do any of you guys pool together to buy whole pigs, cows, etc?

[Toadster]

I was thinking this site may be good for folks who are local to each other to do some bulk purchasing - I probably couldn't do justice for a whole cow, but I'm sure I could make a dent in some of one

anyone doing this kind of thing? local-sourced - not frozen and shipped around...

cheers!

[RonB]

Not a whole animal, but a buddy and I go in together to split a Happy Meal.

[Toadster]

[Jerod Broussard]

I wait for my dad to kill his fat calf...then reap the rewards of yet another animal I never met.

[texastweeter]

We raise em from scratch quite often.

[Fire Art]

I just as soon go to the market buy what I like but that’s just me

[snowswamp]

Yes, I’ve gone in with my neighbors to split a cow from a local rancher. I’m still making my way through it all. I found once you get a rancher you can work with, people to share aren’t hard to find.

[Toadster]

Yes, I’ve gone in with my neighbors to split a cow from a local rancher. I’m still making my way through it all. I found once you get a rancher you can work with, people to share aren’t hard to find.

yeah, I guess I need to find a rancher near me... (NorCal)

[kenrobin]

Where in No. CA are you seeking?

[Toadster]

Folsom, CA

[JoeSousa]

I have thought about it before but first I would need to get a new freezer. But like Fire Art said I would probably rather just buy the cuts I want when I want and not get stuck with a bunch of stuff I am not really interested in cooking.

[JoeSousa]

Totally understand the freshness aspect. But do I really want 50 pounds or round? I might want to cook a roast from there every now and then but I would probably go through 20 tri tips or 40 ribeyes in that time. And I still might do it someday as there are a bunch of quality ranches around here.

[Backroadmeats]

Have the round ground into burger.. that's what I do. You can always sell the burger and keep the steaks for yourself too!!

[Backroadmeats]

The last half beef I got I had all the steaks.. about 12 lbs of roast.. a few packs of tenderized round steaks and 125 lbs of burger. Made #25 lbs of bacon cheeseburger brats.. only thing left is a couple packs of steaks.. that was 9 months ago I got it..

[Oakgrovebacon]

In our area- you can buy a 1/2 or 1/4 of beef or a 1/2 of hog from the butcher shops that actually kill and slaughter the animals. Cut as you request. Packaged as you want. Most of them offer curing of hams and bacon if doing pork.

[Beefchop]

There's a website called Eat Wild that I used to find a local farmer here in Louisiana when I bought my last split of beef. I took the liberty of choosing California when supplying the link below:

http://www.eatwild.com/products/california.html

Good luck!!!

[Toadster]

nice! I found 2 places within an hour of me

[jfmorris]

I used to be really interested in this, until a local friend got a side of grass fed certified Black Angus to fill up his deep freeze, only to find out that this particular grass fed Angus must have had a taste for wild onions, because every bite of beef from that cow tasted like onion.

I'll take my beef finished on grain or corn please!

[jfmorris]

Yep Dan Deter - they say you are what you eat! I don't want to eat onion beef is my fear of the entire grass fed movement. I would end up with a freezer full of it like my friend did. For now I will go to Sam's or Costco or Fresh Market for my beef, and just get the cuts I want to cook.

[Backroadmeats]

Yup.. it should be finished on corn in my opinion.. it also takes longer to finish a beef on grass which makes them tougher..

[Beefchop]

If I'm honest the grass fed beef cow split we bought had a very pungent and strong flavor in the fat. It can be hit or miss flavor wise.

[(Blake)]

I used to buy halfs all the time but I thought in the long run wasn't worth it just for me and my wife

[Spinaker]

My uncle is a hog farmer in Eastern Iowa. His hogs are all free range. He still sends them out into the field after harvest to clean up the grain the combine missed over hundreds of acres.. (Not real common any more.) They also eat grass, acorns, pears, apples etc in the along the edge of the fields and think it makes a difference. They are also just happy pigs!

So I always have a hog of his in my freezer. Guys in my office also pool and buy hogs from him through out the year. I make the trip down to help him out with chores, maintenance, harvest etc. And My truck is always packed with coolers of meat for the orders from my office.

[Henrik]

Now that is THE way to raise pigs. Love it.

[Attjack]

One sister raises animals and I routinely split pigs with my other sister who lives nearby. The first sister may start raising cattle too which would be awesome.