Skip to main content

Our first experience buying a half head of beef


Happy Halloween! What did you guys do to celebrate? Among our festivities of the day, we stopped by the meat shop and picked up our half cow that we ordered back in February from M & J Ranch .  Fitting that their initials are our initials...I guess it was meant to be. 

We loved the ranch from the moment we met Joyce and her husband at their gorgeous ranch home just outside of Lawrence. They are so family-oriented, have good values, and love what they do. Marshall and I like to eat food from people who grow/raise their food with love and pride because it tastes better and makes our bodies feel better and more energetic. We're also so excited to have 100% grass fed beef in our freezer that was purchased at an excellent price of $4.95/lb after including the sales tax and processing fees. There is no way you'd be able to buy 100% grass fed beef steaks, briskets, or let alone ground beef for that price. 

We really didn't know what we were getting ourselves into when we went ahead and purchased half a cow. I was afraid it wouldn't all fit in our 5.4 cubic foot freezer and small kitchen freezer. Luckily Marshall is good at Tetris and was able to fit it all in with room to spare!  100% grass fed beef are smaller than your typical grain-fed or grain-finished beef, so we got lucky in that aspect. There would be no way we would have been able to fit half a head of grain-fed beef in our current freezers.

That's one full freezer!
You're probably wondering how we had such a great lump of cash to buy all that beef. Well, I've been holding onto coaching cash from Fairbanks for nearly a year to buy this cow, so thank you to all of my skaters and their parents for providing us with food :).

What we got: 
1/2 head of beef 
hanging weight 271.5 lbs
The variety that we have in our freezer (number refers to packages):
  • 53 packages of ground beef (approx. 1.5 lbs each)
  • 6 T-bone steaks
  • 6 Rib steaks
  • 5 sirloin steaks
  • 2 sirloin tip roasts 
  • 4 chuck roasts
  • 2 Rump roasts
  • 2 arm roasts
  • 2 brisket
  • 4 neck bones
  • 4 soup bones
  • 2 rib bones
  • 1 tongue
  • 1 oxtail
  • 2 liver
  • 1 heart


What we paid:
$4.00/lb = $1086
7.15% sales tax = $77.65
$22.5 slaughter fee
$0.55/lb processing fee = $143
sales tax = $15.69
Total: $1344.84
which equals $4.95/lb for 100% grass-fed beef. 

I am so excited to use this delicious, healthy beef for the next year in my home!  Here's to good eating for all of you this holiday season. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Hoping for a Rainbow

I'm really not sure if I ever thought this day would come. The day that I made it past 13 weeks pregnant without losing the baby. #miracle.  I know I am not out of the woods yet, and honestly, when are we really? I am just trying to live every day with gratitude for the life inside of me, living with hope for the future.  Part of me wanted to wait until next week, when I was past 14 weeks and officially in the 2nd trimester, but I couldn't wait any longer. I've been getting a little thick in the middle, which is getting more difficult to hide, and I feel like I haven't been able to be completely honest with friends when they would ask, "how are you doing?" All I wanted to talk about was how nauseous I was or how nervous I felt. So now, the news is out, whether or not you already suspected something was up.  Seriously though, the 1st trimester is not for the faint of heart! There were many instances when I thought I would lose the baby, but dee...

I'm Pregnant! .....

...or so I thought. And you did too. Happy April Fools Day! I had been having baby dreams and feeling nauseous on and off during spring break, and I knew I would test immediately when I returned home from our road trip. The test was barely visible and I didn't believe it, so I said nothing to Marshall. That night I had a dream where the next pregnancy test I took was a solid double line. Well, two days after the first test, I got my obvious positive. I was so excited. Not knowing if it would be a good pregnancy or not, I tested again two days later and the line was darker, so I felt confident.  The past two pregnancies I miscarried at approximately 6 or 7 weeks both times, so I was pretty nervous about this one. What if it happened again? Would I be strong enough? Knowing that I needed extra strength and prayers, I asked roughly 40 of our family and closest friends to fast and pray with us on Easter Sunday. That Sunday I was on the top of the world. I felt so strong an...

The Power of a Slice of Bacon

Nothing to do with a Army PT test, but this was at the "Beat Beethoven 5K" on the 13th of April  I have always been a big supporter of setting personal goals and making a plan to follow through with them, especially when it comes to athletics and performance.  But I also know that these goals really are a personal endeavor, and no one can make another accomplish the goal.  The motivation and effort has to come from the individual setting the goal. But I may be wrong.  A slice of bacon might have the power to help a person accomplish a certain goal. Let me explain. Ever since my husband entered the Army, just shy of 2 years ago, he has been saying he was going to get a perfect score of 300 on his PT test.  I believed in him, and kept waiting for him to come home from his PT tests with that perfect score.  But he seemed to always come shy of the elusive 300, by just a couple of points.    How could I help hi...