price for grass fed beef?

[colsxjack]

Hello. We just recently bought a small deep freeze and so are looking into a beef order. We are thinking a 1/4 cow. We have contacted a couple of great loacl farmers and inquired about grass fed beef.

We can get a 1/4 cow of organically raised grass fed (and finished) pastured beef delivered for $585. Including free bones too.

The cattle are naturally bred and the calves are naturally weaned from the mothers. They live with minimal human interference and are fed nothing other than their mothers milk and grass and hay in winter. They are harvested after a minimum of 60 days eating green grass and then aged for 21 days before packaging. It works out to be about $6.50/lb.

We can also get extra ground beef for $3.50/lb

We live in Ontario.

What do you pay for pastured grass fed and finished beef?

The same farmer has pastured chickens. These chickens also get fed some non-GMO grains on occasion. They are penned outside over-night to keep them from getting eaten by coyotes.

I am not sure the price of the chickens yet.

Also, we are a family of 4. We do not eat a lot of beef as of yet, but may eat more good beef.

Do you think a 1/4 cow is sufficient?

[chattyprincess]

That seems really fairly priced. Not sure what area of ontario you are in but beef in this area is OUTRAGEOUS (toronto/gta) not to mention that a tiny tiny roast that is organic/part grassfed will set you back well over $30. So yes it sounds like a real deal. The price for the ground beef sounds amazing too considering that sounds about like the price regular ground beef is. (not 100% sure of exact prices...sorry!)

[chattyprincess]

The bones are a good deal too fyi. I get a large chunkof bone ( prob 8inches long and 2inces across) and that costs me around $10.

[~Amy~]

That's slightly more than what I pay here in New Brunswick, but it sounds pretty reasonable to me.

[Hedgehog Mtn]

I'm in NH. Do you know the breed? A quarter of a jersey vs a quarter of an Angus can mean a huge difference!!

I know I see posts about grass fed meat from the southern us that makes my jaw drop (1/3 or less than what I pay!!) It's hard to compare because northern farmers have to buy or make hay / overwinter etc.

I'll tell you what I paid......

For cut and wrapped Hamburg from my hay seller I pay 3.00 wrapped. That is his fee and the butcher's fees.

I bought a whole jersey last fall (grass fed only etc) and paid 900.00ish hanging weight (this is the weight of the 4 hanging quarters......no guts, head etc) I believe it was 2.50 per lb. I didn't have a big food budget (and with 7 of us + 1 on the way we eat a lot!!!) So we paid that and picked up the quarters and did the rest ourselves.

We did this in September? October maybe. I have probably 20+ meals left. Again I have a lot of mouths to feed though.

If I were you I would start with a quarter see if you like it, see how much you go through and adjust for next time.

[cristeen]

$6.50/lb is a good price around here.  To buy by the piece, ground costs me $5.99/lb. 

I'm in a meat CSA and my box works out to almost $8/lb, and I'm getting a steal (mixed meats - beef, pork, lamb, goat, chicken, turkey).  By joining the CSA, I cut my meat budget in half. 

[colsxjack]

I am not positive about the breed. I think Jersey.

The 1/4 cow hanging weight is about 90lbs of meat. For $585 delivered. So $6.50/lb

I am in Toronto. The farm is Echo Valley Ranch. http://echovalleygrassfedbeef.com/index.html

At my work, we buy meat from YU Ranch. They also sell grass fed Long Horn Texan beef, are LFP certified and have won awards for Alternative Land Use Services. They are who I would get the ground beef from. I do not think their beef are fed only grass though. The echo valley beef is not fed anything else except grass and hay in the winter.

They do deliver to Toronto too.

We have just started really buying and eating real meats (not supermarket and/or grain fed meats) and we are excited!

[deditus]

A quarter lasts my family of 3 about 3 months and costs 3.99/lb hanging weight.

[Leilalu]

that seems about right. In California, I paid about $7 a pound, after the butcher fees and 3 deliveries per year  were added on. Here in WA, I paid $2.70 a pound last time, plus a $60 butcher fee. Now, I am splitting some with a friend and paying $2.30 a pound, with an additional butcher fee. So it really depends on where you live, for the going rate. 1/45 share seems good for your size family. I need at least 1/2 share to get us through the year. We have 6 in our family right now.

[velcromom]

Here in CA we paid $7.25 a pound for a quarter of Angus last year, not only was expensive but the quarter was large, after I added bones it was up to 130lbs. This year I'm researching for a lower price and I'm finding an average of $6/lb which if you only get a smaller quarter wouldn't be too bad. Our big quarter from last year is pretty much gone but it took us all year to eat it. I am really jealous of you all in other parts of the country getting beef so much cheaper!!