[Willowlynn]

I am thinking of buying a cow to slaughter and fill the freezer with meat. Has anyone done this? Any tips - or know where to find a cow?

[kkkuelbs]

well, we have bought 1/2 of a cow & a whole pig before. we called a butcher shop & they took care of it. very good deal i think. they just packed it up in boxes & we took it away.
are you planning on cutting it up yourself or having a butcher do it? i would just call up a butcher shop or meat market & they can guide you from there.

[Willowlynn]

We don't have a butcher shop or meat market near by.

[gagesmommy]

If you don't have a butcher shop I hope you're prepared to do it yourself! Its a job! Its a very good deal though. Its cheaper to butcher yourself, but lots of work. Well worth it! Do you have a sales barn near or know anyone with cows that would let you buy one? Other than that I don't know.

[Justlooking1208]

We buy 1/2 a cow at the butcher shop. Oh my goodness the difference in the taste as opposed to store bought meat. Most of it is very lean. Especially the ground beef.

[kimmyann123]

check with local farms.

[Willowlynn]

Thanks everyone

[Willowlynn]

Pastured Products Directory - Eat Wild

I found this webpage - seems to have a lot of good info.

[grace.maddie]

we bought 1/4 of a cow. we found a guy who was having his cow butchered and split it up between a group of friends.
we feel it was an awesome deal, it was all organic black angus. even after paying our portion for the butcher we paid less than $1.80 per pound. its hard to get groun beef for that price these days, and we got a lot of nice cuts as well.

[wlcross]

If you only lived in Nebraska! My daddy raises them! Find a farmer and alot of times you can get a deal on an injured one .... if you get a butcher you'll have to pay for processing which is normal. The processing here is a little over $300 and then of course you have to pay for the cow.

[Random Refunder]

Are the "butcher shops" you guys are referring too the same as what we call a "processing" center here in the south?

We have what's called processing centers and you can drop your deer or what ever game you killed hunting and have it "processed" and there are also ones that are meat processing plants (even if it's nothing more than the size of a barn) where you can buy a cow at the auction and have it "processed". You might want to check under 'meat processing" or something like that. I agree that it's much more economical and better (if you know the livestock grower's reputation) than grocery store meat. Make sure you have room in the freezer! =)

[sbcreeker]

My SIL's family own a cow farm in WI. She gets cows from them all the time. I have yet to do this. She's asked before, but I never had an extra freezer. Now I do thanks to the Jewel freezer deal! I may need to consider this. If anyone wants me to get info from her...
PM me.

[patbruck]

We never actually bought one, but my dad is a farmer and raised his own. Growing up we always had a freezer full of beef. We actually used to do it ourselves. My dad's uncle was/is a butcher and we had a meat saw and all that jazz. It's actually not nearly as gross as it sounds, believe me. It's a huge task, and we had an equally huge family that we shared the meat with, so everyone pitched in. Nowadays my mom & dad just send an animal to a butcher shop and let someone else do the dirty work.

My only gripe is that with the meat you buy in the store, the nutrition info is printed on it. Only x percent of fat goes into the ground beef, for instance. When a butcher shop is doing it, you kind of tell them how lean you want it, but no real guarantee of what's in it, kwim? that's probably a bigger deal to me than most people though

[cundiff2001]

I have seen farmers list 1/4, 1/2, and whole cows and pigs around here on craigslist. They take it to the processor for you and it is much nicer this way. When I was a child and lived in Southern Illinois, my uncle had a hog farm. Every once and awhile, one would get into the electric fence and die . He and my day would butcher it and soak it in cold water and salt to get the blood out. I CAN NOT stand that irony smell to this day.

I plan on doing this with a 1/2 cow and 1/2 pig as soon as we get moved and settled. We will have the space and I agree the prices are WAY better and the quality as well.

[momtoaprincess]

we do this all the time.

my only advice is to buy it from someone you know, so that you know for sure what the cow has been fed. you never know what kind of "vitamins" or "extra nutrients" a farmer has fed their cattle.

[redheadcouponclipper]

We have always shot and cleaned our own pigs they run wind in the back 40, so all we have to do is go sit in the deer stand and take out a big mama or daddy wild pig there are so many here in western Kentucky. We hang them and let them bleed out, cut all the skin off then cut them up then put them in the bath tub with a lot of salt/water, then we make roasts and bacon out of the pig. Makes great BBQ... We do the same with deer, then we ground some of the deer up and the rest we make roasts, steaks out of it, the best part is the back strap of the deer makes great steaks.
For cows we go to the auction and buy them and have the processor cut them up for us.

[my3girlz]

Originally Posted by patbruck

We never actually bought one, but my dad is a farmer and raised his own

Same here! My dad raises blank angus, so we split two cows between my parents, my sister & us. I could never go back to buying beef in a store. Not to mention, it has saved us so much money!! I love my daddy

[cheryl-tx]

Probably the easiest start is to find a local auction for livestock and they will usually be able to direct you to the slaughter house which will usually charge you a processing fee by the lb. We usually sold our steers at auction and buyers would simply have them taken to the processor directly from the auction house. We just took ours to the processor directly. Check the yellow pages or check local livestock sales in the local paper classified, start making phone calls, someone can probably point you in the right direction.

[booboo]

we have been doing this for yrs. we buy the cow from a friend and another friend cuts it up. we pay 1.00 a lb for ours

[Byrammom]

Originally Posted by Willowlynn

Pastured Products Directory - Eat Wild

I found this webpage - seems to have a lot of good info.

Thank you! Very helpful!