Buying Meat Directly from Farm

Trigger warning: Some discussion of animal slaughter.

Quick note: Well, hello there! It’s been a while hasn’t it. Turns out there is this massive pandemic going on and everyone’s not taking things seriously, and it’s pretty mad. We’re hoping all of you are doing well and staying safe out there. With no commute, my blog posting duties have been slacking as I’d normally write these up on the way into work while Ben drives. Crazy times we live in. Super crazy. Stay safe all!

I wanted to walk through how our experience was at buying our first beef directly from a farm as yesterday’s facebook post got me quite a few messages. So I thought I’d share our experience in the hopes that you too can buy local and support a more sustainable farm to table model.

Our meat industry as a whole is kinda gross. Factory farming methods have done a great job at providing food to grocery stores, but at a pretty significant cost to both the animals welfare, overall genetics of our food population, and as we’ve seen from this pandemic so far, is built out a pretty fragile system prone to breakage if the slightest interruption occurs. And we were looking for something different.

We did a lot of research before selecting a farm, including both a tour of their farm and a sample of their beef. With such a large purchase and change from our normal supermarket meat buying experience we wanted a farm who practiced a more sustainable method of farming and who animals lived out happy and health lives.

I know this may sound over idealistic, as yes, these animals are destined to slaughter, but that doesn’t mean their lives should be filled with suffering and pain. For selfish reasons, have been a number of studies done which shows that meat generally tastes better if the animal has had a healthy, quality of life (see this article in the Atlantic). But crowded, damp, dark, dirty conditions found in some factory farms can lead to all sorts other issues.

In our research we found Flatland Farm LLC online via facebook. They sell registered Scottish Highland Cattle. This breed originally came from Scotland, but are very popular in the US as well. They are smaller, fluffier breeds of cattle known for the very larger, very predominately displayed set of horns on their heads.

We traveled up to chat with Mark and Jamie Schulz about their setup and experience with their Highland Cattle. We got to tour of their farm and a free sample of beef to go with it. Highland beef tends to be a lot leaner and extremely tender compared to commercial beef and thus they wanted to make sure we’d be satisfied with not only the grass fed only (no commercial feed at all), but the different cattle breed as well.

The taste test was amazing and we have never had anything like it before. We decided to go ahead and purchase for an August locker date. We paid the farm a deposit ($400) to reserve our portion of the steer. We could select from a quarter, half or whole and we thought a half steer would meet our needs. With this farm, we didn’t have to arrange anything for the locker as Flatland Farms already had reserved locker dates for the processing.

We got a call on August 10th saying our steer was at the locker where he would be slaughtered and then hung for at least 10 days before processing into cuts. The total cost is now calculated based on how much the steer weighted after hanging. Our total weight for half was 225 lbs. Flatland farm charges 4.50 per lb hanging, including our initial deposit that brought us up to $1017 for the half a steer. We were told to call the processing company to walk through our cut selection. 

Flatland Farm uses Ody’s Country Meats for their processing and Ody’s was extremely friendly and helpful at walking us newbies through the selection process. Obviously there are only so many cuts of meat per animal (aka you can’t get only steaks), and you’re also potentially splitting these cuts with one (for half) or three (for fourths) others so it’s important to call quickly if you want more limited quantity items like, liver or heart.

For us, Ody’s primarily asked us these questions with our answers below:

• How many steaks per package?
  • 2 steaks
• How thick do you want your steaks cut?
  • 1″ (They said this was the minimum they recommended)
• What weight you want the roasts?
  • 3 lbs
• What size package for the burger (1- or 2-pound package)?
  • 1 lb packages
• Soup bones?
  • Yup!
• Stew meat?
  • Yup!
• Tenderized round or minute steak?
  • Sure!
• Liver? Heart? etc.
  • No thanks!

For our customizations, we asked if we could have some lard (fat) as well as we wanted to try our hand at soap making. We also asked for some soup bones. These make AMAZING bone broth when cooked in the pressure cooker and as the process breaks down the marrow inside these bones it’s also chock-full of vitamins and minerals!

We also requested less roasts, opting for more ground beef instead, as neither of us were huge fans of of roasts. We didn’t want T-bones but preferred those to be cut into sirloins and new york strips instead. You can also have specialty items made (at an additional cost) like beef jerky or beef links, but we opted out of these as with my Celiacs they couldn’t be guaranteed gluten free.

There’s an additional fee now for the processing which is paid directly to the locker for their part in cutting, preparing and wrapping up those cuts. For Ody’s this is $0.80 per lb hanging weight, which worked out to $180. From this original weight, you can expect post processing to take home around 65-70% in beef (in our case 145-160lbs). These were the cuts we ended up with:

• Specialty Cuts:
  • 9 lbs – Lard (for soap/candles) 
  • 3 packages – Soup Bones

• Ground beef
  • 75 lbs in 1 lb packages

• Roasts (we don’t eat a lot so had less of these and more ground beef) 
  • 3 – 3lbs Beef Roasts
  • 1 – Rump Roast
  • 5 packages (2 lb) – Stew Meats

• Steaks (2 steaks per package)
  • 6 packages – Rib Steaks
  • 4 packages – Sirloins
  • 6 packages – Sirloin Tips
  • 3 packages – Beef Tenderloins
  • 11 packages- Tenderized Steaks
  • 6 packages – New York Strips

We fit all the above in four of these insulated soft cooler bags from Sam’s Club (~$8 each) and brought a separate cooler for the lard. All stayed frozen during our 3 hour car ride home.

For storage, (according to the internet) you can fit approximately 35-40 lbs of meat into a cu ft of freezer space. We have a small freezer fridge combo which would have held part of these cuts but not all. The 35-40 lb estimate is if all the packages lay perfectly flat with little to no air gaps around them. We estimated we’d need around 5 cu ft minimum.

If you weren’t aware, at least in Iowa, all freezers have been sold out since about March for various reasons (#covid, #horders)… We originally placed an order to a local Jefferson appliances place towards to end of April with an estimated delivery date of the first week in August in order to store our garden produce in. But as that date came/went and the poor appliance place said their supplier had “stopped providing them shipping updates” we needed to find something quickly.

We found 5 cu ft chest freezers at Sam’s Club for $159 or so, but they also had 7 cu ft ones for just $20 more ($179). We decided for $20 more the assurance it would all fit was worth it. And everything fit perfectly!

All in all our total worked out to be $1,377 for our half a steer (~157 lbs) or about $8.88 per lb. If you’re looking for a traditional breed of cattle you can likely both get a higher quantity of meat and a bit better bang for your buck this way too. But overall we’re excited to have enough meat to last us the year and thankful to be able to support a local farmer, especially in this mess of a year.

Thanks for reading and we hope you and your families are staying safe out there. <3