Buying a half cow or whole cow. How much beef is it? (video)

Are you thinking of buying a cow? Have you decided how much?

When most people think of buying farm fresh beef, they often think of buying half a cow, but did you know there other options. You can often buy a sixteenth, quarter, half, or whole cow from a farmer, so you need to do research and determine the best choice for your family. Regardless of the quantity you choose, choosing to purchase beef from high-quality family farms is a great way to get high-quality meat, a variety of types of cuts, and all at a great price.

We’ve been selling beef directly off of our farm for decades. Without a doubt one of the first common questions people ask before buying a cow is “how much meat will I actually get?” That question is usually followed by, “what’s the total cost?” And last but not least, “If I buy a cow, what part am I getting? The front half or back half?”

The goal of this post is to show you how much beef you get when you buy a cow. We also have a step-by-step guide on buying a cow from local farmers, including what questions to ask before placing a bulk beef order.

To put it in perspective, we’ve made our home refrigerator the star of the video and photos. 

We’ve taken these pictures twice, years apart. The first time we only took photos and we had a standard 18.1 cu ft refrigerator with a freezer on top. The second time we did this, we made a video and we had a newer refrigerator – a 22.1 cu ft refrigerator with french doors and freezer on the bottom. Hopefully, seeing the bulk meat in two different refrigerators will help put it into perspective even more.

Jump to:

• Is buying a cow worth it?
• See a Whole Cow, Half Cow, Quarter Cow and Sixteenth Cow in a refrigerator (video)
• Buying a quarter cow
• Buying a half cow
• Buying a whole cow
• Cuts of beef included
• How Much Freezer Space?
• How much meat do you actually get?
• What’s the difference between grass-fed beef and grass-finished beef?
• Shelf life of frozen beef (i.e., freezer beef)
• Packaging
• How do you find a local farm?

Is buying a cow worth it?

Yes! The benefit of buying a cow is that you will save money and get the highest quality beef.

Every year, we compare the price of beef from our family farm to local St. Louis grocery stores. With Clover Meadows Beef, the price is approximately $5.45/pound for all cuts of grass fed beef. This is compared to $7.03/pound at Walmart, $7.84/pound at a local St. Louis grocery store, and $9.86/pound at Whole Foods.

Please note, every farm and beef processor prices beef differently. You will need to do your own math on determining the price per pound if you’re not in the St. Louis area and can’t order from our farm.

See a Whole Cow, Half Cow, Quarter Cow and Sixteenth Cow in a refrigerator (video)

Here’s what our 22.1 cu ft refrigerator looks like with a sixteenth of a cow. At our farm, a sixteenth is approximately 25 lbs of beef. This includes 13 lbs of hamburger, 2 Ribeye steaks, 2 New York Strips steaks, 2 Filet steaks, 2 Sirloin steaks, 1 Stew Meat, 1 Short Rib, 1 package Soup Bones, 1 package Beef Liver, and 1 Roast.

Buying a quarter cow

Here’s what our 18.1 cu ft refrigerator with freezer on top looks like with a quarter beef, which is 110 lbs of beef. As you can see, it’s a lot of beef, but it all fits in the freezer (without the freezer shelf or ice bucket). 

So what comes with a quarter? That answer varies since every cow is unique and weighs something different, but here is how it typically breaks out:

With a quarter you get about 50 pounds of ground beef, and the remaining 60 lbs of meat is in steaks, brisket, roasts, stew meat, ribs, liver, soup bones, etc. Please keep in mind that everything is based on the individual cow and how the beef is cut, but typical, the remaining 60 lbs works out to be approximately 6-7 ny strips, 6-7 ribeye steaks, 5-6 filets, 5-6 sirloin steaks, 2 short ribs, 4-5 roasts, 1-2 package of stew meat, 1-2 packages of liver, 1 brisket, and several packages of soup bones. 

With a quarter, you also get the option of the one-per-animal parts like tongue, oxtail and heart. Since there’s only one-per-animal, these are first-come-first-serve based on the other who requests them first. 

Here’s what our 22.1 cu ft refrigerator looks like with a quarter cow. Again, it’s 50 pounds of ground beef, and the rest of the beef comes in a variety of cuts like steaks, roasts, ribs, and brisket. For a quarter beef, we recommed a freezer with 5 cubic feet of freezer space.

Buying a half cow

So, what if you buy half a cow, also known as a side of beef? What does that look like? With a half a cow, you’ll get approximately 220 pounds of meat. It includes 100 pounds of ground beef, and the rest of the beef are in cuts like steaks, roasts, ribs, brisket, and tenderloin. For an average half cow, we recommend an 8 cubic foot freezer.

Just for fun, we included a dozen eggs and a half gallon of milk in this picture so you would have some additional perspective 🙂

Buying a whole cow

With a whole cow you would get approximately 440 pounds of beef. It will be approximately 200 pounds of ground beef, and the other 220 pounds are in cuts like steaks, roasts, ribs, brisket, tenderloin, etc. On average, we’ve found that a whole is great for families of three or more that eat beef with four or more meals a week. With purchases of whole beef animals, customers can have it custom cut and we will provide you with the cut list (i.e. cut sheet) in advance. Purchasing a whole beef is the best value, but it’s also a lot of beef to eat!

Cuts of beef included

When you buy a cow, you get a variety of cuts such as

• Steaks like filet, sirloin, ribeye, NY strip, skirt and flank
• Brisket
• Roasts like chuck roast, sirloin roast, arm roast
• Ground beef
• Ribs
• Stew meat
• Kabob meat
• Soup bones
• Organ meats (if desired)
• And the list keeps going on and on!

How Much Freezer Space?

The rule of thumb is 1 cubic foot of freezer space for every 30-35 lbs of cut and wrapped meat.

That means you’ll definitely want a stand-alone freezer when buying a cow. If you don’t have one yet, you can usually get a good deal at a warehouse store like Sam’s or Costco. We have both chest and upright freezers at our house and we like both of them.

Our biggest piece of advice when buying a stand-alone freezer is to get one with a lock and key.  This is very important for child safety reasons and because a physical lock will make sure your freezer is securely closed. You can also purchase an aftermarket lock.

How much meat do you actually get?

When you buy a cow, you want to know exactly how much beef you’ll put in your freezer.

Our farm is somewhat unique in how we price our beef because it’s all-inclusive – we tell you the amount of meat you’ll get for a specific final price. Our pricing includes all processing fee and free delivery to a specific pick-up locations in our St. Louis delivery areas. If you’d like home delivery we are able to do it for a small delivery charge. Other than home delivery (if you want it), there are no other additional fee or extra costs.

Full payment is due at the time of the order. Typically, most of our customers pay by credit cards. Sometimes, other farms take an initial deposit or non-refundable deposit with final payment a few weeks later, but we don’t do that. The reason for this is because we are butchering a whole animal. We want to be good stewards, and we need to make sure the entire animal is sold before we take it to the local butcher.

The amount of beef you get depends on the quantity you order: a quarter cow is 110 lbs, half is 220 lbs, and whole cow is 440 lbs. We’ve chosen to sell our beef this way because we think it’s easier for our customers and there are no surprises – you know exactly what you’re going to get.  

The other way to figure out how much beef you’ll put in your freezer, is to explain it with agriculture industry-lingo like hanging carcass weight, take-home weight and package-weight. If these terms are new to you, here are quick definitions:

• Live weight (or “on the hoof”) is how much a cow weighs when it’s alive and walking around. This includes meat, bones, blood, etc.
• Hanging weight (or “on the rail”) is after the animal is slaughtered and all the unusable parts are removed (like head, skin and hooves), Hanging weight includes bones and meat. Typically, the exact hanging weight is about 60% of the live weight.
• Boxed weight (or package-weight) is the weight of all the packages of individual cuts of meat that you will put in your freezer This is typically about 60 percent of hanging weight.

So, what does this mean in plain-terms? If you’re told it’s $3.75 per pound hanging weight, then expect to pay approximately $6.25 per pound ($3.75 / 0.60)  PLUS the fee from the butcher shop, which is usually about $600.00 for the entire cow (you’ll split this fee if you’re sharing with another family).

No matter who you buy from, make sure you know exactly what you’ll be taking home before you buy so you have adequate freezer space.

What’s the difference between grass-fed beef and grass-finished beef?

There are a lots of myths out there about types of beef and how locally-raised beef is raised. We talk extensively about it in these posts:

• What is Grass Fed Beef?
• What is Grain Finished Beef?
• What Beef Labels Really Mean
• Understanding Beef Labels

Our goal with all of these posts is so that you know fact vs. fiction and you can make an educated food choice for you and your family.

So, if you want the cliff notes version of those posts, Grass-finished beef is “finished” on grass alone. Grain-finished beef is finished on natural grain.

Shelf life of frozen beef (i.e., freezer beef)

The shelf life of frozen beef is approximately 1-year if frozen and vacuum sealed. The amount of time will be shorter if it is packaged in paper or shrink wrapped.

Packaging

Most farmers will give you an option between paper, shrink wrapped, or vacuum sealing packaging. We recommend vacuum sealing because it will keep the beef fresh for longer.

Here’s an example of what a vacuum sealed steak looks like.

How do you find a local farm?

So, do you still want to buy a cow? If you’re in the St. Louis area, let us know. We are happy to answer any questions you may have.

If you’re outside of St. Louis, read our step-by-step guide on how to buy a cow from a farmer. It will tell you how to find a farmer, the right questions to ask, and how to know if you’re getting a good deal on beef.

ONE MORE THING!

Do you want to learn more about beef? Join our weekly e-newsletter where we share farm happenings, recipes and beef availability. Sign-up and get a cheat sheet with 9-must-ask questions before buying beef directly from a farmer. Or, we have an entire ebook about beef that goes through purchasing and preparing beef from a cattle farmers perspective.

Here are a few other links you may like:

• Do Cows Have Teeth?
• What everybody ought to know about beef cuts
• Buying a Cow. How Much Beef Is It?
• 7 Steps to Grilling a Steak to Perfection
• How We Raise Our Grass Fed Beef
• Easy Beef Brisket Recipe (oven-roasted)
• The Best Farm Books for Kids

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We participate in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. See our disclosure policy for more details.