Available Beef

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Lining up time at the processor can be a chore in itself. And good processors you have to book far in the future. And then it sneaks up on you and you haven’t marketed and publicized available bulk natural lean yummy beef from happy wandering cows. (And yes, they’ve been wandering a lot lately).

We have SIX quarters available and our freezers bursting at the seams means a good deal for you. When I was a teenager, my parents would buy a side of beef from my uncle that had “Ye Olde Meat Shoppe” in California. Dad was in the Navy Reserves, and each summer he went on 2 weeks active duty. When it was near my uncle’s meat shop he would return with a side of beef in coolers with dry ice. Not a feat without risk since the meat shop was in California and our home in southeast Arizona. As a teen it seemed like A LOT of meat, and maybe that’s what you are thinking – that “our family could not eat a side or quarter beef before it went bad”.

Now that I am raising great natural beef with my husband, I know that was the perspective of young eyes, but also that there are many brands of cattle. There are many sizes of animals butchered. We have small cross breed cows, but even if you hear a steer weighs 1200 pounds, that’s not all meat. There’s the hide, bones, organs, and liquid. Hanging weight includes the meat, bones and fat (very little on our steers), but the rest is gone. Here’s an example of our last two butchered steers:

The average annual per capita beef consumption is 54 pounds, compared to 87 pounds when my parents were buying sides of beef. (National Chicken Council consumption chart). A family of four would easily eat a quarter of this size in 6 months, even just having beef once a week.

In August, each quarter was $656.25 ($5.25/# hanging weight). So, the good deal… these 6 quarters are available for 15% off per hanging weight pound. That’s $4.46/#, making an August QTR $557.81 and a November QTR $660.45

Of course dividing an odd number of steaks 4 ways isn’t easy. We divide similar items to have generally the same number of cuts and the same amount of ground beef. Here’s a couple quarters we put in the freezer today: