Does anyone buy 1/2 a cow?

Easywider

I live by myself and I buy a half beef every 9 months or so. Much more cost effective and the quality of trim is better seeing as I do it myself. If you've got some butchering know how, it's a great way to stock up and save money. You'll also want to invest in a vacuum packing bagger and a horizontal deep freezer.

Roni_M

We bought a half a cow once. I would recommend really thinking about the cuts you want. In our case we went through the hamburger fairly quickly and ended up with more steak and roasts than we could eat (family of 4). If i did it again, I would get more hamburger done up.

Standard thinking in this area is one year in the freezer if wrapped properly. Luckily I was able to make arrangements with the local soup kitchen and they were able to take the meat before the year was up (they won't accept it after a year in the freezer). They got two dinner services out of what I had left, so it wasn't a waste and some less fortunate folks got to enjoy it.

jfsears

If you are buying for the savings aspect of it, its a great idea, but I would go for 1/4, 1/2 is a lot of meat for your first time if you do not split it. It will last a year if wrapped properly and in proper freezer (not fridge/freezer combo)

If you are buying for the piece of mind- wanting to know where your food comes from- make sure to find out the living conditions, what they eat etc. You don't want to buy a corn eating anabotic overloaded beef- might as well just stick to the super market.

aj_31

Thanks for all the feedback!

We are still looking into this. I'm not exactly sure what we are going to do. I do have someone that would like to split the 1/2 with us so that is an option as well.

As far as having to buy a new freezer I don't mind spending the money on that. I need one anyways as the one in my fridge/freezer combo in my garage isn't very big to begin with and we buy a lot of bulk frozen items so it would come in handy anyways. And around my area you can get new ones pretty cheap.