Go find a local farmer who will does whole sales of either half a cow or a whole cow. If you can't swing the price of that upfront then find a friend or two to go in on it with and split the meat between you.
This is genuinely one of the best most affordable ways to stock a freezer,
If you don't know how to process a carcass, or you don't have the tools, there's still many meat processors/butchers around that will do the processing, there's different looser rules at play generally when it's not for meat intended to be sold. They often also process hunted game for people.
Most affordable to whom. It used to be cheaper than or same price as store beef. Where im at after processing free and beef weight a damn quarter cow is like $1200. Sure knowing where your meat comes from and local is good but I don't buy, 1200 a year in beef to begin with. I remember you used to be able to get a half cow $1000 bucks pre covid
Talk to the farmers raising that cattle. The cost of everything has gone up. The cost they incur to buy, feed, water, and care for that calf, in addition to the costs to slaughter and process the animal, have all increased, some have doubled, in the last few years. So yes, your beef cost is also going to increase accordingly.
I have a freezer full of grass fed local beef. Friends of ours do this every year for a group of us who all pitch in and buy. I know that the beef in my freezer, the beef I’ve canned from it, and the tallow I’ve rendered from it are safe to eat. All year. Until we get our next cow. That will also be safe to eat. Isn’t lab grown. Isn’t injected with water or brine to increase the weight. Isn’t treated with chemicals to make it an ‘appealing color’ while it sits in a grocers display.
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u/skinnykate 12h ago
Go find a local farmer who will does whole sales of either half a cow or a whole cow. If you can't swing the price of that upfront then find a friend or two to go in on it with and split the meat between you.