A brief FAQ to purchasing Back Achers Farm beef:
Here we go! Our Angus grass fed, grass finished beef usually dresses out at about 500 # hanging weight. If you're accustomed to purchasing grain fed or grain finished beef, that's going to seem really small to you. Because we're not feeding grain and we're not keeping the beef cows around for several years to build bulk, that's just how they grow. We
're basing these numbers on a half share of a cow. If you're interested in a whole share, multiply everything by 2. If you want a quarter share, divide by 2. :)
We start with a $250 reservation fee. This ensures that that half belongs to you and that money is applied to your final total, so you're not just paying for nothing. That is due whenever you decide that you definitely want to purchase beef. I keep selling until all the cows are reserved, so the sooner it's reserved, the more assured you are to not miss out. Our cows are sold by "hanging weight," which is between live weight or "on the hoof," and packaged weight. If you think of the old mob movies where they're in the freezer with sides of beef- that's what you're looking at. It's mostly meat, but there's still bone weight, too. Our current price is $5.50 per pound. We guesstimate an average hanging weight of 500 total (so 250 # for 1/2). We can't get an exact weight until the cow is delivered to the processor. But there's usually a 2-3 week lead time between delivery and picking up beef. In a $1400 Half, you will get (on average):
7 roasts,
50 to 70 lbs of ground beef (depending on how you want other things cut),
8 to 10 Rib Eye Steaks,
8 T-Bone Steaks,
6 Sirloin Steaks,
10 Cube Steaks,
and then liver and stew chunks, organs, bones, and tongue if requested. You'll pay the processor separately for their work. Processing fees are based on the hanging weight as well but there are other fees associated with the handling and packaging. I'm very bad at doing their math, so we're going to say that processing could be about $175-200 for a half.