08/23/2026
I’ve been doing some figuring lately on what it would actually take for our family of 6 to raise enough meat that we wouldn’t have to buy it at the grocery store.
We already raise beef and try to put deer in the freezer each year. We’ve also harvested rabbits, extra roosters, and this year we were able to raise and process some chickens.
I’m always dreaming and planning ways to do more, and with all the recent news, there’s no time like the present to support your local farmer and start thinking about where your food comes from.
So I did the math.
I’m estimating we need around 600–700 lbs of meat a year for our family.
That looks something like:
🥩 ½ beef — 300–350 lbs
🦌 2–3 deer — 100–150 lbs
🐑 2 lambs — 60–80 lbs
🐐 2–3 goats — 50–75 lbs
🐔 40–50 chickens — 150–200 lbs
Obviously, these numbers will vary depending on the size of the animal, how it’s processed, how much bone-in meat we keep, and how much meat a family actually eats.
But seeing it broken down into actual animals makes it feel incredibly doable.
Instead of “we want to raise all our own meat,” we can actually look at what that requires and make a plan.
And that’s one of my favorite parts of homesteading. ❤️
If your family raises or hunts most of your own meat, what does your freezer look like for a year?
