural, farm raised beef. The usual going rate for homegrown beef is $1.60 lb live weight! You are getting it around $1.44 a lb.

I don't care if you have to put some of it in a friend's freezer temporarily...this is a good deal!

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
ha ha! I was thinking about asking around to family and friends see if they'd buy some of what we bought, or store/share what we've bought. Come to think of it my hubbies friend might have room....hmmm

thanks for chopping that price down into lbs for me!

 

[obsessed]

Last year I bought half a cow. I paid 1.45 hanging weight and then another 25 cents a pound for it to be butchered. So it came to roughly 900 total. It was for grass fed beef in Montana. It came home in three large boxes. We put it in our chest freezer. It did well but then my husband thought it was his responsibility to eat steaks every night and 6 months later it was gone. I think he was binging on beef. I would love to do it again but hide the beef so it could last a bit longer.

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
haha!!! that's really funny, okay probably not for you though!

Hubby was already hinting at steaks....now I know what to expect

LOL

 

[Cara]

Quote:
Please send him over here to eat some

I get so bored of beef, and my husband hates processing chickens. We got a deer this year but he's almost gone, even venison makes a change! I guess I need to find someone to trade beef for chicken.

Beekissed, we need to ship our cattle down there to sell them. Last week we got $0.905/lb live weight