The good stuff

[Oak Smoke]

A few months ago we decided to buy a half of a beef from our daughter. She had 2 steers that were ready to put on feed, in other words large enough to be penned up and put on straight grain. She and her husband have put considerable effort into putting together a small herd of very good angus cattle. They were grain fed for 60 days and looked really good. Even with putting everything you can in your favor you just aren’t sure what you will get. Today was the big test day. I grilled 2 ribeyes at lunch. They were even better than I had hoped for. I cut mine up with a butter knife and a fork. I love it when a plan comes together. Now I know my freezer is full of the good stuff.

[Rfhd69]

That’s awesome! Full freezer!

[barelfly]

Heck! That’s pretty cool to raise and finish your own beef! I’ve looked into getting a side of beef, but I don’t really want all the ground beef. I’m just interested in the cuts!

so what all did you end up with? Did you work with a butcher to get customize your cuts or was it standard processing?

[acorgihouse]

barelfly, I would ask. I live in Florida, and have a farm not far that does pasture raised beef and pork, sold by the half or whole. I've purchased half small beef, and half acorn finished pork, a couple times each. In this case, they sell you the meat and trnsfr to butcher, then you deal with butcher directly. He let me choose what I wanted, apparently many want only steaks and ground for all the rest, but I told him give me every cut and he did, well labeled, so I could try them all.

[barelfly]

Oak Smoke that is a great butcher service then! Love it!

[RustyHaines]

Oak Smoke that is an unheard of butcher service here. I buy from friends running a beef cattle business. They struggle with finding customer focused slaughter/butcher operations. The number of local meat producers have increased faster than the number of processers which tips the scales (pun intended) in favor of the butcher.

[captainlee]

We used to do that while in college. The 6 of us in our 6 bedroom house would buy half a beef and half a pig. We had a locker at the butcher shop. That worked out well for us. We probably ate better than 99% of the university.

[Andrrr]

I just got my 1/4 before Thanksgiving. It’s quite possibly the best day of the year.