Z Top Farm

03/15/2023

Great chance to come taste all Z TOP BBQ has to offer! Plus a fun evening!

02/20/2023

Contact us to reserve your beef for 2023!

02/20/2023

Now assigning 2023 butcher dates to our Z Top Families! Please contact us to reserve your beef for this year. 🥩

11/24/2022

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

10/03/2022

Let's talk about buying beef in bulk! This can be a great way to fill your freezer with high-quality, local beef, but it can also be a bit intimidating!

Here are the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions:

1. How much meat do you get when you buy a 1/4 or 1/2 beef?
The short answer - it depends on the size of the animal! A good estimate is about 300 lbs of beef for 1/2 and 150 lbs for a 1/4.

Now here's the long(er) answer:

Most fully grown beef animals are between 1200 and 1400 lbs (live weight).

After harvest, the carcass usually weighs around 800 - 900 lbs (hanging weight).

Then, the rest of the processing occurs, and since some bones and organs may be discarded, the final processed weight is approximately 600 lbs.

2. How much freezer space do I need for a 1/4 or 1/2?
A half requires about 8 cubic feet of freezer space. A small chest freezer (about 3 feet wide, 3 feet high and 2 feet deep) or small upright freezer is approximately 7 cubic feet of freezer space, so check the product specs to make sure that your freezer is big enough.

3. How long can I store my beef in the freezer?
As long as your freezer stays frozen, your beef will be safe.

However, the meat quality may decrease over time. We recommend cooking and consuming your beef within 12 months, although we have stored beef in the bottom of a deep freeze for much longer than that without any quality issues.

4. What cuts of meat do you get when buying half a beef?
You'll get approximately 75 -100 lbs of ground beef, and the rest will be roasts, steaks, and other cuts like brisket, ribs, stew meat, soup bones, and organ meats (liver, heart and tongue.)

If you don't like those cuts, you can have them turned into ground beef, which will obviously increase the amount of ground beef you receive.

5. Do you get to pick your own cuts when buying half a cow?
Yes! You get to pick what you want, to some extent.

Beef animal carcasses are divided into "primals" and each primal is cut down further for your freezer.

You get to choose how you want it cut, but unfortunately, you can't turn the whole carcass into steaks.

You also have to make some choices. For example, you can get T-bone steaks, but then you can't get filet and New York Strip, because a T-bone steak is really filet mignon and NY Strip that hasn't been cut off the bone.

Depending on the locker or butcher shop used, you may also be able to get hamburger patties, flavored brats, beef sticks, summer sausage and other products.

6. How does pricing work?
Most farmers price their bulk beef based on the hanging weight. Hanging weight is the weight of the carcass after harvest, before being cut into individual steaks, roasts, etc.

Are you ready to do some math?

If the cow's hanging weight (total) is 800 lbs, then half is 400 lbs.

To estimate your final price, take 400 lbs times the price/lb charged by the farmer.

Let's say the farmer is charging $4/lb hanging weight.

That means your half will cost $1600.

You will also have processing charges from the butcher. They generally charge a standard price per pound, with added fees for specialty products like summer sausage. A safe estimate is about $1/lb for processing.

That brings your total up to $2000.

more math...

So, you're paying $2,000 and bringing home 300 lbs of beef.

That's an average price of $6.67/lb for your beef.

Considering that it's hard to find ground beef that inexpensively right now, and you're getting steaks at that same price, buying half a beef is a really economical way to fill your freezer!

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Ready to find a beef farm near you? We've made that easier with our new farm directory here: https://choplocal.com/index.php?dispatch=companies.catalog

09/20/2022

2023 calves arrived on the farm tonight. Will open up reservations soon.

07/29/2022

Doesn’t get much better than this!
#ztopfarm#ztoptasty#prime

06/25/2022

Have you ever seen a Flank Steak with this much marbling?

This is from our personal freezer Aaron grilled up for fajitas.

06/21/2022

Are you familiar with the quality grades you purchase for your family? There are three different grades of beef used in conversation. Here at Z Top, our focus is quality. We take pride in raising PRIME beef. We want your family to have the ability to afford great beef!

1. PRIME - Prime beef is packed full of flavor. Prime beef is produced from young
well-fed cattle. It has the most marbling, is
produced in smaller quantities than other
grades, and is often sold in hotels and
restaurants. Prime roasts and steaks are
excellent for roasting, grilling or broiling.

2. CHOICE - Choice beet is high quality and produced in highest quantity, but has
less marbling than Prime. Choice roast
and steaks, especially from the rib and
loin, will be very tender, juicy and
flavorful. They are suited for roasting,
grilling or broiling. Less tender cuts are
pertect for slow-cooking.

3. SELECT - Select beef is slightly leaner than Prime and Choice because it has less
marbling. It can lack some tenderness,
flavor and juiciness as compared to the
higher grades. Select grade beef often
benefits from slow-cooking or from
marination prior to grilling or broiling.

Next time you bite into a burger or steak… ask yourself…. what are you eating? What grade of meat is this? Where was this beef raised? What kind of feed program was this steer on? Support your local farmer and feed your family with the best around.

06/20/2022

Garden crop coming along nicely.

06/20/2022

A picture of a porterhouse steak shared by one of our Z Top families. How juicy do you think this thing was?!

06/08/2022

Z Top Farm now accepts all major credit cards. Please let us know if you’re interested in paying in this form.

05/17/2022

We love our livestock as much as we love this perfect weather!

05/09/2022

😬🤣

05/05/2022

TuffyG on TikTok

Can’t get this out of my head 🤣

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdbxyCr5/

I’m not the only one, right?

04/21/2022

Aaron will be in “The Barn” doing his thing Saturday so we decided to have a ‘Grab & Go’ sale!

Swing by the barn from 9am - 1pm and pickup vacuum sealed pulled chicken or pulled pork, or grab a white or sweet sauce.

Individual price:
1 package = 2lbs $26.00
1 sauce = 16oz $10.00

This weekend only bundle sale!!! (Everyone needs to enjoy the beauty coming our way!)
2 packages of meat + 2 sauces = $60.00

From 9am - 1pm or until sold out.

Message us if you need our address.

04/15/2022

Do we dare say that our Pulled Chicken could be better than our award winning Pulled Pork?! You be the judge!

Take the stress out of cooking this holiday weekend and snag your vacuum sealed packages today and tomorrow at Primitive Gatherings!

Also, snag our Sweet BBQ or delicious White BBQ sauce while you’re there!

04/13/2022

Z Top will be joining Primitive Gatherings again this Friday and Saturday!

We will have our handcrafted White BBQ (sold out last month) our Sweet BBQ, vacuum sealed award winning Pulled Pork, and now…..vacuum sealed Pulled Chicken!

If you’re unable to make it this weekend but want to snag a sauce or meat, send us a message and we can arrange private pickup.

03/12/2022

What a wonderful weekend at Primitive Gatherings! Thank you to our fabulous host, Brenda, for allowing us the space to share our products with you all! Thank you all for supporting us and showing up!

We are officially sold out of pulled pork and white sauce. We accept private orders if you missed out! We WILL be back to supply more tasty treats for your palate!

Thank you! Have a great weekend!

03/10/2022

No BUTTS about it! We’ve been slappin these nice pieces of meat with seasonings and they’re prepped and on the smoker! We will have our pulled pork vacuum sealed for you to snag Friday or Saturday at Primitive Gatherings!

Samples will be available for the pulled pork, sweet bbq sauce, and white bbq sauce! Don’t miss out!

03/09/2022

Someone said 16 ounces wasn’t enough….
So we made a 64 ouncer!

Half gallon of Z Top Sweet BBQ Sauce coming in hot!

03/07/2022

Z Top will be offering our award winning Pulled Pork this Friday and Saturday at Primitive Gatherings Spring Fling! It will be vacuum sealed and ready to grab and go! It will be sold in 2 pound packages.

We will also have our Sweet BBQ Sauce and White BBQ Sauce available for purchase!

Don’t miss out on your opportunity to get a hold of these tasty treats!

03/02/2022

I don’t know if we should laugh or cry?

03/01/2022

Have you ever tried beef tongue when ordering your cuts? We recommend giving it a try!

We enjoyed beef tongue tacos tonight. Thank you to our OG client, Angie Soupley, for providing this already marinated masterpiece!

02/27/2022

Meat Master Aaron trimming a prime brisket for a private order.

02/17/2022

sauce·craft
/sôsˌkraft/
noun
1. the practice of magic, especially sauce magic; the use on savory dishes.

We will have sauces available to you for pickup this weekend! Message to reserve yours!

02/14/2022

Thank you to all who supported us and reserved pulled pork for your families!

We plan to offer more of this to you! We can provide it hot and ready, or vacuum seal it for future use.

Everyone have a great evening and we hope you’re enjoying the game!

02/12/2022

Introducing….. 🥁

Z Top Farm White BBQ Sauce!!

Perfect for all meat types. Some even use it on salads! It’s the perfect creamy flavor with a tangy twist. If you’re wanting to kick some sass into your BBQ, this is your ticket! 👇🏻

Handcrafted and made fresh! Please message to reserve your 16oz’er for $10.00!

02/12/2022

Have you had the pleasure of tasting Aarons handcrafted BBQ sauce? Well, now you have the opportunity!
We have our Z Top Sweet BBQ Sauce bottled and ready for you to enjoy!

Snag one of these 16oz bad boys for $10.00!

****Coming soon | Z Top White BBQ Sauce****

02/07/2022

Looking for some award winning BBQ to share with your friends and family this weekend for the Super Bowl?! Z Top has you covered!

Now taking orders for pulled pork! Message between now and Wednesday to reserve!

02/03/2022

Z Top Fun! You can hear the dogs pacing in the background from chasing the cattle.

01/25/2022

What does it mean when we say ZTOPFARM farm beef is PRIME? 🥩🥩
We take pride in providing hormone free non medicated PRIME beef that only 2% of all the beef in the us meet these requirements. During our processing a USDA inspector will assign grades to beef and pleased to announce we have been providing PRIME beef that has more of the “good fat” and much better for consumption. Prime steaks retail for $25/$35 per lb. That’s all included in your freezer beef deal! Thank you to all our friends and family customers!

01/25/2022

The Moos are packing on their winter pounds just like me. 🤣

01/25/2022

What do you love about the snow?
We love the way it reflects Gods beautiful creations.

10/23/2021

What do you call a cow with no legs?

Ground beef!

10/17/2021

Moving bales for our moos today.

09/30/2021

Can’t beat watching calves graze in the evenings with a beautiful sunset.

09/13/2021

A little Angus lineage. These pictures don’t do justice for the size of these bulls!

Sitz Upward 307r sire (bull).

SAV Iron Mountain sire (cow).

Both grandsires to our new calves here at Z Top.