wife told me we have maybe a month left of deer meat at most. The boys only shot 7 this year but it will be gone before April. Guess I should have had them not let so many walk after all.

Now I'm trying to decide Quarter, half, or whole beef to get by the rest of year tell deer season. Going low carb did increase our meat consumption. And two teen boys well...

It's been years since I bought half a beef. How much is half a beef running in your area. My tax lady wont have any ready tell summer and i dont remember what she said she sell it per lb. Have not heard back from my hay guy yet. One guy from 4H I saw on his website had quarters for 8.50 lb and it said 100 lbs was in a quarter in a box packaged and listed the breakdown. Seems high to me. Wife said that would be around 40- 45 meals looking at the breakdown. But it may be a good stop gap tell my tax lady or hay guy has some ready to take off.

So the way I'm looking at it after typing this out is we will need at least a full beef and about 10 deer in addition to all the chickens we raise. Looking at that sure is a lot more than I would have thought. Maybe I do need to focus on geting fence put up and get some cows.

It is just the wife and I now since the kids have married and on their own. We eat approximately 4 deer, half a beef, one hog. Our chickens are just layers, no meat birds. We eat a lot of fish caught in the local river (catfish, panfish and suckers) or the Lake of the Ozarks (crappie).

Our daughter and her husband operate a food distribution business and they get us fresh butchered chickens by the case when needed. We chamber vac them and freeze.

Fill the freezer with coon and beaver.

My family of 6 purchased one whole cow one year and it lasted us about one year. Of course we had the usual chicken thighs and hams in between, but overall we had the beef most of the time.

If you don't mind Pork you can buy a hog and help the kids butcher it, quite a bit of cheap meat. We sold our last beef for $3.60 a lb hanging weight and they paid butchering. Came out to $1,650 for a 364 lb half processed, likely around 220 lbs of beef in packages so roughly $7.50 a lb. You wont save money raising your own beef, better to just go to the sale barn and find a steer with horns or one that only got one nut taken or even a youngish bull, you'll be money ahead.

Sheep are also fairly affordable, find some on craigslist, easy to butcher.

I just butchered my second hog today and had 5 deer in the freezer, along with maybe 50 pounds of beef and chicken, will last our family of 5 until fall again. We do eat out a lot but we also host o lot of dinners as I like to cook a lot lol we also eat prob 30 pounds or so of fish a year.

I recommend the pork as well but , I’d say the whole beef, right now beef is high and if tariffs occur they’ll get higher.

I usually sell 5 or 6 finished steers a year. They’re usually 1200 to 1250 lbs. I sell whole or half to the customer and they pay the processing when they pick up their meat. Here’s how I explain price to them.

1250 lb steer will have approx 750 lb carcass for a whole, 325 lb for a half . I sell mine for 4.25 per lb carcass weight. So $3187.50 for a whole, $1593.75 for half.

Slaughter fee is around $100 per head and processing is $1.15 per lb carcass weight. So a 750lb carcass costs $962.50 to process and wrap for a whole beef. Total cost $4150.00 for a whole beef and a 750 lb carcass will yield about 450lbs or wrapped meat. Comes out to $9.22 per lb.

I probably made that a lot more complicated than just saying $9.22 per lb lol

Just shoot a few more deer

Out of season.... Well unless they start getting in the garden lol. But honestly though deer cross and have runs 100' form the garden I have not seen one or even a track since we moved in and brought the dogs home. Before we moved in full time and were going back and forth deer were back there all the time.

Thanks for the breakdown. Like I said is been years since I bout half a beef. But sounds like the 8.50 lb is not high after all. being right in the middle of 9.22 you listed and 7.50 Donnersurvivor listed.

Beef is expensive, why we talk so much about procuring venison. I treat myself once and a while with a good steak knowing I will need to pass a couple months relying on my own resources.

My daughter just bought a half, paid $5 all in. small towns are great.

I eat around 2/3rds of a pound of meat, or a little more, every day. I eat more meat than any other food group. Fruit is the next most common food I eat.

Keith

PF worth the drive for you. I get a half or whole one every year. Unreal taste and quality.

https://showalterscountrymeats.com/whole-half-beef/

jby where is this,

Canada just stopped the importation of US pork to fight the Trump tariff positions. This has caused a drop in some Pork Producers stock price (but I digress from the topic at hand)...
I would start looking for supermarket sales of pork, think hams, pork chops, pork butt, etc. You can probably fill the freezer for less than $2/lb and with almost no fuss.
Gives some nice variety in your menu choices too.

Me my wife and son go through 1/2 a beef 2 hogs,1 lamb,2 deer, a few tame rabbits, about 20 chickens and allot of fish.

My wife and I generally go through about 80-100 chickens, 4-5 deer, 1-2 pigs every year. We get a half a cow, but give the cube steak and burger to my in laws and only keep the roasts and steaks. So maybe a 1/4 or 1/8 of beef?

We go thru at least 10 deer a year here.