Quarter Beef

Purchasing beef in bulk, directly from us, is called bulk beef. Simply put, you get enough meat to fill your freezer and you pay less per pound than you pay at your local grocery store. You pay the same price per pound for Rib Eye steaks and Prime Rib roasts as you do for Ground Beef. Our price per pound is calculated on the hanging weight of the animal and we sell our natural Angus beef in three sizes: quarter beef, half beef, or whole beef.

Because you’ll receive your entire order of beef at one time, it’s important to make sure you have enough freezer space to accommodate your order. Use this quick guide to select the right size beef and the right amount of freezer space. Our beef can remain delicious for up to one year when kept frozen. We recommend using multiple deep freezers when you purchase a half or whole freezer beef so you have easy access to all your cuts of beef.

Live Weight

When it comes to beef weights, there are 3 different ones of which customers should be aware.  The first is “live” weight. This is what the animal weighed on the hoof, or when it was alive.  The live weight for our Premium Angus steers usually averages around 850 lbs.

Hanging Weight

The next weight is the “hanging” weight.  This is the weight that the butcher gives us after the animal has been taken back to the butcher shop to hang.   The weight difference from life to hanging is from loss of blood, head, hide, hooves, viscera, lungs, and heart.  The hanging weight is usually about 60% of the live weight.  So, an 850 lb animal would have a hanging weight of 510 lbs (estimated). A quarter share would then be 128 lbs. { estimated} This is the weight we base our per-lb charges on.

Final Weight

The last weight is the “final” or “take-home” weight.  This is the weight of the meat that each customer will bring home.    This weight is usually about 60-65% of the hanging weight.  So for a 128 lb quarter share, the final weight would be about 85 to 90 lbs (estimated).

The weight is lost in 2 ways.  About 4% is water weight lost during the 10-14 day period that the carcass is hung (or “cured”).  Then about another 30-35% is lost during the cutting process.  This amount is variable based on 2 factors – one is the amount of fat in the meat, and the other is the cuts that a customer requests.  Keep in mind that higher fat means more loss.  (Our grass-fed beef animals tend to be lower fat, so the loss tends to be closer to 35%.)   Also, the more boneless cuts requested by the customer, the lower the final weight.  (Note that the lower weight doesn’t mean that you are receiving less meat – rather, you are receiving fewer bones).

What does this mean as far as actual per lb costs?  It depends on the per pound price as well as the cuts that a customer requests.