Buying a Quarter Cow
I am a big proponent of beef thanks to its uniquely beneficial nutrient profile, not to mention its flavor. However, there’s no doubt that modern beef farming practices are questionable at best. While I never turn to documentaries as my primary source of factual information, it’s hard to avoid the images in media of over crowded concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO). From an animal welfare and environmental sustainability standpoint, grass fed beef seems like a good alternative. It turns out, it also has some nutritional benefits with increased omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin A, vitamin E and antioxidants. But you guys…the price. Understandably, it’s more expensive to raise cows on grass where they need more space and grow slower. So what’s a meat loving family to do?
Buy the whole cow of course! Er, well, a quarter of it anyway. Buying a quarter, half or whole cow is much more economical since the farmer sells directly to the consumer. You do usually have to pay a butcher to cut it down, but it’s still much less than the amount that would otherwise go to the wholesaler and retailer that bring you grocery store meat. Many of my friends and clients have asked me about buying beef this way, so I thought I would break it all down for you in a blog post.
This is a quarter beef. The plastic wrapped items are all ground beef. The paper wrapped items are all the steaks, roasts, liver, etc. And the box in front is bones.
When you are preparing for your first quarter beef, there’s a few things you need to consider:
Circled areas are beef. The bottom drawer is all ground beef. The bones are not in here as we were in the process of making stock. Ultimately the stock will have to fit in here somewhere too.
Find a farm. I love the website Local Harvest because it helps consumers find local family farms. We live in Chicago and have been using Zinniker Farm in Elkhorn, Wisconsin for 5 years now. I love that they are certified organic and go a step further to use bio-dynamic practices that nourish the soil. They even invite us out every year to help create manure fertilizer…John has thus far insisted we decline this invitation, haha.
Contact the farm. When you contact the farm you’ll want to find out when their next available butcher date is. You will also want to find out who does the butchering. For example, Zinniker Farm uses Sorg Quality Meats in Darien, Wisconsin. That’s where we actually go each time to pick up the beef, so the butcher location may matter more to you than the farm location.
Decide how you want the meat butchered. This was a little overwhelming for us at first, but some online research and talking with the awesome folks at Sorg helped us figure it out. Essentially, you have to decide things like: Do you want brisket, or do you want the brisket ground into your ground beef so the ground beef is fattier? (grind it in, IMO!) Do you want tenderloin and strip steaks, or leave the tenderloin in and have porterhouse and t-bone steaks? Do you want the bones included? (absolutely!) What about the tongue? (yes!) The heart? (this scared me, haha)
Make space in your freezer! Honestly, the real answer is to buy a standalone freezer. I am a big proponent of an upright freezer over a chest freezer. Chest freezers are a recipe for forgotten items that are so old they have to be tossed. An upright freezer is SO much easier to organize and you will be able to access everything easily. We have one that’s about the size of a normal fridge/freezer combo, but the whole thing is a freezer. It’s about half full of beef, leaving us plenty of space for things like other meats and fish, leftovers and, for a while, breast milk!
Make space in your car. You’ll want to bring a couple of the biggest coolers you have to transport it all. If your drive is less than a few hours you probably don’t need ice, as the frozen meat will keep itself cold in the cooler. You’re going to need more than a sedan to haul all this beef home. We have a Toyota Rav-4 and if we take out the car seats and put the back seats down, we can fit everything. Of course this means that the only pick up I’ve ever attended was our first one back in 2015 before our oldest was born!
Alright, let’s talk price. Most farms will charge by the “hanging weight.” Here’s the deal:
Live weight refers to the weight of the animal when alive. Usually around 1,000-1,200 pounds.
Hanging weight is what’s left after the removal of blood, head, hide, hooves, viscera, lungs and heart. It’s usually about 60% of the live weight, so 600-720 pounds.
The actual weight of products that you take home will be somewhat less, due to a variety of factors. If you request a lot of boneless cuts or opt not to take the bones, you’ll lose weight there. Also, the meat is cured for about 2 weeks and there will be water loss during this time. Ultimately you will take home about 70% of the hanging weight.
Usually you will pay a per pound price based on hanging weight. We pay $4.50 per pound. I went through all my old invoices and our quarters have had the following hanging weights: 152, 177, 130, 168, 187, so the price has ranged from $585 - $842.
In addition, we pay a processing fee to the butcher. It varies a little based on weight but averages around $110.
So the final math is closer to $7.50 per pound instead of the advertised $4.50. But you have to keep in mind this is the price we pay for EVERYTHING. It’s a little steep for grass fed ground beef (which retails in Chicago around $6/lb), but crazy cheap for prime rib or a roast. Also, we make TONS of stock from the bones, and considering the price of really high quality bone broth at the store, we’re saving some major bucks there.
Again, these prices are all based on a farm in southern Wisconsin that mainly services the Chicago market. Prices will vary based on where you live, but the math should still be more or less the same. All in all, I don’t think we’ll ever turn back. I love knowing that our beef is extra nutritious, lived a good life, and left the planet a little better off.