Ordering our cuts of beef

The sale of our cow was initiated by word of mouth.  A friend of my wife, who knew we were interested in buying a cow, knew a rancher hobby-ist who we ultimately bought the cow from.  We were excited and nervous, this being our first time purchasing a cow, and the seller hadn’t taken the private sale route before either.  Neither one of us wanted to be taken for a ride.  A price per pound was offered.  Then the next day, the seller changed her mind; she wanted a flat rate to be paid.

Ranchers strive to harvest their beef when the animal is somewhere around 1250 lbs.  That is, perhaps, why livestock are brought to feedlots, so through careful control that weight can be obtained and in an expeditious fashion.  Our cow was probably around 750 lbs; it was 536 lbs hanging weight after euthanasia -- not nearly as large as we were hoping for, but we don’t consume a lot of beef anyway.  Our goal is to have a years worth of beef in our freezer.

Once we settled on a price, we contacted a meat service company (a butcher) to handle the euthanasia and the cuts of beef.  After a date was scheduled for euthanasia, we were directed to think about the cuts of meat that we wanted and to call back when we were ready.  After a quick search online, we found this helpful diagram.  I think I’ve also seen something similar in some fancy cookbooks.

We knew we wanted hamburger meat as it is used is many of our recipes.  It should come as no surprise that hamburger is typically ground from what you have after all the desirable cuts have been made.  The fillet mignon, tri-tip, sirloin, porterhouse, and t-bone all come from the “short loin” and “sirloin” sections of the carcass -- that’s the good stuff.  The “round” and “chuck” are typically used for those meat-and-potatoes roasts you cook in a crockpot.

That leads to another point.  We soon realized as we were writing down the various cuts we desired that we couldn’t have it all.

1 roast == multiple steaks



That little fact, perhaps, is very clear to most, but it was new to us.  So we crossed “tri-tip roast” off our list and kept the “tri-tip steaks”.  Our cow is small (labeled a runt by the rancher), so these turned out to be small “tri-tip” steaks.  We both enjoy cooking a roast once a month, so we asked for as many of those as we could.  We included “flank steak” on the list for our stir fry dishes.  Reviewing the chart has transformed how I view the cuts of meat at the store.  In a macabre way, it’s kind of like putting a face with a name.  Now I understand why there are only 2 “tri-tip” roasts per carcass and only 1 “flank” steak.  A little anatomy lesson goes a long way!

When we called the meat service back again to place our cut order, the lady we spoke with was friendly and understanding that we were new to all of this.  We started providing a list of what we wanted and ended up explaining what we wanted to use the meat for and letting the representative complete our order.

It didn’t take long for the cuts to be made and soon my wife picked up the meat, each cut wrapped in freezer paper and labeled.  The hamburger was packaged in 1 lb sausage packages.  As I look in the freezer, I am again reminded of the meat section in the grocery store.  We now know where the various meat cuts come from instead of thinking that meat is..., well, meat.

Here is a break down of the cuts we ordered:


Where does most of the meat we see in the store come from?

The one topic we will not be very knowledgable about is where you go to buy a cow.  The opportunity to buy a cow simply fell into our lap.  I would love to learn more from others who have experience in this area.  Our education actually began when we started speaking with the rancher who owned the cow and then the company who would handle euthanizing the cow and then preparing the cuts.

First, where does most of the meat we see in the store come from?




I would expect, as with any set of facts and figures, for different groups to skew statistics to persuade their point of view.  Both highlight particular facts and generally we get a truer picture when we consider as many sources as possible.

The folks at animalrights.about.com report:

Cattle in the U.S. start life on a pasture, nursing from their mothers and eating grass. When the calves are about 12-18 months old, they are transferred to a feedlot where they eat mostly grain.

...97% of the beef produced in the U.S. is grain-fed feedlot beef, while the other 3% is grass-fed.

We see from www.explorebeef.org:

Most beef cattle spend approximately four to six months in a feedlot just prior to harvest where they are fed a grain-based diet. At the feedlot (also called feedyard), cattle are grouped into pens that provide space for socializing and exercise. They receive feed rations that are balanced by a professional nutritionist. Feedlots employ a consulting veterinarian, and employees monitor the cattle’s health and well-being daily. Feedlots are efficient and provide consistent, wholesome and affordable beef using fewer resources. The time cattle spend in a feedlot is often called the "finishing phase."

Some producers choose to finish cattle on grass pasture. The beef derived from these animals is "grass-finished" (sometimes called "grass fed"). This is a significantly smaller segment of modern beef production because it requires unique climate conditions, and it takes the cattle longer to reach market weight. All cattle—whether they are grass-finished or finished in a feedlot—spend the majority of their lives grazing on grass pasture.

Regardless of attitudes and opinions, the fact remains that most beef cattle do spend time in a feed lot eating different foods and quantities than they would naturally in wide, open fields.

As to the health implications, I adhere to a motto of natural always being better.  If cows eat grass normally and not be stuffed on a regimen of grains so we can enjoy more affordable, larger cuts of beef, then perhaps I simply eat less beef (so I can afford it) and when I do eat beef, I enjoy it knowing that I'm not pumping my body full of hormones.



Additional resources:

• http://farmingamerica.org/2013/04/18/wheres-the-beef-or-where-does-beef-come-from/
• http://eatlocalgrown.com/article/grass-fed-vs-feedlot-beef-difference.html
• http://thecattlecall.wordpress.com/

Why did we buy a cow?

These days, our family is all about saving money. There was a season of largess we enjoyed, when disposable income was included in our vocabulary. For someone who cares just a little more about the cost of a food product than the quality, of what interest would buying a grass-fed cow have over buying some hamburger meat at the discount grocery store?

Fate has a way of surprising us, sometimes for good and sometimes for not-so-good. The spice this time had a nice flavor when we received a call from a friend who informed us of someone who was trying to sell one of their cows. I am not in the business of raising beef, but apparently many who do expect to bring their raised livestock to an auction and make a profit. Raising cattle is not cheap; to break even and then to even bring in some extra money can be a challenge. In this case, the available cow was a runt. The ranchers were possibly not sure it would be worth the cost to move this cow and prepare it for auction. Perhaps they thought they could do better by finding a buyer privately. This is where we come in. It appears that the sellers made more than they would have if this heifer went to auction and we actually saved money on buying beef because we purchased it privately and in bulk, even considering the fact that we are not used to buying “organic”, grass-fed beef.

My aim with this blog is to document this wonderful opportunity to buy beef harvested from a grass-fed cow who lived happily with her mother and siblings, free range and fancy-free. I want to glean from my wife’s talent of crunching numbers and analysis exactly how much we have saved buying half a cow. I look forward to including recipes for the cuts of meat we have. I want to share my growing appreciation for where our beef comes from (for instance, there are only 2 tri-tip per cow! I wonder how many people order a tri-tip in a single day at a typical steak-house...).

By no means am I anti-meat. I believe that as many of Earth’s resources, there are many who enjoy benefitting from meat. I am also concerned, as many of you may feel, that many of us get into our daily routines, go shopping, make meals and perhaps do not think about where our food comes from. Do my kids think that hamburger grows on a bush? Do they squirm or even scream out in horror when they learn for the first time that hamburger comes from a slaughtered cow? Buying half a cow will give our family something to talk about and even gain a greater respect for food, especially meat, that we eat.