How does bulk beef pricing work?
One of the most frequent questions we get, is how much beef you get when you purchase, and what that beef is priced at.
We sell our beef for $6/lb based on the hanging weight. This includes cut and wrap charges.
The hanging weight is the weight of the animal on a butcher hook, when the organs and other non-beef parts have been removed, and the animal is ready to be cut and wrapped. The hanging weight will include some bone, and some “trim”, which is generally excess fat or small bits of tissue that remain after the cuts are removed.
We don’t use the live weight of the animal to calculate your total price, because a large percentage of a live animal weight at the time of processing is not consumable. Almost all “freezer beef” sales in Canada direct from local ranchers use the hanging weight (sometimes called carcass weight), as it’s the easiest way to measure a fair weight for a customer.
If you want to estimate how much actual beef you will be getting, you can estimate approximately 55-60% of the hanging weight will be actual beef in your freezer, but remember, every animal is different. As a general rule on a well finished steer, the hanging weight is 60% of the live weight and the cut and packaged meat is on average about 60% of the hanging weight. If the beef animal is overly finished, the hanging weight to packaged meat yield is lower because more is trimmed off. If there isn't enough fat, the yield is also lower because there is more bone per fat/muscle.
Our Price vs Grocery/Retail Price
We recently shopped around for a few items and compared prices, just for curiosity sake. We averaged out prices from a large wholesale warehouse, a large grocery retailer and a local co-op. Here’s what we found:
Ground Beef: $6.65/lb
Rib Steak: $17.68/lb
Stew Meat: $15.47/lb
Tenderloin: $23.47/lb
When you compare this to the price per pound of actual meat in your freezer when you account for the percentage of meat from hanging weight, you’re saving a LOT of money, and it’s especially noticeable on steaks and roasts.
Custom Cutting
When you purchase a half or whole beef, you get the luxury of deciding how you want your beef butchered. This means you get to select between a lot of steak and roast options for various muscles, your steak thickness, the size of your ground beef packages and more. If you aren’t sure what you want, or you want something that is a little out of the ordinary, we can help you make selections and get your cutting instructions set up so you get exactly what you want, and what’s best for your family.
If you’re wondering why we don’t do custom cutting instructions for quarters, it’s because quarter packages are a mix of front and hind cuts from a half, which will be split with another customer. A half has to be processed at a time, and it’s difficult to process some of the cuts in two different ways and ensure there is an equal amount of beef in both quarters. This is a great opportunity for you to partner up with a friend or neighbour on a half, and decide on your cutting instructions together. We can have it boxed in quarters and deliver it that way, so you don’t have to do any of the extra work!
Pros and Cons of Bulk Beef
We’re not here to hide anything from you, so we wanted to share a list of pros and cons to purchasing beef in bulk.
Pros: we like these, and we’re proud of ‘em!
You know where your meat came from
You can ask us questions about your beef and how it is raised
You always have beef on hand
You’re saving a LOT of money
Cons: we know it’s not for everyone, but we’ll try to help in any way we can!
It’s an upfront investment
You don’t know your exact cost when you order
You might be unsure what to do with some of the cuts (there’s literally an app for that!)
Still have questions? Shoot us a message here on the website, or say hello on Facebook or Instagram. We love to chat about our ranch, our beef and our family!
