Meat prices

Last two years for me were $550-650 I think. Lasts us an entire year. We only buy skirt or flank steaks from other places when needed otherwise all our beef comes from the 1/4.

KP wrote:

Whats the typical price for a 1/4 Cow? I’ve never purchased a 1/4 cow before but have been thinking about it for some time.

depends on weather you by the front or hind quarter. Front is mostly burger, roasts and lesser steaks. Fronts are the cheapest, hinds most spendy and half in-between.

The 1/4 I get is a 1/2 of a 1/2 meaning they split up all the cuts of a 1/2 between two customers. You get 1/2 of the rib roast from one side, 1/2 of the loin, 1/2 of the chuck, 1/2 of the round and so on. The last two years I was lucky enough to get the whole brisket because the other customer got ground beef instead.

I honestly wouldn’t bother with a butcher that made me choose between a front or hind quarter.

biggill wrote:

The 1/4 I get is a 1/2 of a 1/2 meaning they split up all the cuts of a 1/2 between two customers. You get 1/2 of the rib roast from one side, 1/2 of the loin, 1/2 of the chuck, 1/2 of the round and so on. The last two years I was lucky enough to get the whole brisket because the other customer got ground beef instead.

I honestly wouldn’t bother with a butcher that made me choose between a front or hind quarter.

I have no problem with the choices. To each there own I guess.

I honestly wouldn’t bother with a butcher that made me choose between a front or hind quarter.
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Why not. Choosing what you want is half the purchase

We always butcher our own now but i dont remember when i used to get a 1/4 that front or rear half was on option. I thought you got 1/4 of the finished weight. If i wanted brisket and you wanted burger it was just a weight thing

KP wrote:

Whats the typical price for a 1/4 Cow? I’ve never purchased a 1/4 cow before but have been thinking about it for some time.

Nobody on this thread is going to give you an honest out the door price after taking into account hanging weight, processing cost, grass vs. corn fed, etc.

Someone said they paid $2.85/lb for porterhouse steaks from a farmer. Now go out to a local farmer (and processor) and offer them $2.85/lb….Come back and let us know what they say.

I buy a 1/4 every year. Small private guy, small town butcher/packaging, no organ meat in the ground. Last yr, my price was about $4.25/lb for the finished/wrapped product I put in the freezer. That was up just a bit from the previous year. over the last 5 yrs, it has hovered between 4 and 4.25 per lb finished product. The quality is excellent and I consider it a great deal.

City Center Market Coop

The last steer we got in march ended up about 2.60lb. But that is with the old ladies dad gutting/skinning/hanging it and us butchering it.

KP wrote:

Whats the typical price for a 1/4 Cow? I’ve never purchased a 1/4 cow before but have been thinking about it for some time.

The 1/2 I recently purchased yielded 296# of meat . After paying the farmer and the local butcher , it averaged out to $4.76 a lb . This is for everything from tbones to hamburger

biggill wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>stevenoak wrote:</div>
Looked at a $38 NY Strip on a menu last week. Nice to have a better steak in the freezer.

I have a hard time ordering steak from any restaurant for this reason. My steaks are as good or better than almost anywhere I’ve had a steak. I was disappointed when I ate at Gibsons in Chicago.

Couldn’t agree more. I’m tired of having buyer’s remorse after a steak dinner.

Beef has been high down here for a while. Pork and chicken are both coming up in price. Thank you God for venison. I eat a lot of it, always have. Time to stock my freezer. Archery Season starts Friday, hopefully will cool down like the forecast has predicted.

An important clarification for those unfamiliar with buying beef this way is the differentiation between hanging weight and take home weight. You pay the farmer and butcher on the hanging weight. What you take home as far as LBs is much less, a general rule of them is usually around 60% of the hanging weight.

For example on a whole cow, if the hanging weight of the animal is 700 LBs, and you pay the farmer and butcher an all in price of $3.00/LB (which I think would be an absolute steal), that’d be a total of $2,100 for the whole thing. The take home weight would be approximately 60% of the hanging weight; in this example 420 LBs. That means the beef you take home actually comes out to around $5/LB. Stating you paid $3.00/LB for your beef would be misleading.

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

An important clarification for those unfamiliar with buying beef this way is the differentiation between hanging weight and take home weight. You pay the farmer and butcher on the hanging weight. What you take home as far as LBs is much less, a general rule of them is usually around 60% of the hanging weight.

For example on a whole cow, if the hanging weight of the animal is 700 LBs, and you pay the farmer and butcher an all in price of $3.00/LB (which I think would be an absolute steal), that’d be a total of $2,100 for the whole thing. The take home weight would be approximately 60% of the hanging weight; in this example 420 LBs. That means the beef you take home actually comes out to around $5/LB. Stating you paid $3.00/LB for your beef would be misleading.

Finally a decent explanation. Took until page 3…

$3/lb for hanging weight AND processing seems low though, which is what is stated in the post so keep that in mind.

stout93 wrote:

$3/lb for hanging weight AND processing seems low though, which is what is stated in the post so keep that in mind.

You are spot on with it being low. I was just making up numbers for this example to try and show how the $2.85/lb mentioned earlier on in this thread was likely based on the hanging weight, not the take home weight. On top of the $/lb you pay the butcher, there sometimes may be a flat processing fee too.

When I got my 1/4 beef a couple months ago, I think what I ended up paying on take home weight was somewhere north of $6-$7/lb but I never did the exact math. I will gladly pay that price given the high quality of the beef – I’ve never had better beef than what comes from my friend’s farm.

If any of you are paying $2.85/lb on take home weight, please share where you’re getting it from so the rest of us can get in on that steal!

belletaine wrote:

Couldn’t agree more. I’m tired of having buyer’s remorse after a steak dinner.

You gotta stop going to the $5 steak special restaurants BT!

Had one of the best steaks I’ve ever had recently at 6Smith in Wayzata, and Manny’s never disappoints.

Bought some chicken thighs from Costco for $0.99/lbs recently which was nice to see them back at a cheap price. Steaks were a LOT higher, Sirloin’s were $9.99/lbs (usually $5.99/lbs) and the “finer” cuts were creeping on $20/lbs.

stout93 wrote:

Finally a decent explanation. Took until page 3…

$3/lb for hanging weight AND processing seems low though, which is what is stated in the post so keep that in mind.

I actually explained it on Page 2. But I must be the only one to see it?? I explained my situation. I paid $1450 total for a 320lb Half. Not a front half, not a back half. Half of the cow.

IceNEyes1986 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>stout93 wrote:</div>
Finally a decent explanation. Took until page 3…

$3/lb for hanging weight AND processing seems low though, which is what is stated in the post so keep that in mind.

I actually explained it on Page 2. But I must be the only one to see it?? I explained my situation. I paid $1450 total for a 320lb Half. Not a front half, not a back half. Half of half the cow.

$4.50/lb Net/Take home price. So I need in on that. PM me the farmer’s name and number if you don’t mind.

@stout93 PM sent

BigWerm wrote:

Had one of the best steaks I’ve ever had recently at 6Smith in Wayzata, and Manny’s never disappoints.

I’ve never been to Manny’s but I hope to sometime.

I recently went to Fogo de Chao in Minneapolis which is a Brazilian style steakhouse. It was hard for me to physically walk out of that place.

gimruis wrote:

I recently went to Fogo de Chao in Minneapolis which is a Brazilian style steakhouse. It was hard for me to physically walk out of that place.

Fogo is legit too, always feel like I should wear sweatpants

IceNEyes1986 wrote:

actually explained it on Page 2. But I must be the only one to see it?? I explained my situation. I paid $1450 total for a 320lb Half. Not a front half, not a back half. Half of the cow.

I explained it also , after butchering , cut and wrapped , out the door at $4.76 a lb

BigWerm wrote:

I recently went to Fogo de Chao in Minneapolis which is a Brazilian style steakhouse. It was hard for me to physically walk out of that place.

Fogo is legit too, always feel like I should wear sweatpants

Speaking of Brazilian steak house, I recently went to Rodizio in Maple Grove for my wife’s grandpa’s 80th birthday. Never been before. Second time in my life I literally left with the meat sweats! So good! I just ate way to much.. The first time I got the meat sweats was my 10yr anniversary at work & the boss grilled me up a 28oz Porterhouse. It was a lot of steak for 11am!

IceNEyes1986 wrote:

Speaking of Brazilian steak house, I recently went to Rodizio in Maple Grove for my wife’s grandpa’s 80th birthday. Never been before. Second time in my life I literally left with the meat sweats! So good! I just ate way to much

I’ve been there before too. Its pretty much exactly the same as Fogo. Costs a little less and the parking is easier. They don’t have the prime cuts that Fogo has if I can remember correctly but its still legit. The grilled pineapple is so good.

If you sign up for their e-club you get a free birthday meal emailed to you.

Our 1/4 is basically one of 4 piles of finished packaged beef. Equally divided. I don’t know if I got a steak more or less. Never heard of a beef halved front and back? Bottom line. Every package was very good. With a deer or 2. Don’t have to worry about it for a year.

I used to work out of City Center, Fogo is in the same complex. Twice a year my team of engineers would go to lunch at Fogo. We would then have an “off-site meeting” where everyone would go home and go in to a meat coma.

Picking up our quarter today. $405. Think my buddy’s wife got a good deal on the cow. Hope it’s good as last year. Not sure on the pounds. But still have a dozen packages from last year. Steaks were fantastic. Works for me.

We have been buying beef and splitting with family for a few years. Just got the call are next one is going in. I don’t remember the hanging weight last year but it ended up being $495 a quarter.

So here’s my final tally for the meat I got from a farmer down the road. Weights below are take home pounds, not hanging weight. The hanging weight price was $2.75 for the beef and $2.50 for the pork.

30 lbs ground beef (grass fed) – total price $226 (farmer got $156 and processor $70). Comes out to $7.56/lb

1/2 hog (approx 60 lbs) – total price $413 (farmer got $242 and processor $171). Bacon and hams all smoked so that added to the processing costs. Comes out to approx $6.88/lb

Processing costs are a bit high in my estimation, but it is what it is.