All About a Half Beef from Kookoolan Farms
Updated: Mar 20, 2022
Our price for a half cow is $5.80/lb hanging weight. (Hanging weight is when the "side of beef" (AKA half cow) is hanging on a hook in one piece in the meat locker.) This is an all inclusive price, no additional or hidden fees for processing or for anything else. The price includes kill fee, carcass disposal fee, 12 days of dry-ageing, custom cut and wrap to your processing instructions (you can preview that process HERE by stepping through the questionnaire with bogus answers, but please do not save your instructions until I ask you to do, getting early or extraneous instructions confuses our processor), 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 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 for a typical family's year of beef. We charge by the pound, so each half is a slightly different price!
This photo shows the whole-muscle cuts from a typical half beef, photo courtesy of Revel Meat Co who is one of our processors. In addition to the cuts shown here, the typical half beef will include about 80 lbs of ground beef (or a combination of ground meat and stew meat) which can be packaged in 1, 1.5, or 2-lb packages per your preference. YOU choose the thickness of your steaks, YOU choose how many steaks per package, YOU choose how many roasts and what size the roasts are, YOU choose which cuts to keep and which to route to ground beef. That's the beauty of custom processing.
Custom Half Beef
is identical to a front quarter plus a hindquarter (see our other blog posts), and is custom cut to your custom processing instructions. Choose this option for maximum variety of cuts, maximum control over how it’s cut, and best value overall. Requires about 11 cubic feet of freezer space to store. We do have a one-page flier with all the details for a half beef, just ask! $5.80/lb hanging weight is an all inclusive price, no additional or hidden fees for processing or for anything else. The price includes kill fee, carcass disposal fee, 12 days of dry-ageing, custom cut and wrap to your processing instructions (you can preview that process HERE by stepping through the questionnaire with bogus answers, but please do not save your instructions until I ask you to do, getting early or extraneous instructions confuses our processor), labelling and freezing, bones fat and organs at your option and at no additional charge. About $2000 total cost on average but can vary from $1600 to $2300 depending on the size of the actual animal. Yield varies with your cutting instructions: bone-in roasts and steaks and higher-fat ground beef are choices that result in higher yield; boneless steaks and roasts and leaner ground beef are choices that result in lower yield.) On average, beef yields about 60% meaning that for an average 340-lb hanging half, you can expect approximately 205 lbs of finished meat, not counting bones, fat and organs.
We want to be your farm! Call or email today. We are Real Farmers who happen to sometimes ship beef and sometimes deliver beef. We actually prefer it when you pick up at our farm in Yamhill, Oregon, but we totally get it that that's not realistic for everybody. Email us at myfarmer@kookoolanfarms.com and we'll reply right away. Call us at 503-730-7535 and a Real Farmer will answer the phone. Let us help you fill your freezer with the best 100% grass-fed-and-finished beef & lamb, and pasture-raised pork & poultry!
Cattle on our summer pasture
Half beef in a customer's chest freezer, photo courtesy a happy customer!
Kookoolan Farms ground beef can be packaged in 1-lb., 1.5-lb., or 2-lb chubs as you prefer!
Pick up at our beautiful farmstore in Yamhill, Oregon. Or at our processor The Meating Place in Hillsboro. Or talk with us about your delivery or shipping needs.
