Buying a cow??

[flushcut]

So what's involved with buying a cow or half a cow for freezer meat?
My wife is talking about buying a whole cow and chopping it up. So what's involved? I know you can order a cow already processed and packaged but she would like to cut the middle man out and package it ourselves.
My thing is I would like to vacuum pack the meat instead of butchers paper so it will keep longer without freezer burn. Or am I just coo coo?

 

[Tree09]

Meat wrapped in plastic then butcher paper works pretty good, you can shrink wrap it but why? Stop by an actual butcher and buy some stuff wrapped, toss it in the freezer and see for yourself. To fully process a cow you need a bunch of specialty tools, which aren't exactly cheap. The guys i know that process deer (which are much smaller) have built walk in freezers, stainless counters, have large bone saws, grinders, e.t.c. Then there's the knowing your cuts of meat, how to break apart the different parts, etc. There's actually precise temperatures that everything is kept at to make it easier, like slightly frozen but not frozen hard.

My dad's cousin owned a few meat lockers and showed me some stuff, but in my opinion it's kinda like tree work, wayyyyyyyyy more to it than meets the eye. But then again, you could probably mess up and nothing bad will happen, and with some studying you could probably get really good at it over time. Are you planning on killing, skinning, e.t.c? Or just buying the large quarters or *forget exactly what they call large cuts, it has a name*

 

[flushcut]

I tried warning her that it is going to be a good bit of work and needing space to process the cow and needing to spend money on tools. I said I would ask here and find out if we are crazy or not.
I was thinking about buying it skinned, gutted, and beheaded. Breaking it into it's primal cuts and cutting it up from there.

 

[Cobleskill]

They hang it in a cooler for a week or two after butchering to improve the quality. You should be able to buy a 1/4. I would say start there. Whole cow or even a 1/2 is a lot of work.

 

[Tree09]

Some may say a ton of work if i were you i would by the large primary cuts and go from there. That's how butcher shops get their meat. The killing is done at a large specialized facility, broken into large cuts, then shipped to the smaller local butcher shops for further processing. At a minimum i would say a large grinder and a saw. Remember there's a huge difference between grinding a few burgers and grinding a couple hundred pounds. You will likely want to source some pig lard, that's used to fatten up ground meat to flavor and make it stick together, and that of course has to be mixed in. The saws I'm talking about are giant meat bandsaws. With them you can even do frozen meats, so that is ideal. You don't want anything squishy like thawed meat, you want it slightly frozen, otherwise your cuts suffer.

 

[DMc]

... I was thinking about buying it skinned, gutted, and beheaded. Breaking it into it's primal cuts and cutting it up from there.

Wow! It sounds like neither one of you have any experience in doing something like this? Maybe start with something smaller, like a rabbit.

 

[Steve Mack]

Cows are pretty big, even most of the farmers around here get a mobile butcher in.

 

[flushcut]

I've done rabbits, squirels, pheasant, duck, and gutted deer. So some experience. But nothing as big as a cow.
Buy the primal cuts sounds better to me.

 

[pantheraba]

Let your wife read this thread. Maybe she'll believe you and you won't have to do all that crazy hard work.

 

[Dave Shepard]

I don't think the effort would be worth the savings. How many chest freezers do you have room for?

 

[FireFighterZero]

You will want to hang that beef for two weeks before you cut it up.

Primals are okay but sub primals are easier yet.

You can wet age sub primals....of course you can dry age them too.

 

[pantheraba]

You just spoke a lot of voodoo, boy! Primals are screams in my world!

 

[flushcut]

 

[flushcut]

It doesn't look all that hard but I am sure this guy has been doing it forever.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

If you know someone that has done a quarter, or split a cow etc and had it processed, besides yakking with Jim who is expert supreme in the matter as it is what he lives by, I would talk to someone about their experience with whom they had butcher and process. You might find that each person has had a positive or negative experience. Some butchers suck, some do you right. You need to find one in your local that does it right. Are you going to attempt it yourself?

 

[flushcut]

I don't think I have the space to chop up a cow. Maybe next fall/winter when it's colder outside. IDK.

 

[flushcut]

Do you think a butcher is reading this thread thinking "what a bunch of hacks treeworking up that cow"

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Another way to find a good butcher or processor is talk to a local 4H project leader. They often know who to go to.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Do you think a butcher is reading this thread thinking "what a bunch of hacks treeworking up that cow"

Images of the distasteful use of a chainsaw comes to mind

 

[flushcut]

There really is one butcher in the area (12 miles) radius and they are so so.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

We've had some not so good experiences and we found some that do better than others. Some just don't follow instructions, like, we want the fat to render down for cooking and dog food. Hmmmm no fat? ok, road trip to get fat.
Or.... why mostly hamburger and where the back strap go?
Road trip to have another conversation. So it's often better to try one further out that comes recommended or find someone that processes their own. Like if Jim were my neighbor, I would make arrangements and learn from it.

 

[flushcut]

Yeah there are a few who I could learn from in the area. And basically what you said is how the butcher is here all the prime cuts just vanish.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

I would love to visit Jim and help with one to get a better understanding and pick his brain. My hands won't take that much abuse anymore. I did two goats a couple seasons ago, and I could barely hang on to a rope after that. Granted, primitive tools, but the hands were on fire from running a knife.

 

[flushcut]

It's crazy to think we can run a saw all day but wielding a butcher knife is painful. Just different muscles I guess.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Might be too many years of doing it. Meat is a bit slippery too. So you clamp tighter and hold tighter to keep your fingers from getting nicked.
Wielded my knives for a lotta years before saws....