Beef Breakdown - Half Beef, Here's the Whole Story

A half beef consists of a front quarter plus a hind quarter - a total of seven "primal chunks" and this post goes through what the cuts are! Our price for half a cow is $5.80/lb hanging weight. This is an all inclusive price, no additional or hidden fees for processing or for anything else. (Hanging weight is when the "side of beef" (AKA half a cow, or half a beef, or half of beef, it's all the same) is hanging on a hook in one piece in the meat locker.) The price includes kill fee, carcass disposal fee, 12 days of dry-ageing, custom cut and wrap to your cut sheet, labelling and freezing, bones fat and organs at your option and at no additional charge, plus a free cookbook of your choice (we have more than 40 titles to choose from at our farmstore in Yamhill as shown in photo). A half side beef can range from about 290 to about 400 pounds, but most of our half beeves are around 340-350 pounds. Your total price is $5.80/lb times about 340-350 pounds, about $2000 total cost. We charge by the pound, each half is different!

EASY

Check out our half beef cut order form and place your order HERE https://meatingplacepdx.com/kookoolan-cutting-instructions/ - for kill date just type “New Order” and we will contact you to confirm the date and pickup and to collect a $200 deposit.

Looking for a half beef for sale? We want to be your farm for half a beef!

Our farm is in Yamhill, Oregon. We have customers all over Washington and Oregon who pick up either at our farm, or at our processor in Hillsboro, Oregon. New! We can ship frozen to you in Washington or Oregon (more states coming soon!) and we can deliver to you in the Seattle-to-Salem I-5 corridor. If you’re ready to order call us (503) 730-7535 or email myfarmer@kookoolanfarms.com, or read on for answers to all your questions!

This photo shows the muscle meats you get with a typical half beef. Plus lots of ground beef! Rib steaks on the front table come from the front quarter.

YIELD/"WHAT YOU GET"

What's the yield for half a cow? Half a cow "yields" about 66% finish-to-hang, meaning that for a 340-lb hanging weight half, you can expect about 225 lbs of finished (cut and wrapped) meat, not counting bones, fat and organs. 225/340 = 0.66. You will need about 11 cubic feet of freezer space to store this. (To help you visualize: that's about four big blue Ikea bags.) Half a beef weight from Kookoolan Farms can range from 280 to 420 lbs over the course of all animals over the whole year, you can request a larger or smaller half of beef weight.

HOW YOUR BEEF IS PACKAGED

These photos also show how you can expect your finished beef to be wrapped: steaks and roasts are double-wrapped in butcher paper with each cut labelled. Ground beef in 1-to-2-lb vacuum tubes, you specify package size. Your beef will keep well in the freezer at least two years with no deterioration in flavor or texture and with no freezer burn. Kookoolan Farms is the only farm we have ever heard of that offers a full money-back guarantee: you will love your beef, or we will buy it back and eat it ourselves! (The colder you run your freezer, the better and longer everything in your freezer will keep.) If that's more meat than you were expecting, yes we do offer smaller shares, CLICK HERE to check out our detailed beef flier!

What cuts are in half a cow? One of the special pleasures of ordering a custom half beef is getting that meat cut and wrapped exactly as you prefer it. We strive to make this as stress-free as possible for you. Please check out our blog posts on Front Quarter and Rear Quarter -- a half beef is comprised of one of each. At the highest level, you can expect about 50% ground beef, 20% roasts, 20% steaks, and 10% miscellaneous cuts such as ribs and cross-cut shanks and stew meat, but there is a wide latitude to adjusting this to your preferences. Steaks can be any thickness you prefer. Roasts can be any size you prefer. Beef custom tailored to your family size and cooking preferences! The details are in our front quarter and rear quarter posts!

A half beef provides meals for a typical family of four for about a year.

This photo shows half a beef in a chest freezer.

Your Kookoolan Farms ground beef comes to you in these vacuum-packed tubes, sized 1-lb or 1.5-lb or 2-lb as you prefer!

A half beef comes to you in about 8 of these boxes (can vary from 6 to 12 boxes depending on the weight of your animal and whether you are asking for lots of extra bones, fat, and organ meats).

HOW TO RESERVE

To reserve you can simply phone us (503) 730-7535 or email myfarmer@kookoolanfarms.com. We will verify that we have all your contact information (full name, phone number and email) and we'll ask for a $200 deposit to confirm -- you can mail us a check payable to Kookoolan Farms, or use your online banking/billpay to have your bank send us a check, or use Zelle to transfer the money, or we can add a 3% service fee and run your credit or debit card.

A Kookoolan Farms T-bone steak (from the hind quarter)

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Your cow will be slaughtered about two weeks before the promised finish date, and within a day or two later, we will email you with the exact weight and price of your half cow, and with the link to our processor's web page so you can put in your custom cutting instructions. We’ll also ask you to commit to WHEN and WHERE you would prefer to pick up your finished meat.

Kookoolan Farms New York strip steak (from the hind quarter)

HALF BEEF CUTS

We’ve had many customers tell us that what stresses them out about a half beef what cuts to request. No more stress! Really: relax, this is fun. Nobody is grading you on your knowledge or clever answers, and the right way to cut it is the way that works for YOU. Beef is simple wholesome food and it’s not complicated. Our half beef cut sheet walks you through the process with easy questions. Just click to get started. For the “kill date” just write in “New Order” and we will contact you to confirm the date and pickup details.

ABOUT OUR BEEF

100% grass-fed and grass-finished. For customers within Oregon, your beef is field-killed (not trucked to slaughter) for the gentlest-possible "last day" for the cow and for the absolute best quality and flavor for you. (For out-of-state customers, interstate commerce laws require us to use a USDA slaughter, please just ask us (503) 730-7535 or myfarmer@kookoolanfarms.com if you have questions!) Twelve full days of dry-ageing for tenderness and flavor. Only Kookoolan Farms has our money-back guarantee: you will love your beef or we will buy it back and eat it ourselves. We have half a beef for sale every month, call or email to find out how soon we can put one in your freezer.

Kookoolan Farms beef cattle feeding on pasture

ABOUT US

Kookoolan Farms was established in October 2005. Our founder, Farmer Chrissie, was a near-vegetarian engineer at Intel Corporation with severe anemia who needed to start eating meat, but could not find any 100% grassfed beef or any farm she wanted to buy beef from. Kookoolan Farms was founded in a fit of temper tantrum when she realized she’d just have to figure out how to do it herself. That DIY spirit and determination to do things the right way has resonated with our customers across the years. Both Chrissie and many of our customers have seen a return to health by eating more healthy fats and proteins, and reducing or eliminating simple carbohydrates AKA sugar and white flour.

We have had literally thousands of happy customers all over Oregon and Washington for our 100% grass-fed beef, 100% grassfed lamb, pastured heirloom pork, pasture-raised organic-fed chickens, pastured free-range turkeys, premium wild-caught seafood, and wine and mead. We prefer to let our customers tell you about us: you can check out our reviews on google, facebook or yelp. We look forward to helping you fill your freezer with premium grass-fed meats and wild-caught seafood from a local farm you can trust. We are at your service by phone or email if you have additional questions as you’re considering our grassfed beef, and when you're ready to order. We look forward to helping you fill your freezer with premium grass-fed meats and wild-caught seafood from a local farm you can trust. We are at your service by phone or email if you have additional questions as you’re considering our grassfed beef, and when you're ready to order.

SHIPPING

Wherever you are in Oregon or Washington, Kookoolan Farms has beef for sale near me! In 2022 we started shipping frozen meat and we offer delivery to some areas. Just call (503) 730-7535, or email myfarmer@kookoolanfarms.com, we’ll figure out how to make it work!

Customers from Portland Oregon Salem Hillsboro Beaverton Lake Oswego Cornelius West Linn Oregon City King City Tualatin Gresham Tigard Wilsonville Milwaukie Maywood Park Wood Village Multnomah Village Hillsdale Happy Valley Sherwood Troutdale Canby Newberg McMinnville Gaston Yamhill Carlton Gladstone Fairview Banks Vancouver Estacada Scappoose Sandy North Plains Molalla Damascus St Helens Saint Helens Camas Washington Tacoma Washington Olympia Lakewood Centralia Chehalis Castle Rock Kelso Woodland Vancouver Keizer Kaiser Kaizer Corvallis Oregon Coast