Buying beef in bulk

[EBC79]

Was looking into getting a freezer and stocking that sucker up with beef.

For those that already do this what are the advantages and disadvantages?

Where do you buy your beef? Thanks for the help!

 

[jrusling]

I don't buy beef, but beefalow. The advantage is that you can have it cut the way you want. You can also get much better quality and leaner if you want. It can also be quite a bit cheaper.

 

[David2012]

I try to get my beef at Sams & Walmart whenever they have good steaks marked down for fast sale. I'm not to proud to buy marked down steaks to freeze.. because I hate to freeze a good steak that was just cut.

You probably wouldn't stock as much as we do sometimes....but for anyone with a well stocked freezer and who keeps very much meat dollar wise.. say over $500 worth... then I highly recommend you make sure you've got yourself a back-up generator of some size [even a small one] to keep the meat frozen in the event of a long term power failure... summer or winter... and it will also provide lights and run other items as well.

When the big ice storm hit a few years ago, I had our big freezer crammed full of steaks..... the 3 refrigerators freezers were full of pizza, sausage & bacon. Then 4" of ice hit knocking down over 130 of the city's main power lines... leavng a town of 30,000 without power for almost 7 days. I couldn't buy ice and didn't have a generator. Cheap little $1,500 gasoline fueled generators were suddenly selling for $3,000 due to high demand. I moved some of the food outside in the cold air and even tried putting some of the fallen ice on it.. I still lost almost $1,000 worth of food.

Any kind of generator will do in a emergency... but now I have a 20KW Generac natural gas fueled automatic electric generator. It is hooked directly to our homes natural gas and into the main fuse box via a automatic switch that isolates it from the utility electric power supply. It sits there on the patio ready to go 24 / 7 / 365. The instant the utility power goes of, the generator turns on.. runs about 12 seconds to circulate the oil & diagnose the power outage... then automatically runs the whole house / outside security lights and 3 storage buildings. When the utility power comes back on... it instantly switches over to the utility power so fast that my lights don't even flicker. It then runs 30 seconds more to make sure the power is stayng on, then shuts itself off. No gas to store or go bad, no lines to stand in to buy gas. One of the best investments we've ever made. It is dual fuel, so one flick of a switch and I can change over to Propane to fuel it if I ever need too. I don't want to ever go that long without electricity again... living in a house that has a total electric kitchen and a centra heat air blower that works off of electricity.

Thank God, we had a gas fireplace to hook a blue flame heater up to for heat and our hot water heater is gas. But we were using lanterns, oil lamps & candles to see by... and a small camp stove / BBQ grill to cook on. But 3 people can't eat $1,000 worth of food in a few days. And the ice was to bad to get out and try to give the food away to others. Now when the power goes out.. it is business as usual here at home.

 

[chazroh]

i buy a half of a cow every year. its around $900 for 325 pounds of meat. its natural beef with no steroids. it has incredible flavor.

 

[TerryMiller]

When we were on the farm, we always butchered out one of our own critters. One of the things we required of the meat shop where we took the live critter was that we wanted the meat to hang for at least two weeks. That way, it bled out more, cured more and helped tenderize it. If you aren't doing your own critter or "sharing" a live critter with someone else, then ask them how long they hang the beef before actually butchering.

I agree that it is the best way to get meat, if you can do it and you have the freezer space for it. When we butchered, we got more hamburger and roasts and less in the way of steaks.

 

[okie98]

I know a local farmer who raises one for me and I split it with my son. Advantages are: I know what it is fed. I have it aged and cut to order and I always have good meat in the freezer. I also have a generator to insure there is NO meat loss.

 

[EFsDad]

My Dad brother and I split a steer every year and it costs us about $800 for the lost opportunity cost for selling the steer this year, then about $400 for butchering. Last year we feed corn and that cost us some $$$. Won't do that again, grass fed all the way this year.

Pros - Cut exactly how you like. It tastes better. Burger mixed exactly how you like. It tastes better. You know that the beef was healthy when it went to slaughter. It tastes better. It does not have any pink slime, blown up with air, or filled with fluids. And most importantly, it tastes better.

Cons - Steaks from 1 cow split 3 ways doesn't go far enough. Potential freezer failures. My sons or wife might get attached to a future dinner.

 

[J.T.]

We have done it to save money, the meat tastes so much better to me too. After crunching the numbers we end up with all the different cuts of meat we like plus ground for the cost of Walmart hamburger meat/lb..

 

[n423]

When we had a chest freezer,we would buy a half a cow or a hind-quarter from the butcher shop in Moore. I know it tasted better than what you get in the grocery store.


The best beef I ever ate was from a dairy farmer ( in Sweetwater OK) that butchered one of his cows.

 

[fishfurlife]

There are no cons really. Other than keeping bulk beef and being prepared to keep it cold if you loose power.

Otherwise it is better all the way around.