Buying beef

[Tex_77]

Just curious, how does everyone buy the majority of the beef they eat? Are you buying by the quarter/half/whole from someone you know who has cattle? Are you buying directly from from a local meat locker, or are you buying all your beef from a grocery store?

I buy the majority of my beef by the quarter from a local rancher that is friends with my family. I also buy some whole primals from Costco, and will occasionally buy beef at the grocery store if there is a good sale on it. The quarter I just got I paid $2.50/# plus processing fees. Its definitely the most economical way for me to buy beef.

[knifemaker3]

Raise my own and have them butchered. But it’s easier to do living on the family beef farm! LOL!

Also kill and process my own deer.

May start raising pigs again to butcher as well.

[Tex_77]

knifemaker3 Well if you do pigs at least you’ll have a lot of bacon which is never a bad thing!

[knifemaker3]

Tex_77 said in Buying beef:

knifemaker3 Well if you do pigs at least you’ll have a lot of bacon which is never a bad thing!

I make a lot of breakfast sausage out of ground deer meat, as well as brats, snack sticks, summer sausage. Hope to try corned deer roast this fall if I kill enough deer.

Currently we buy hogs off other friends farms and have them butchered. I make polish sausage, some breakfast sausages out of the ground pork. Belly and jowls get cured and smoked into bacon of course. Next one I may try buckboard bacon. Oh, the loins are made into Canadian (back) bacon.

[Joe Hell]

Tex_77 I used to buy meat when it was on sale. More chicken than anything mainly due to price. Now that I’m employed at a butcher shop I don’t buy much but I get a lot of take home product at little or no cost. My favorite cut lately has been the hanging tender! These days the only thing I buy at the store is veggies.

[Tex_77]

Joe Hell Hard to beat hanging tender, but it’s a pain to trim them.

[Joe Hell]

Tex_77 That’s what I’ve been told! The last one was a freebie as it wasn’t as presentable as the butcher was hoping for.

[Departing Contestant]

Tex_77 We buy from our family’s beef and hogs. In between we always from the local locker

[Jonathon]

Tex_77 When I want something really specific or I have family in town I usually head to a local butcher that I really like. When I am just buying chicken, beef or pork for myself it is usually Sam’s or our local grocery store.

Joe Hell Rubbing it in that you have access to all that meat huh?! Trying to make us all jealous? Well, it’s working rather well…

[Tex_77]

Some of probably the most over looked places to buy meat are College/University meat labs. Labs that I am familiar with include K-State, Oklahoma Panhandle State, Garden City Community College, and Red Raider Meats at Texas Tech. If you live close to an ag school that is somewhere I would certainly look to buy meat, not just for the quality, but you will be supporting the school and students in those meat programs as well.

[Departing Contestant]

Tex_77 an Excellent suggestion - well done

[Joe Hell]

Jonathon It’s what I do!

[PapaSop]

Tex_77
Great idea. Wish I was a little closer to UW Madison. Great program there from what I’m told.

[Joe Hell]

Tex_77 That is very good advice!

[Tex_77]

Well look what I found at my local college meat lab.

[MT Elk Hunter]

We only buy beef at a nice restaurant. At home it’s some sort of venison meat we have taken.

[Brownie]

I buy most of my meat from the local restaurant we frequent. Way cheaper than locker or grocery stores.

[jimmbay1]

Tex_77 I buy mine from a Meat locker & Have been doing business with them for over 40 years. My father use to also get er done there also…

[Jonathon]

We used to have access to a local supplier that made things very convenient and cheap. Now we buy from butcher shops around town, which is great but not as cheap!

[Joe Hell]

Jonathon Way to support your local butchers!