My neighbor has a black angus he just sent to slaughter. He didn't send it to a feed lot to finish it, so I think it's considered "grass-fed". He wanted to sell me the entire 1/2, but I don't have a big enough freezer. He asked me which half - front or back - I'd prefer. I expected the cuts to just get divided evenly between the halves; we'll see what I end up with. I picked the front half; it has the more desirable cuts in my opinion: chuck, brisket, plate, prime rib, and short rib. Price is $3.85/lb, plus a 1/4 of the slaughter fee. Expensive hamburgers, but cheap steaks. Think it's a good deal? His family (his father and brother live in the next 2 houses down) also has a horizontal bandsaw mill I'm itching to use. I've never seen them run it; pretty sure they don't have a clue about what to do with it. My only fear there is that they'll be drooling over my logs and start begging me to cut some of my trees down; and that's probably never going to happen, unless they want some poplar.
Yeah I meant 1/2 of the 1/2. I have a decent sized upright freezer that's currently empty, and a spare fridge/freezer in the garage if I need it. Still don't think that's going to be enough for an entire side of beef. That's why I went with the 1/4 instead of a full side.
I've never heard of front/back either? Left/right. That way whoever you split it with gets the same cuts you do. I guess if you did 1/4 you could get a left front? That's a good price.
To be clear, he *is* splitting the sides left/right. I can only take a 1/4 though, so he wanted to know if I wanted the front or back of the side. I think someone else is taking the other side, and I'm splitting this side with him? Not 100% sure where it's all going exactly. It'll be interesting to see which cuts I end up with - the front has the better cuts IMO, but I wouldn't mind a couple t-bone and porterhouse if we end up dividing up all the cuts.
OK I'm following now. Went 1/4s on a hog once. But that was small enough we just counted out and divided up a half.
I would think one side would be split evenly in half instead of front and back. Yea that's a pretty good price. The quality should be much better than grocery store as well.
I don't think it will be worth it, if it's only grass fed. Needs to be finished up with corn/grain. I got a grass fed side once and said never again.
Yeah I've never had purely grass-fed before. I am expecting it to be leaner than what I'm used to. I hoping it doesn't also mean there will be less flavor. But I've been eating a lot more leaner meats these days: lot of poultry and venison; and my body has been thanking me. If it's too lean, I'll be making a lot of sausage. I have a couple pounds of delicious pork back fat in the freezer.
I've never had any either. Tried to buy some from a friend a few years ago but he never would get the deal done. How big was the calf Shawn? Was it a steer or a heifer?
It was a heifer, I think he said around 1200lbs live weight, but I don't know that he ever actually weighed it. The price was going to be on dressed weight.
Grass fed is leaner and tastes different. Not a ton different, but you can tell. I don't eat much beef though...venison is cheaper!
Yeah, I'm gonna have to get a bunch of this ate before deer season! Plenty of free deer meat roaming my property. Darn things keep nibbling at my apple trees.
