Just picked up our beef order from a local farmer and wanted to share the numbers since posts like this helped us a ton when deciding.
This will last us 14 months when rotating into our regular meal planning (family of 4, plus occasional hosting guests and meal sharing/potluck work and social events)
Pricing:
• Total paid: $949.66
• Farmer: $709.91
• Processing: $239.75
• Quarter cow (~200 lbs hanging weight)
Take-home total: 157.75 lbs
Final cost per lb (take-home): ~$6.02/lb
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Ground beef (36 lbs):
• 36 × 1 lb plastic tubes (chubs)
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Steaks (~18 lbs total, cut to ~1” thick):
• 20 steaks total (most packages contain 2 steaks)
• Porterhouse – 2.35 lbs (~2 steaks)
• T-bone – 1.5 lb packages (×3) (~6 steaks)
• Sirloin – 1.75 lb packages (×3) (~6 steaks)
• Tenderloin – 0.75 lb (~2 small steaks)
• Bone-in rib steaks – 1.5 lb packages (×3) (~6 steaks)
• Flank steak – 1.2 lbs (single)
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Roasts (~40 lbs total, mostly 2–3 lb each):
• 11 roasts total
• Sirloin tip – 2.75 lb packages (×2)
• Arm roast – 3 lb packages (×2)
• Chuck roast – 3.25 lb packages (×4)
• Rump roast – 3.25 lb
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Other cuts (~45–50 lbs):
• Soup bones – 2 lb packages (×4)
• Stew meat – 1 lb packages (×6)
• Short ribs – 3 lb packages (×2)
• Brisket – 6.5 lbs
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Packaging:
• Ground beef in 1 lb plastic chubs
• All other cuts wrapped in butcher paper and sticker-labeled
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Notes:
• Yield from hanging weight to take-home was \~79%
• Steaks were cut to \~1” thickness
• Roasts were requested at \~2–3 lbs each
• This was 100% grass-fed from a local farm
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Happy to answer questions—this was our first time buying in bulk like this and overall feels worth it so far 👍
Bought a quarter cow (100% grass-fed)- full breakdown + real cost per pound
byu/rachelmaryl inFrugal
Posted by rachelmaryl
6 Comments
This goes right back to the economics lesson about boots.
What region are you in? What is the lean ratio ground beef (80/20 ?etc) . Thanks!
How do the other cuts add up? You seem like 20 lb short.
A chuck toast here is well over 10 dollars a pound. Id still call this a good deal.
Impressed. Thanks for sharing. Keep making sound decisions like this.
Who did you buy through? Also in the TC area and am looking for a farmer!