Buying a Whole Cow - Freezer Beef - Questions answered!

hi i'm mike have you ever thought about buying a whole or a half a cow stocking your freezer and avoiding especially now rising beef costs in the grocery store or maybe the thought has never ever crossed your mind well today we're going to take a look at buying beef on the hoof questions you should ask and others you shouldn't it's coming up today on our wyoming life [Music] the average american spends almost three thousand dollars per year on food of that three thousand dollars about a third is in meat an increase of over 20 percent in the last 10 years and according to the usda the average american consumes about 150 pounds of meat per year if you do the math that means the average joe paid almost seven dollars per pound of meat consumed now what if i told you there was a way to reduce the cost by about 10 percent not a huge savings but i also told you that you could now know where that meat was raised how it was raised and by who you could learn almost every detail of that animal's life and you could feel good by knowing that by buying that animal you're helping support an industry whose sole mission is to support millions of people and has been for thousands of years or maybe you'd just like to buy steaks at hamburger prices i'm talking about buying a freezer beef some people call it a half or a hole sometimes a quarter or even an eighth or a sixteenth to do this you have to find someone who not only raises cattle but also finishes them [Music] for years our ranch has been strictly a cow calf operation what that means is that we have a herd of mom cows that live on the ranch their entire lives over the years dad cows come to visit and we end up with you guessed it baby cows those baby cows or calves live their entire lives with their moms until they're about six months old then we put them on a truck and we send them off to auction at auction bidders then tell us what our year's worth of work is worth we take our once a year paycheck and the calves go on to the next stage in their lives while at the ranch moms get some much needed rest their four to six hundred pound calves are shipped to either a stalker or a feeder farm there they're fed over the winter and in a few months they'll be either sold or moved again to a feedlot this stage is focused mainly on cow growth and efficiency the main purpose is to get that calf to a certain weight with as little cost as possible and one of the main ways that they do that is to limit the amount of energy that an animal spends trying to find food the food is brought to them these animals are now around one year old and about 700 to 800 pounds they're started on a high forage diet with grains and high energy products this is where some 99 of cows are actually given a steroidal hormone implant to help promote faster growth cattle normally remain in a feedlot for three to four months or until they weigh about 1200 pounds when they reach this weight they are sold again and taken to a packing plant to be slaughtered and distributed from there they end up at your grocery store and eventually your plate a calf that a rancher way back in the very beginning of this whole process she raised the mom he birthed the calf he took care of it and eventually sold at auction for about 800 is now worth thousands the meat the hive the blood the bones all worth something to somebody and meat packers have really figured out how to make the most out of every single animal now take a look at the prices of the meat in your grocery store the price of steaks roasts and ribs has increased almost 20 percent in the last year according to the consumer price index forbes has announced that all meat is up over 10 percent restaurants are removing some cuts from their menus because they can't in good conscience raise their prices high enough to pay for the product and pass that cost onto the consumer add on to that a shrinking supply the north american meat institute who represents the processors themselves blames it on a lack of workers and in an industry where 85 percent of the market is controlled by four different companies is it pandemic profiteering well maybe but what i can tell you is that the rancher or the farmer or the stocker or the grower or even the feedlot owner isn't seeing an increase in their prices and the shrinking supply it's not on the rancher's end more and more ranchers and farmers are offering their chance for anybody to come and buy a whole cow's worth of meat or even a fraction of it all these steps i talked about before the feeders the feedlots the processor the distributor along with brokers and buyers and sellers that's how meat gets to your store and with that many steps my belief is that the whole system is easier to manipulate now the way that we grow and sell our beef here on the ranch we are all those steps and uh you know hundreds of thousands hundreds and even thousands of farmers and ranchers across the us are doing exactly what we're doing we raise the animal we grow it we finish it and we choose our own processor usually a small business just like we are and we distribute that animal ourselves that's how you know that you know what you're gonna get before we get into the nitty-gritty of all of it some terms that will actually be helpful for you live weight or on the hoof is how much a cow weighs when it's alive hanging weight or on the rail is how much a calf weighs after it's been slaughtered this is minus the skin the head and all the internal organs hanging weight actually is normally the weight that a freezer beef is sold at and it's about 61 percent of the live weight take home weight is exactly what it sounds like it's the cut and packaged beef that you take home and it's about 60 to 70 percent of the hanging weight depending on the cuts that you choose and that's one of the most desirable things about choosing a freezer beef for yourself you get to decide what cuts you want maybe you want prime rib but a big one remember that you don't get as many ribeye steaks if you get yourself a big old prime rib how about porterhouse steak or maybe you don't want as much roast and you choose to grind that into ground chuck which is great for hamburger on the grill stew meat rum roast brisket it's all there and you choose how you want it or at least you hope you do the first question that really anybody asks when you start talking about buying a hole or any other portion of beef is how much meat am i going to get it's a very important question but maybe not the first one you need to ask we'll get to it but there are other questions that may be a little bit more important how about this one how is it going to taste grass-fed grain fed grain finished how old is the cow our what's the breed all these questions can determine the taste and the marbling and the fat content of your beef if you can try to ask for some a sample maybe from a different cow get a pound of hamburger or steak ahead of time and see what you think no one wants a freezer full of something that doesn't taste good to them another question is how much is it going to cost since we changed our business plan in 2015 and started offering beef directly to the consumer we've had the same price it's never gone up if you're buying a half or a hole from us it's 4.75 a pound hanging weight a 1200 pound steer will hang at about 730 pounds a whole will cost you then about five hundred dollars a half seventeen fifty for us that price includes all processing usda inspection vacuum packing and delivery within a hundred miles and always make sure you're clear on how much the meat will cost if you're paying hanging weight if you're paying live weight or maybe you're paying take-home weight is there a separate fee to process or package the meat do you have to pick it up yourself or somebody else delivered it and when it comes to packaging how long will it last in the freezer is it paper wrapped or is it vacuum sealed speaking of freezers how big a freezer do you need well in our experience it's actually shown us that a full cow needs about 16 cubic feet of freezer camp of course that depends on what cuts you choose so that's another question to ask how do you make sure you get the cuts you want our customers are given a cut sheet where we can guide them through the process everyone gets a copy and we make sure that it all matches up at the end also if you're buying a quarter or less i guess make sure you know what quarter you're getting a selection that you're getting may and may not have every cut that you expect a brisket is only on one end of the cow and you may have been looking forward to a smoked brisket all year long you might find out that you've been pretty disappointed when you get the wrong end buying beef directly from a farmer might cost a little more than a grocery store beef maybe but there are some other things to think about as you make the decision to well who does support as meat prices climb your supply of beef in the freezer means that it doesn't affect you you also know that your beef was raised locally you may even know who raised it you can ask them questions about their operation bringing you closer to where your food comes from and those that make it possible for all of us to eat i've had customers tell me that the steak or hamburger that they purchased here on the ranch is the best they've ever had it may be or it may not be the best tastic beef but what makes it the best is the connection they feel with it knowing where your food comes from is a luxury that many never have [Music] so now we get back to that very first question that you may have when it comes to buying a freezer beef how much meat am i going to get over the years of processing beef from the ranch we've broken it down and made it a little bit easier by starting with a 1 000 pound steer just math wise it works out better that 1000 pound steer on the rail is 610 pounds of beef 61 percent and once the carcass is uh hanging and it actually begins to shrink that's actually due to moisture loss fat and bone is removed during cutting that leaves us with about 430 pounds of beef to take home then we can actually separate that into different parts of the cow now we'll start at the back end round is about 24 that's roasts cube steaks and ground beef at about 103 pounds sirloins are next that gives us sirloin steak some stew meat a little bit more ground that's 38 pounds shoreline is the upper portion behind the ribs where the porterhouse and t-bones live accounting for another 34 pounds of meat flank is below short ribs flank steak and ground for another 17 pounds rib ribeye steaks back ribs and more ground about 39 pounds up there short plate is below the rib and that's uh short ribs and skirt steaks for another 30 pounds chuck a huge portion up on the shoulder that's more roast stew meat ground beef for 107 pounds brisket another 25 pounds shank for soup bones and more ground is another 17 then you throw in the fat that you use for cooking and making of sausage for four percent for another 17 pounds that's the entire cow total ground beef about 150 pounds total round roasts and steaks 70 pounds 75 pounds of chuck roasts and steaks there 66 pounds of rib and loins and to round things out another 50 pounds of brisket flanks ribs and skirt how much does all that feed on the average a whole freezer of cow is great for a family of three or more that eats beef four times a week i can tell you we haven't purchased beef in the grocery store in years and we don't plan to we plan to just like thousands of other ranchers and farmers around the world to expand our direct to consumer meat business expanding into pork and even chicken buying local can be an extremely rewarding and cost-saving measure and i hope that this video has helped answer some of those questions you may have had for years about the process not everybody can buy a freezer beef i get it but going in together with your family friends co-workers well that may make something that you don't think is possible a reality know where your food comes from and take home a piece of the ranch check out the links down the description below to find producers in your area that are happy to supply you and your family with local beef pork chicken and produce subscribe follow along as we continue to explore the ranch life and escape the ordinary and have a great week and thanks for being a part of our where are you hey kiddo wyoming life [Music] you wanna come see me you

Channel: Our Wyoming Life

Views: 999,315

Keywords: Ranch, cow, cows, horses, cowboy, gardening, farmers market, Wyoming, our Wyoming life, animals, animal videos, peacock, farming, planting, cattle, ranching

Id: 9fGY-UDgFGc

Length: 15min 4sec (904 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 03 2021