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Thread: How to discover inexspensive 1/2 a cow butcherd meat.?????

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    Senior Member Wise Old Owl's Avatar
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    Default How to discover inexspensive 1/2 a cow butcherd meat.?????

    just a thought it may be easy to some.. But I am fed up with paying these "corn" prices... Looking for help I am located in Chester County PA and willing to find farmers to buy meat direct..

    any help would be appreciated.
    “There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag … We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language … and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”

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    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    Find a local slaughterhouse. You can usually buy 1/4, 1/2, whole or a variety.

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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Got a farmer guy down the road the has black and red angus......He farms my land...so I can buy when they take them in to be slaughtered........
    Shipping might be kind high buck....Best check with your local farmers market, co-op, or produce co-ops.
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    Not sure what your community is like but here a lot of gas stations, grocery stores, etc have a bulletin board for people buying or selling or labor.

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    May be worth checking out Lancaster county. Not that far away from you. Take rte.30 west.
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  6. #6

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    I'm sure you know there's a lot to a half cow that goes into a low price that isn't meat. That low price is always "on the hook."

    I get mine at one of two local slaughterhouses (I actually only get a hindquarter, a whole half is too much) usually cut and bagged with a tag on the bag saying what's in it.

    Be sure you tell them you want it all. You have to specify wanting the tallow and the bones and the edible organs. Seriously. They probably won't sell you the lungs (haven't had pluck in decades) and I'm not sure about the brain. The head isn't usually included in the half cow. Here the slaughterhouses won't sell you any neural channel bones after the animal is a certain age (I think 8 months but not sure) That includes porterhouse cuts.

    You have to specify the hamburg mix or you have to tell them that you want the hamburg trimmings in a bag and you'll do the grinding to your liking at home.

    Find out if they are going to wrap and freeze it. I have long arguments with one of the slaughterhouses I use because they insist people are too stupid to be allowed to wrap and freeze their own meat (too many people complaining and requesting refunds because they think that the meat was bad that was sold to them. Because they packed it wrong in the freezer and it rotted before freezing.)

    Just a side note from experience, the "corn" price you pay is going to be significantly less in most areas than "grass fed" prices. Grass fed meat is all the dietary rage right now and goes for premium $$$. You are more looking for a quantity discount, less packaging and less fuel charge in shipping the product. You would get an even bigger discount if you do the cutting yourself. I pay the extra 50˘ per pound to have it cut. I like my steaks bone-in and I don't have a bandsaw. I also get all the bones cut to under 8" to fit in a stock pot.
    Last edited by LowKey; 04-24-2016 at 06:17 AM.
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    Senior Member randyt's Avatar
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    go to the local feed store and ask the proprietor if they know of anyone
    so the definition of a criminal is someone who breaks the law and you want me to believe that somehow more laws make less criminals?

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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LowKey View Post
    I'm sure you know there's a lot to a half cow that goes into a low price that isn't meat. That low price is always "on the hook."

    I get mine at one of two local slaughterhouses (I actually only get a hindquarter, a whole half is too much) usually cut and bagged with a tag on the bag saying what's in it.

    Be sure you tell them you want it all. You have to specify wanting the tallow and the bones and the edible organs. Seriously. They probably won't sell you the lungs (haven't had pluck in decades) and I'm not sure about the brain. The head isn't usually included in the half cow. Here the slaughterhouses won't sell you any neural channel bones after the animal is a certain age (I think 8 months but not sure) That includes porterhouse cuts.

    You have to specify the hamburg mix or you have to tell them that you want the hamburg trimmings in a bag and you'll do the grinding to your liking at home.

    Find out if they are going to wrap and freeze it. I have long arguments with one of the slaughterhouses I use because they insist people are too stupid to be allowed to wrap and freeze their own meat (too many people complaining and requesting refunds because they think that the meat was bad that was sold to them. Because they packed it wrong in the freezer and it rotted before freezing.)

    Just a side note from experience, the "corn" price you pay is going to be significantly less in most areas than "grass fed" prices. Grass fed meat is all the dietary rage right now and goes for premium $$$. You are more looking for a quantity discount, less packaging and less fuel charge in shipping the product. You would get an even bigger discount if you do the cutting yourself. I pay the extra 50˘ per pound to have it cut. I like my steaks bone-in and I don't have a bandsaw. I also get all the bones cut to under 8" to fit in a stock pot.
    Excellent post and a must read for those that want to buy meat this way.....Rep sent.
    BTW that 1/2 isn't all steaks and roasts.....
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    My family used to buy half a cow from a local dairy farmer. Cows that no longer gave enough milk to be worth the cost of feeding it. So ask around at local dairy farms. The farmer took the live cow to an independent slaughter house and we would tell the butcher how we wanted the meat cut. I recall that most of it went into burger, of which we used a lot, as I was growing up. Now a days I butcher deer and bear, pigs and lambs and chickens and other poultry. I do not do cattle, as I do not believe that my hoist could handle an animal that large. Besides I do not own a band saw. We cut every thing by hand.
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    Senior Member Wise Old Owl's Avatar
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    Wow great posts - going out to do the research tommorrow on the road... - wasn't looking for a lot of steaks... just meat.
    “There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag … We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language … and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”

    Theodore Roosevelt 1907

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    Ed edr730's Avatar
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    You can go to a livestock auction too. Of course whatever kind of animal you buy, it will be live. You can feed it some good feed for a while at home first if you want to.

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    Eee... never really liked old dairy cow. Not much good for anything other than hamburger and it has a strange taste to it.
    You really want a steer. And you want someone that knows how to hang it to age it properly before getting it cut, preferably temperature controlled.
    If we are to have another contest in…our national existence I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's, but between patriotism & intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition & ignorance on the other…
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    Senior Member Wise Old Owl's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by edr730 View Post
    You can go to a livestock auction too. Of course whatever kind of animal you buy, it will be live. You can feed it some good feed for a while at home first if you want to.
    uh no I am 1 acre residential...
    “There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag … We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language … and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”

    Theodore Roosevelt 1907

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    Quote Originally Posted by hunter63 View Post
    Excellent post and a must read for those that want to buy meat this way.....Rep sent.
    BTW that 1/2 isn't all steaks and roasts.....
    I tried to rep him twice now today, but I have to spread the love.
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    Got the rep covered.
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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wise Old Owl View Post
    uh no I am 1 acre residential...
    So I suppose that hanging up a dead cow in the yard on the tractor with the bucket.....would be looked at kinda weird?
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    Ed edr730's Avatar
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    When I was younger I would go to the livestock auction and pick up lots of different animals to take home to slaughter and butcher. I'd also raise some myself and knew people who raised what I wanted. We probably went through a dozen deer as well with hunting, farm permits and road kill. I always carried a long sharp knife in the van for the road kills. All I usually took was the hind legs and the chops.
    One time, I managed to stuff a 450 lb young steer into the back of my '67 ford econoline van. It took some lifting and coaxing, but we got him in there. We cut him up, ground him up and he went in the freezer with everything else.

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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Pssst....12 volt winch in the van....and a ramp.
    18 volt battery chain saw.....
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    Seems a shame to grind a whole young steer into hamburger...
    Last edited by LowKey; 04-26-2016 at 07:08 PM.
    If we are to have another contest in…our national existence I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's, but between patriotism & intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition & ignorance on the other…
    ~ President Ulysses S. Grant

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    Ed edr730's Avatar
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    Yes Hunter that would have been an easier way. At that age, I just used the yeah I think I can get him in there method. If it didn't work right away I'd use the lift harder push harder method.
    We got him in and roped him off from the front though. It all went pretty good till something happened with the two cars in front of us. I had to slam on the brakes and the steer stretched the rope and his head was right between us. I swerved to the right and the steer kissed me. I swerved back left and he bounced off my buddy. I thought for a second he was going through the windsheild. After that, everything went OK.

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