Beef Share

Hey Folks!

We just got our half beef share back from the butcher and thought there might be some folks that are unsure about all the terms and prices that are involved in buying an animal on the hoof.  To this end – here is the breakdown of our purchase this year.

First things first – why buy a share?  Everyone has a tipping point concerning what they eat.  There are a million things wrong with the factory animal model that must be balanced with the suspicious taste and price.  My tipping point for beef (where I don’t care how cheap I can get it or what flavor enhancers are in it – I will not eat it) was the Stephanie Smith story.  How is it possible for bits of meat, taken from hundreds of animals from different factories around the world, that then  get a dose of trimmings, bread crumbs, ammonia and different additives, are then amalgamated into a frozen patty and labelled as ‘beef’.   How can it be that there is ‘recipe’ for meat?  How is it possible to add things to meat to make it cheaper than the purchase price?  Anyway- we haven’t had beef in a while except for what we get from the Home on the Range guys out east.

Okay,  back to the breakdown. We bought a half share of an 18 month Angus cross, grass fed and rotational grazed, and lightly finished cow.  This beef was customer inspected (we were there when the calf arrived and visited just before slaughter- with several stops along the way) and were pleased and excited for our share.  The steer was about 1000 lbs on slaughter day. This is the live weight.  After slaughter the skin, feet, guts, and head are removed and the carcass is weighed again; this is the hanging weight.  This is the second most important number in the process.  You will likely pay the farmer and the butcher based on the hanging weight.  Next the animal is hung for two weeks (typical) to allow cooling, drying and for enzymes in the meat to break down connective tissues to help with tenderness.  The younger the cow the less this is needed- this is called dry aged beef and is something that you will only get from the our local abattoirs.  Another benefit of grass fed beef is that the shrinkage is less than found in grain fed animals.  Remember, the hanging weight is taken before the shrinkage…so the less the better.

Next the carcass is cut to your specifications.  This is where everyone’s confidence takes a nose dive – mine too- when it comes to beef.  I think there is a great conspiracy to make sure that this process as confusing as possible to the novice, that way the shops can get a more or less a consistent cut list.  For example, I was with a guy when he was specifying his cuts and the shop asked, “Do you want x or y’?” My friend asked where the cut came from and the response was, “Oh, you won’t find it on any chart you find on the internet.”   So how is one to do their homework??  The key part is this is your beef and making sure you get the cuts you want is the primary goal of the discussion with the butcher shop.  First step is understanding the primal cuts – these are the natural sections of the animal.  However, this will trip you up to in that there are primals and subrprimals and some elevate subs to primes and everyone will call them something different.  You can further be tripped up by leading questions like, ‘ “Do you want T-bone steaks’?” You say ‘yes’ not even knowing that you just gave up your filet mignon.  There are far better resources on the internet to help with this than I can provide, but just be pateint and ask questions.  Some butchers ask  just four questions – 1- How thick do you want your steaks ? 2- How many people will be eating per package?  3- How much hamburger do you want in a pack ? and, 4- Does you dog like bones.? But even this guy will cut it anyway you want, so make a day of it if you have to, but get what you want or you will be frustrated for a year when you pass the clear packages at the grocery store wondering why you cuts didn’t look like that.

Back to the breakdown….started with live weight (1000 lbs), then there was hanging weight (625 lbs in our case), so 313 lbs a half.  This is not, however, what you take home.  Your cutlist will determine what the wrapped weight will be.  Obviously, the more bone-in cuts you have the higher the wrapped cut weight will be and visa versa.  Here is what we got from our 313 hanging side:

• Hamburger – 86.9 pounds (We went heavy here.)
• Stew Meat – 15.22 pounds (Heavy here too as we need always have a need for quick and easy meals.)
• Top Round Steaks – 14 pounds
• Round Steaks Tenderized – 8.54 pounds
• Rib Roasts – 15.4 pounds (These will be steaks but I like to get them in roasts so I can cut each steak thickness different for each person)
• Brisket – 5.3 pounds
• Short Ribs – 9.6 pounds
• Sirloin Tip – 9 pounds
• Tri-Tip Roast – 2.5 pounds
• Tenderloin – 4.2 pounds
• New York Roast – 8.06 lbs (strip steaks later)
• Flank Steak – 1.14 pounds
• Chuck Arm Roasts – 8.4 pounds
• Bones for Woody, the dog
• So we ended up with about 200 lbs of ‘retail cuts’ in the freezer.

Expenses were as follows:

• To the farmer – $2/pound hanging weight = $626
• Half of the kill fee – $37.50
• To the butcher – $.65/pound hanging weight = $203.45
• TOTAL =  $867 for a half beef

This all works out to $4.33 a pound.  Not such a good price for hamburger, but a heck of a deal for beef tenderloin!  The cuts have tasted great, the animal lived well, we supported a neighbor not an industry, and most important of all – the hamburger was all made from one cow and contains – if you can believe it – beef, just beef.