Buying a Portion of a Cow is a Great Way to Stock Your Freezer with Beef

This year I decided to stock my freezer with beef by buying a quarter of a cow and I'm glad I did.

At first I wasn't sure if it was a good deal. The price was steep and after working out how much money I was spending per pound of beef, I realized that it was basically the same as buying meat at the grocery store. The upfront payment was scary, but I decided to go ahead and give it a try.

Saves Money

The obvious advantage is that you don't need to run to the grocery store when you need to buy meat. You only need to grab it from the freezer and thaw it out.

This seems like a little thing, but it is helpful. Not only do you save money on the gas you'd burn driving to the store, but you also don't spend money buying things you may not need. I don't know about you, but I rarely leave the store with only one item.

Safe Food

I have two growing boys that are beginning to eat a lot more than they used to. They always seem to be hungry. Having beef in the freezer is a great way to keep them full. They need the protein and I know the beef they're eating isn't some hormone infused product.

We chose a cow that was grass and grain fed. She was, for the most part a free-range animal. This means the beef is much leaner than the store bought version.

When you buy beef from the grocery store, you don't know what you're getting. How was the cow fed? Was it injected with hormones to make her mature faster? Was she grass or grain fed? Typically you won't know any of these answers. But when you buy beef directly from a rancher, you know what you're getting.

You can even be in on the ground level of your cows' life. Buy the beef while the cow is a calf and you can have a say in how the animal is fed and cared for.

I understand that the FDA inspects and monitors grocery store beef for quality and safeness. Buying grocery store beef is perfectly safe; I just think it's good to know exactly what you're getting.

You Choose the Cuts

Another great advantage to buying beef this way is you can have it cut anyway you want. For instance we eat a lot of ground beef, so we had the butcher turn the majority of our cow into ground beef.

We specified how many steaks we wanted, we even chose how thick the cuts should be. The choices are endless. The butcher neatly wraps each piece of meat and it's ready to be frozen. Our freezer is full and we only bought a quarter of a cow. I expect the meat to last almost a year.

As our family grows we'll probably have to buy more than just a quarter, but for now were set.

Buying beef this way takes a little more effort, but it's worth it. You get leaner, healthier beef, you choose your cuts, and you know what you're eating.