From Farm to Freezer: How to Buy a Grass Fed Beef Cow

Buying grass fed beef in bulk is a great way to save money when stocking your freezer with some amazing cuts. I’ll take you through my experience of buying an entire cow from a local farm to show you how easy it is! Get the grill ready – you’ll soon be enjoying juicy grass fed steaks for half the grocery store price!

How to Buy a Grass Fed Beef Cow

Your Business is Wanted!

No matter where you live in the states, there are farms who are hoping you will opt to buy your grass fed beef from them. They want your business. Even if this is your first time purchasing beef in bulk, they are more than happy to tell you all about the process! Don’t be afraid to ask questions, it’s the only way to learn and good ranchers will be excited to share their knowledge with you.

Finding a Farm

An online search is the best way to start. You need to look for reputable farms (but which are technically ranches) that are advertising a willingness to sell grass fed beef already butchered and vacuum sealed direct to the public. If you are lucky to have more than one farm close by, check out online reviews or the farm’s social media page. Most people won’t bother to comment unless they were exceptionally impressed so a few glowing reviews are a good sign! A reputable farm will respond to your inquiry promptly, be willing to educate you on the process over the phone and will not hard-sell you. They are confident in their cattle quality and know if you want to order, you’ll be back in touch soon.

I found the farm we used – Aitken Farm and Ranch – by using LocalHarvest.org. It’s a great way to find local, naturally produced foods, artisan markets and pick-your-own farms.

Visit & Try Out the Beef if you can

Some ranches may invite you to visit the farm store where you can purchase a single cut of meat, like a roast or steak, to try for yourself before deciding to buy a portion of a whole cow. Again, a reputable farm knows their delicious beef will sell itself! Viewing the store’s freezer will give you an idea of how the beef will come packaged to you. Vacuum sealed bags with custom labeling bearing the farm’s name and a licensing number is a good indication they are paying for high-quality butchering services and adhering to food safety laws.

A Half Cow or a Whole?

It is best to first figure out how much beef you’d like to buy. Many farms will let you buy ½ or ¼ of a cow if you don’t want to buy the whole. However, you may get the best price per pound when buying a whole cow, which makes it worth the slight hassle of splitting the order between a couple friends or neighbors.

Either way, you’re going to need an estimate of how much beef you’d like to have. The cow itself will throw a wrench in your calculations because, like people, their weights vary and you’ll be paying for the weight of your individual cow. It is the hanging weight that matters the most. This is the weight of just the “meat” when the blood, organs, intestines, hooves, and hide are removed. Hanging weights can vary but 325 pounds is a reasonable estimate to work with.

How Much Freezer Space?

Half of a 325 to 350 lb hang weight cow typically fills a medium (7 cubic foot) chest freezer. You’ll need a large or extra-large freezer to store a whole 350 lb cow. When we bought ¼ of a 357-pound cow, our chest freezer was only half full and it could have completely filled our indoor fridge’s freezer had it been fully empty. In short, buying beef in bulk is going to require dedicated freezer space. If all you have is freezer portion of your fridge, purchasing selected cuts and ground beef in bulk is probably the best option. (This would work out to be around 1/8 of a cow but gives you more control over what cuts you get.)

Here’s a handy chart to help you estimate how much freezer space you’ll need:

How Much Does It Cost?

Price will vary by farm and can even fluctuate due to weather phenomena that floods pastures and requires the cattle to be transported to rented grazing land or hay brought in for them to eat. When it is time to harvest, there is a whole list of little fees for slaughter, butchering, inspection and packaging. The farm we used was wonderful about quoting us a flat price per pound and once we knew the exact hang weight of our cow, the final price to the penny was given and that was all we owed.

It is hard to give an accurate estimate of what you’ll be asked to pay but here’s a tip. The average price of grass fed ground beef at your local grocery store is likely to be close to the price you’ll pay per pound for an entire cow after all is said and done. For example, if grass fed ground beef is selling for $6-$8 per pound in the store, $7 per pound is the average and a good guesstimate of what you’ll pay per pound for the entire hanging weight.

At $7 per lb, expect to spend $600 on ¼ of a cow and $1,200 on half a cow.

Keep in mind you’ll be walking away with thick grass fed steaks, large roasts and slabs of brisket at the same price per pound that the local market is selling grass fed ground beef. This is where you’ll enjoy the most savings.

It’s Time to Call the Farm to Place Your Order!

We went with Aitken Farm and Ranch in Tomball, Texas. The owner, Shana Aitken, was wonderful! When I called she was upbeat and kind, happily answering my bajillion questions. During our first visit to the farm, she was incredibly generous with her time, giving my son and I a private tour where we saw the peacock, the farm pig, Spotz, petted the goose and threw scratch to the free range hens. The farm was large with sprawling, sunshiny pastures dotted with well-maintained, tidy barns and buildings. I was thoroughly impressed. We left her with a deposit check for a whole cow and knew this was where our family would be buying beef every year from now on.

And Now We Wait about 4 weeks

Once the deposit has been paid on a cow, the livestock manager will select a healthy, clean, and hefty young adult for harvest. While you probably won’t pick your own cow from the field, you can request one that is above average in size if you’d like to get more meat all at once.

After slaughter the meat has to hang and age 14 days in Texas before it can be packaged and delivered to you. When the beef is ready you’ll be notified and can schedule a pick-up date!

Have Coolers to Transport Beef Home

Our 357.97 pound cow required 12 coolers to transport and was split among 5 families. You’ll need 2 large plastic coolers for every ¼ cow purchased so plan accordingly. The beef will come fully frozen so if necessary, you can pack it into plastic totes with a lid (the ones used for storage and organizing) and then put it straight into a freezer once you get home.

It’s a good idea to wear a pair of washable winter gloves to prevent the frozen beef from numbing your fingers. Take the time now to organize how the beef is put into the freezer so you can get to the cut you want instantly. Because half the order is ground beef, it’s fine to stack some at the bottom or the back to keep the steaks front and center for easy grabbing. You’ll work your way through it soon!

Was Splitting A Whole Cow Easy?

Yes, it was very easy. Again, Aitken farm was absolutely wonderful about helping us sort everything quickly and fairly. They are quite experienced at this and helped us determine how to divide the few uneven leftovers by weight to ensure everyone was getting what they paid for. It was a very smooth process from start to finish.

The Best Time of Year to Buy

As we sorted our order into coolers and loaded them in the back of two vehicles on a hot, 93° day towards the end of May, we joked there were better times of year to bulk-buy beef. During the drive home I realized we would be entering hurricane season, which begins June 1, with a freezer full of beef that could be lost should a tropical storm or hurricane knock out power around Houston. The risk of this is very low but it is wise to consider when purchasing a year’s worth of beef at a time.

We’ll be ordering more beef this fall, when the weather begins to cool off and the hurricane risk has passed. The colder garage temperatures will keep our full chest freezer from using as much electricity and we’ll go into the next hurricane season running a little lean on beef so the risk of losing our investment is small. If winter snow storms typically leave you without power, buying beef in the late spring may be wisest. In areas where mid-spring tornadoes are the biggest threat to your electrical service, summer bulk buying might be the way to go. The goal is to time your purchase immediately after the greatest risk of electricity loss has passed but the cattle have had time to reach peak weight. (For our farming ancestors, this was typically in the fall.)

A Visual Tour of Aitken Farm in Tomball, Texas

We were so thrilled with the farm we selected that I asked if I could take pictures of the property to share on my blog. It is a beautiful place! Even more impressive is how clean it is kept. They had no idea I would ask for pictures so none of these were staged. This is simply how the farm looked on a beautiful day in May 2019!

From Farm to Fork

You can’t beat buying your natural, grass fed beef from farm to fork! Knowing the animal was raised peacefully grazing over lush clover, thriving under gorgeous Texas skies, inhaling wildflower breezes and receiving gentle care from a local family ranch brings a comforting humanity to the food we consume. I hope that by sharing my experience you feel confident in knowing how to buy a lovingly raised and thoughtfully harvested grass fed beef cow for your family to enjoy!

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