Quantity: We provide beef by the individual cut and we also provide beef in three quantities: Whole beeve (single animal), Half (half animal), Quarter (mix of cuts from front and hind quarters from one half carcass.) If this is your first experience with grass-fed beef or you have limited freezer capacity, we suggest you first order by the individual cut and then graduate to a larger quantity once you have experienced for yourself how truly different and wonderful natural grass-fed beef really is. For those of you who are already true local grass-fed beef converts, or become so after enjoying our beef, eating as our hunter-gatherer forebears did not so many generations ago, you will want to order a Quarter (approx. 3 cubic feet), Side (approx 6 cubic feet), or Whole Beeve (approx. 12 cubic feet) for your freezer.
Yields: The grass-finished live weight of an individual Wolf Creek Farm harvest animal (beeve) is typically 1000 to 1100 pounds. This beeve produces a hanging carcass weighing approximately 55% of the live animal, or 550 to 605 pounds. This hanging carcass consists of two identical sides (halves), each of which contains a front quarter and a hind quarter. These sections of the hanging carcass can be cut into a variety of bone-in and boneless cuts (see Retail Beef Cuts.) The hanging carcass typically yields an average of 64% finished cuts, or 350 to 390 pounds (see Beef Yields.)
Cutting: Key cutting decisions include the proportion of steaks vs. roasts, whether the cuts are bone-in or boneless, and the degree of fat trimming. Our standard cutting approach favors steaks over roasts in the summer months and the opposite in winter months, favors boneless cuts over bone-in cuts for smaller plate portions, and trims the exterior fat to produce Ground Beef in the 82-86% lean range and Ground Round in the 90-94% lean range. See Beef Yields for average distribution of finished cuts from our standard cutting. When you order by individual cut, you can determine the specific quantity by cut and form (bone-in vs. boneless) you receive. When you order a Quarter, we will assemble a representative mix of cuts from our standard cutting approach, representing one quarter of the final beef from an individual beeve. When ordering a Half or Whole Beeve, you may provide our butcher with Custom Cutting instructions.
Assurances: Regardless of your order quantity, you can rest assured it will come from a single animal that was born local to your table on Wolf Creek Farm and was free of artificial hormones and antibiotics for its entire life, living strictly on a diet of mother's milk and the grasses and legumes from the farm. Contrast this with the beef you might buy from the highly concentrated beef industry, which is typically injected with artificial growth hormones, receives routine antibiotics in feed supplements, spends more than half its life in confinement feed-lots consuming a non-natural grain-based diet, and then is co-mingled with other animals at slaughter. In a study conducted by Colorado State University in 1998, researchers found that "The smallest number of cattle contributing muscles and/or fat to a single 4-ounce ground beef patty was, on average, 55 and the greatest number, on average, was 1082." Even beef that is labeled "organic" is typically fed a grain-based diet, and beef that is labeled "grass-fed" is often fed purchased hays in a confined feedlot environment. Thus, the best way to ensure your beef comes from a single, antibiotic and artificial hormone free, and naturally grass-fed animal is to purchase Animal Welfare Approved beef from your local farm, Wolf Creek Farm.
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