A Guide to Buy Half or Whole Animals
If you like some of our products, we suggest considering purchasing a whole or half animal at substantial savings. This page is designed to give you information on how you can take part in this process.
All animals that we sell in bulk are raised with the same high standards of our individual cuts of meat. You can expect the same quality of meat when you purchase in bulk.
By purchasing the live animals from the farm and having them processed yourself, you have complete control over how the animal is processed like how thick your steaks are and how many are put in each package. Further, it saves us freezer space and processing costs are reduced dramatically so it saves you money.
This page covers policies for both beef and pork sales. You can click the links below for more information on what costs you can expect and how much of each product you will get from each type of animal.
With bulk sales of whole or half animals, we sell the live animals to you. Since you own the animal and have it processed yourself (we deliver the animal to the processor for you and we guide you through the options of how to have it processed), you are able to have it processed under custom processing regulations that save you money and hassle.
Here’s how it works:
- Talk to us about reserving your animal and work out an approximate date for delivery to the processor.
- You pay a non-refundable deposit to reserve your animal. Deposit is only refundable if we fail to produce the animal for you.
- The amount of the deposit is about one third of the total expected cost of the animal. It is determined by whether you are purchasing a half or whole share and whether you are purchasing a cow or a pig.
- The second third of the payment is expected about a month before we deliver your animal to the processor.
- We deliver the animal to the processor for you.
- You call the processor and tell them how you want your meat processed and packaged. We can talk with you about your options before this day.
- We send you an invoice shortly after we deliver your animal to the processor. This payment may be more or less than the other two payments depending on how much the animal weighs.
- The final payment is expected 3 days after we send you the invoice.
- Roughly one month after we deliver your animal to the processor, you pick up you frozen, packaged meat and pay the processor for the processing costs.
Availability of Animals:
- Often we have more pork available for bulk purchases than we do beef.
- Though we have a lot of animals on the farm at any one time, this does not mean that they are finished and ready for processing.
- Expect a time period of 6-12 months or more for beef.
- If we do not have additional pork available for sale within a three month time window, it can take 9 months or more depending upon the time of the year.
Live Weight vs. Hanging Weight vs. Meat that You Bring Home
Because farms sell animals in different ways and use differing methods of pricing, this section is designed to help you put this into perspective.
Live Weight: The live weight of the animal is just what it sounds like. How much the animal weighs before it is processed.
Hanging Weight: Also known as the “Hot Carcass Weight”, this is the weight of the animal after it is been butchered, hide removed (for beef), intestines removed, etc. It is weighed before it is cooled. This is also the base weight the processor uses to determine your processing costs, though other factors contribute to the processing costs as well. It is usually a percentage of live weight that is around 70% for pork and 62% for beef.
Meat that You Bring Home: This is usually a percentage of the hanging weight. For pork it is 65-70% of hanging weight and for beef it is around 60% of the hanging weight. It is also determined by what parts of the animal you keep like the liver, bones for broth or stock, and other factors.
Email Us to inquire about current availability.
Pork Information