What is a beef share?

Are you interested in buying local beef, but not sure what to expect... let's walk through the process. 

Local farmers and ranchers typically sell beef 'shares' which can be a 1/4, 1/2, or a whole animal. Price can be a predetermined for each share or based on the final hanging weight.

A deposit is typically required to reserve your share, at which point the farmer will let you know what butcher they will be using and any other details you will need.

Depending on the farmer and butcher, you can have your share custom cut. How many steaks do you want in a package? Bone-in or boneless steaks? Do you want roasts or that cut turned into more burger? Soup bones or dog bones? Do you want the offal (the edible internal organs)? Do you want the extra fat for making tallow? 

On the scheduled date, the farmer will deliver the live animal to the butcher. The butcher will dispatch the animal humanely. The carcass will be weighed and this is the final 'on the rail' weight. This is the weight that a lot of farmers use to calculate the price of your share. Butchers will also use this weight for determing their processing fees. 

You will pay the farmer the balance due on your share, and will also pay the butcher for the processing fees.

The time between the butcher date and when your beef is ready to pick up varies, but is typically around two weeks.

If you made it this far through the long winded write-up, thank you. It is a pretty simple process and a great way to shop local... supporting a local farmer, a local butcher, and all the people involved along the way!

Spring heifer update

Looking forward to warmer and dryer weather around the farm.  The wet doesn't stop the chores, and the few nice days we do have are filled to the brim.

Our almost yearling heifers have been going through their socialization classes, lol!  Aka, get them in a smaller paddock, work with them, and decide who makes the next cut for potential breeding stock.  A few will join the beef crew, a few will be retained, and we are faced with the decision of who will be offered for sale.

Make sure to follow our farm's FB page for the most up to date information on potential animals for sale.  We will be making an announcement in the next few weeks.

2024 NWHCA Spring Production Sale

Margaret of Asman has been consigned to the NWHCA Spring Production Sale, being held online at cowbuyer.com.  Lots will be available for bidding soon, with the auction closing on April 27th at 5pm PDT.

Margaret is a yearling heifer showing great potential along with a noteworthy pedigree. Her dam, Cape St. Mary's Vera, hails from the iconic Cape St. Mary's herd on Lopez Island, Washington with decades of breeding experience, great maternal instincts and amazing udders. Her sire, STR Journey, is the progeny of Rioghail of Balmoral and Yarnelle Farms Betula. He is a full sibling to STR Armageddon, the 2020 National Western Stock Show reserve grand champion. Our farm focuses on grass-fed beef, but Margaret would also hold her own in a show ring. She has a very calm demeanor, enjoys brushing, and has been started on the halter. With a 482# adjusted weaning weight, we are excited to see how Margaret will contribute to a successful breeding program.

Update: hay feeders for horned cattle

When your animals have horns, having proper hay feeders is a concern... you don't want to have injuries, it needs to be easy to refill, and it needs to be stout.  We also get lots of rain in the winter, so rolling out hay on the ground just isn't feasible.  

We frequently get asked about our feeders.  We've tried several things over the years, all home built because that's just what we do. 

The original version of this feeder had a roof.  The metal square tubing was repurposed, some flat metal strapping, and a roof to help keep the hay dry, but hard to feed big bales....

.... so the roof was removed and it works great.  We can fit two round bales in it.  The bottom bars help keep animals from getting into the feeder; occasionally they still do, but they can also get themselves back out.

Then we made a smaller version of that feeder, perfect for one big bale.  Full size cows can reach the middle just fine, but smaller animals can't so we just fluff the hay out when it gets that low.  These feeders are heavy... great that the cows can't move them very easy, but not so great when you want to move them.  A small tractor bucket fits right inside for moving, or a chain with a larger tractor.   

Another dry hay feeder that we used for several years, that recently was sent to the scrap pile when a 6 month old calf got their head stuck in the bars. 🤦‍♀️ I'm not even sure exactly how, but cutting out a cow is no fun.  Just glad we found her when we did.  This one was made out of rebar and round metal tubing.  

We still use this feeder at the back of the barn when feeding out of the loft, and it works good.  It hasn't been revamped since we added the wire paneling inside the rebar to help keep animals from pulling big chunks of hay out.  

This wooden feeder is currently in the goat pen but works well for weanlings...just not enough volume for large animals.  We've tried wooden versions of our current large round bale feeder, but they just don’t hold up to large cattle rubbing on them.