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What's the price difference between industrial beef and the beef from your friend's farm?

by bcook 10y ago

douche 10y ago
When my folks buy a half or whole beef creature from the farmer down the hill, it works out to be cheaper than buying the same cuts at retail. Last time I ran the numbers it was $3.50 - $4/pound; of course that's over everything, from stew meat and liver to ribeyes and tenderloin. The farmer takes the animal to the butcher shop, where it's slaughtered, hung, cut, packaged, vacuum-sealed, and flash frozen. In every way, it's superior to grocery store meat. You just need to be able to purchase it in bulk and have an entire freezer to store it.
- hedgehog 10y ago
  There's a startup called CrowdCow that sells this grade of beef but in smaller portions: https://www.crowdcow.com https://www.crowdcow.com
mikekchar 10y ago
I also had a friend raising grass fed organic beef. This was about 10 years ago when I was still in Canada, but I seem to remember that his prices were fairly comparable to the supermarket. Cheaper than a high end butcher anyway. He had a series of setbacks (a serial arsonist burnt down his barn, mad cow disease restricted his access to slaughter houses, foot and mouth disease in the area, etc...) In the end he had to cut down his herd fairly dramatically and he ended up doing a lot of vegetable farming to fill the gap. Not sure how he's doing now, but at the time there was a crazy waiting list to get his beef. And it was spectacular. I'm pretty sure he was going to try to build his herd back up, but then he was also pretty upset by all of the problems he had. The relative simplicity of high end organic veggies was growing on him.
acchow 10y ago
Edit: misread your comment. Removing mine.
HeyLaughingBoy 10y ago
Not the OP, but I've been buying beef from a farmer I know (relative of a friend) for the last few years. It's grass-fed, high quality beef and I buy about 250 lbs at a time which lasts us about a year. Total cost per lb including butchershop costs (cutting into steaks, roasts, grinding, etc.) averages under $3/lb. Only the cheapest hamburger in the store is available at that price around here. The few times I've needed to buy store bought I can instantly taste the difference. And now that I'm almost out of beef I'm in the "annoying" position of having nothing left in the freezer but a few T-bone and ribeye steaks because I hid some in the bottom last year :-)
- sushid 10y ago
  What part of the US do you live in? I'm looking at at the very least around $6.50/lb for a half a steer in the Bay Area.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 10y ago
    That's insane. I live outside the Minneapolis metro area. As far as I can tell, he's not giving me a special price. I buy a quarter; I'm sure a half would be a little cheaper. It's in line with what I've heard from other people. Bison is a little more expensive, but not by much.

What's the price difference between industrial beef and the beef from your friend's farm?

by bcook 10y ago

What's the price difference between industrial beef and the beef from your friend's farm?

When my folks buy a half or whole beef creature from the farmer down the hill, it works out to be cheaper than buying the same cuts at retail. Last time I ran the numbers it was $3.50 - $4/pound; of course that's over everything, from stew meat and liver to ribeyes and tenderloin. The farmer takes the animal to the butcher shop, where it's slaughtered, hung, cut, packaged, vacuum-sealed, and flash frozen. In every way, it's superior to grocery store meat. You just need to be able to purchase it in bulk and have an entire freezer to store it.

hedgehog 10y ago
There's a startup called CrowdCow that sells this grade of beef but in smaller portions: https://www.crowdcow.com https://www.crowdcow.com

mikekchar 10y ago

I also had a friend raising grass fed organic beef. This was about 10 years ago when I was still in Canada, but I seem to remember that his prices were fairly comparable to the supermarket. Cheaper than a high end butcher anyway. He had a series of setbacks (a serial arsonist burnt down his barn, mad cow disease restricted his access to slaughter houses, foot and mouth disease in the area, etc...) In the end he had to cut down his herd fairly dramatically and he ended up doing a lot of vegetable farming to fill the gap. Not sure how he's doing now, but at the time there was a crazy waiting list to get his beef. And it was spectacular. I'm pretty sure he was going to try to build his herd back up, but then he was also pretty upset by all of the problems he had. The relative simplicity of high end organic veggies was growing on him.

acchow 10y ago

Edit: misread your comment. Removing mine.

HeyLaughingBoy 10y ago

Not the OP, but I've been buying beef from a farmer I know (relative of a friend) for the last few years. It's grass-fed, high quality beef and I buy about 250 lbs at a time which lasts us about a year. Total cost per lb including butchershop costs (cutting into steaks, roasts, grinding, etc.) averages under $3/lb. Only the cheapest hamburger in the store is available at that price around here. The few times I've needed to buy store bought I can instantly taste the difference. And now that I'm almost out of beef I'm in the "annoying" position of having nothing left in the freezer but a few T-bone and ribeye steaks because I hid some in the bottom last year :-)

sushid 10y ago
What part of the US do you live in? I'm looking at at the very least around $6.50/lb for a half a steer in the Bay Area.
- HeyLaughingBoy 10y ago
  That's insane. I live outside the Minneapolis metro area. As far as I can tell, he's not giving me a special price. I buy a quarter; I'm sure a half would be a little cheaper. It's in line with what I've heard from other people. Bison is a little more expensive, but not by much.