Decide what your standards of nutrition are, is 100% grass fed important to you? Do you want your beef to be grass fed, but grain finished? Do you care if the grain fed to the animals was GMO free or organic? Do you want your beef to be free from hormone shots and antibiotics? Look for information about different cattle breed, feeding practices (grass-fed vs. grain-fed), and animal welfare to help you narrow down your choices. 

Find a local butcher shop that takes live animals for processing (some purchase meat in bulk from larger shops and resale it, you have little to no control over how the beef was raised from these shops) A butcher shop that processes live animals will be able to connect you to a Farmer/rancher who’s animals most closely match your standards. Your butcher shop may have connections with several ranches and give you a choice. If so, research each farm/ranch and decide which one best fits your needs. In most cases the Butcher shop will make the arrangements with the farmer/rancher for the transport of the live animal from the farm to the butcher shop. The animal will get slaughtered and hung to age for up to 2 weeks. 

In the meantime:

Storage Capacity: Make sure you have enough freezer space to store the large quantity of beef. A quarter beef typically requires 4-6 cubic feet of freezer space. This would fill one refrigerator freezer completely. 

Budget and Cost: You will owe the farmer market price per pound of live weight for the animal.  You will owe the butcher a flat fee for processing the cow and then per pound for cutting and packaging. With a little bit of research and math you can get an estimation of cost. Or the butcher should be able to give you an estimation of how much your total cost will be. Make sure you understand the payment schedule and accepted methods (deposit, final payment, cash, check, credit card).

Cut Preferences: Most Butcher shops have a website with cut sheets and possible cutting options for you to familiarize yourself with. The options for customizing your order will all be on a cutting sheet, such as steak thickness, roast sizes, and ground beef packaging. Make sure you are not leaving highly nutritious parts (that you paid the farmer for) on the Butcher’s compost pile. Soup Bones, heart, tongue, tallow, ox tail, liver and kidneys are all highly nutritious parts of the animal, but you don’t always find them on a butcher’s cut sheet. This does not mean they can’t save those for you! 

Processing Timeline: Ask about expected processing and delivery dates to plan accordingly for receiving and storing the beef.

Health and Safety: Ensure the processor is USDA-inspected or follows proper food safety standards.

Delivery or Pickup: Your meat will come frozen and packaged according to your instructions. Confirm options for delivery or pickup, and any associated costs or logistics.

Watch our YouTube Channel for even more instructions, ideas and recipes to help you utilize the best cuts like prime rib, brisket and steaks.  I’ll even teach you how to render the tallow and use the oxtail for broth, prepare the heart and tongue. All the videos on beef are under the ‘Beef’ playlist.