General Buying whole/half Cow, Lamb or Piggy?

[Ryann Von Doom]

Anyone have any experience with this? Looking into doing this, specially with lamb and beef. Any particular online retailers you guys like to use? This is important as fall/winter/spring = grilling season here in Vegas.

For your time... Kairi Sane and Iyo Sky

 

[Rambo John J]

Just bought a quarter of grass fed grass finished beef, from a local farm

700 bucks or so, haven't eaten any yet

 

[kvr28]

Contact a local farmer or butcher, it will be much cheaper than using an online retailer. Check facebook marketplace as well.

 

[Ryann Von Doom]

Just bought a quarter of grass fed grass finished beef, from a local farm

700 bucks or so, haven't eaten any yet

That's fucking awesome. What cuts did you end up with and all that? Hard to do that in Vegas.. but I may have to make a drive back to Laramie to get their local beef.

 

[kvr28]

Just bought a quarter of grass fed grass finished beef, from a local farm

700 bucks or so, haven't eaten any yet

Yeah I am seeing 1400 locally for a half of grass raised on facebook. Going directly to the farmer will always be cheaper.

 

[kvr28]

That's fucking awesome. What cuts did you end up with and all that? Hard to do that in Vegas.. but I may have to make a drive back to Laramie to get their local beef.

Check out this place, quick google gave it to me, 2000 for a half, not sure what the hanging weight is, might be worth calling them

Alpine Ranch – Grass-fed Beef, Lamb and Pastured Berkshire Pork

 

[Ryann Von Doom]

Interesting. Just in the prelims of figuring out how to put it up in my house etc.. But it's definitely been a dream to be able to buy something like this every year.

 

[Fan_of_Fanboys]

Good timing. My BIL and I were talking Sunday about splitting half a cow. I've been looking at garage ready deep freezers too. Thinking about this one

 

[kvr28]

Interesting. Just in the prelims of figuring out how to put it up in my house etc.. But it's definitely been a dream to be able to buy something like this every year.

Get 2 standup freezers in the garage, it's what we use for our mini dexters when we slaughter them, we usually end up with about 800 pounds of meat between the two of them. But they are half the size of regular beef critters.

 

[kvr28]

Good timing. My BIL and I were talking Sunday about splitting half a cow. I've been looking at garage ready deep freezers too. Thinking about this one
View attachment 122487

Go with a 21-23 stand up, digging through a chest freezer to find what you are looking for gets old quick. We have one for prime cuts and one for hamburger, this is our hamburger freezer, it was packed when we had them processed in January, think we ended up with just under 300 pounds of ground beef. We have been working through it as well as my daughter and her boyfriend. She showed up yesterday and was like dad, I'm grabbing some hamburger and walked out with 10 pounds.

But it's not ground beef from the store, it's literally ground steak, sounds stupid but unless you see and taste the difference it's hard to explain.

 

[kvr28]

Here's a quick visual I did years ago, I was cleaning out the freezer and found an old pork chop I raised that had been in there for over a year where the seal was bad, so I went to the store and bought a "fresh" pork chop.

Pork isn't supposed to be the other white meat.

 

[MountainMedic]

Stand up freezers are 2ay more convenient.
But I'm a cheap bastard and bought a used chest freezer that's been going strong for 15+ years.

I use milk crates in it to keep everything sorted. You don't have to dig through a frozen pile of confusion.

 

[kvr28]

Stand up freezers are 2ay more convenient.
But I'm a cheap bastard and bought a used chest freezer that's been going strong for 15+ years.

I use milk crates in it to keep everything sorted. You don't have to dig through a frozen pile of confusion.

Now you tell me!

 

[segfault]

Go with a 21-23 stand up, digging through a chest freezer to find what you are looking for gets old quick. We have one for prime cuts and one for hamburger, this is our hamburger freezer, it was packed when we had them processed in January, think we ended up with just under 300 pounds of ground beef. We have been working through it as well as my daughter and her boyfriend. She showed up yesterday and was like dad, I'm grabbing some hamburger and walked out with 10 pounds.

But it's not ground beef from the store, it's literally ground steak, sounds stupid but unless you see and taste the difference it's hard to explain.

Makes sense. I remember reading that store-brought ground beef can contain trimmings from up to a 100 different cattle from God knows where. No way you're going to have any sort of consistency in quality/flavor.

 

[vad]

Contact a local farmer or butcher, it will be much cheaper than using an online retailer. Check facebook marketplace as well.

The right here. We have been doing this for a couple years now, actually just put in an order for 110lbs of pork and beef, which comes to just shy of $7 per pound (no steaks, its ground, roasts, chops). I also bought 10 chicken fryers cut and frozen.

Add in some venison if I end up shooting a deer or two and some fish I catch in the winter and spring, we really only have to buy steak at the store. In my experience steaks from local farmers and butchers are often cut really thin when sold like this and the meat counter at the grocery store has the better cuts and quality.

 

[vad]

Stand up freezers are 2ay more convenient.
But I'm a cheap bastard and bought a used chest freezer that's been going strong for 15+ years.

I use milk crates in it to keep everything sorted. You don't have to dig through a frozen pile of confusion.

The cost of the freezer is covered in the savings from your first order to fill it. I too went with the chest freezer, which I actually prefer. Its not as well organizable, but there is more space than I could ever use with the size of the one I got.

 

[NiteProwleR]

Just bought a quarter of grass fed grass finished beef, from a local farm

700 bucks or so, haven't eaten any yet

You need to start posting some of your meals.

 

[MountainMedic]

The cost of the freezer is covered in the savings from your first order to fill it. I too went with the chest freezer, which I actually prefer. Its not as well organizable, but there is more space than I could ever use with the size of the one I got.

I was really jealous of the standups but my system works well enough. I feel like you don't use all the real estate in a stand up either. I'd probably still use my milk crate system in one of those too, just to max it out. And a full freezer runs better.

 

[MountainMedic]

Even a 100mi drive is worth it to get "local" beef from the farm/ranch.
Financially it might be a wash, but it'll get better as you get into how it all works. And you know exactly what you're getting.

 

[NiteProwleR]

Fuck the internet, support local farmers. They will be ecstatic to take your order.

 

[MountainMedic]

There was an outfit in Colorado that sold "domestic" elk. Weird operation, don't know if they still exist.
Felt like a drug deal, lol.
You'd drop off your cooler and your order, with an envelope of cash.
Couple days later you go pick up the goods.

 

[kvr28]

The cost of the freezer is covered in the savings from your first order to fill it. I too went with the chest freezer, which I actually prefer. Its not as well organizable, but there is more space than I could ever use with the size of the one I got.

For us the stand ups made more sense then chest, since we pack away two cows, it takes the same floor space as one chest and can fit more into them. If you are just buying a half or quarter then the chest would make sense.

 

[kvr28]

In my experience steaks from local farmers and butchers are often cut really thin when sold like this

You should be able to specify the thickness if ordering a half or quarter directly. If not look for another place.

 

[Ryann Von Doom]

Even a 100mi drive is worth it to get "local" beef from the farm/ranch.
Financially it might be a wash, but it'll get better as you get into how it all works. And you know exactly what you're getting.

Going to drive to Laramie and get the local stuff there if I go "local" farm. 800 miles. Worth it.

 

[MountainMedic]

You should be able to specify the thickness if ordering a half or quarter directly. If not look for another place.

Stop ordering the @NiteProwleR special.