Farm & butcher to buy cow

[Anonymous]

Any local farm that has cows for purchase and butcher on site?

[Anonymous]

I don’t know if they do whole cow purchase, think you just shop by cut, but this is my neighbor’s farm located 45 minutes to an hour from Capitol Hill.

https://www.prosperityacres.com/

[Anonymous]

MD Farmer

Buying meat "on-farm" is possible, but you won't find any that will be butchered on-site due to MDA/USDA/health department regulations. We send out our steers to a local USDA butcher we use and then get everything back about a month later (dry aging, cut-to-order, vacuum packaging and flash freezing takes time), and then either people pick up their beef from our farm or directly from the butcher we use.

Farmers will base price on the "hanging weight" of the carcass after 2 weeks of dry aging at the meat locker. Most people will do what's called a "cowpool": buy either a quarter or half and split with a neighbor, family member or friend because you get a LOT of beef in those increments and you will need an appropriately sized freezer to accommodate it all.

[Anonymous]

You can buy from 4-H or FFA members who raise the animals and sell them. Where I grew up, the sale was usually at a summer fair and auction but could also be done privately; I'm not sure what the practice is here. Our animals went from auction to USDA facility and the wrapped meat was delivered.

For 4-H, at least, the difference between what you pay at auction and the market rate for meat is a deductible donation. Probably also true of FFA but I'm not sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MD Farmer

Buying meat "on-farm" is possible, but you won't find any that will be butchered on-site due to MDA/USDA/health department regulations. We send out our steers to a local USDA butcher we use and then get everything back about a month later (dry aging, cut-to-order, vacuum packaging and flash freezing takes time), and then either people pick up their beef from our farm or directly from the butcher we use.

Farmers will base price on the "hanging weight" of the carcass after 2 weeks of dry aging at the meat locker. Most people will do what's called a "cowpool": buy either a quarter or half and split with a neighbor, family member or friend because you get a LOT of beef in those increments and you will need an appropriately sized freezer to accommodate it all.

Yes this is exactly what I am looking for. Can you recommend the process/company to do this with?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MD Farmer

Buying meat "on-farm" is possible, but you won't find any that will be butchered on-site due to MDA/USDA/health department regulations. We send out our steers to a local USDA butcher we use and then get everything back about a month later (dry aging, cut-to-order, vacuum packaging and flash freezing takes time), and then either people pick up their beef from our farm or directly from the butcher we use.

Farmers will base price on the "hanging weight" of the carcass after 2 weeks of dry aging at the meat locker. Most people will do what's called a "cowpool": buy either a quarter or half and split with a neighbor, family member or friend because you get a LOT of beef in those increments and you will need an appropriately sized freezer to accommodate it all.

Yes this is exactly what I am looking for. Can you recommend the process/company to do this with?

Farmer again. Google USDA butcher shops for the area you live and either call or go in and ask them if they can connect you with local farmers who bring in animals for processing. Keep in mind that it takes 18-24 months to get a cow "finished" for the freezer if they are mostly on grass, and most of us don't have a pasture full of finished cattle ready to load up and take in on demand. You may have to get on a waiting list with a farmer for when they have animals ready for the freezer, and it helps if you have enough people sharing with you to split an entire cow so the farmer doesn't have to store unsold beef for long. We keep a list of names and when we have steers almost ready to go (3 months out from processing) I email everyone with a deadline for response, first-come-first-served, so I can fill out the cow and get everyone's "cut sheet" back to give to the butcher when we drop off the cow for processing.

[Anonymous]

If you are in Nova, check out Fauquier’s Finest butcher shop:

http://www.fauquiersfinest.com/

It’s a USDA certified butcher shop similar to what the MD farmer described. Their website has links to a few local farms, and they may know of others if you call.

[Anonymous]

Why would you want to kill a living, breathing animal? Cows feel pain, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why would you want to kill a living, breathing animal? Cows feel pain, too.

Because they're delicious and once they're dead the pain stops.

[Anonymous]

You can buy 1/8 of an Angus beef steer from South Mountain Creamery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MD Farmer

Buying meat "on-farm" is possible, but you won't find any that will be butchered on-site due to MDA/USDA/health department regulations. We send out our steers to a local USDA butcher we use and then get everything back about a month later (dry aging, cut-to-order, vacuum packaging and flash freezing takes time), and then either people pick up their beef from our farm or directly from the butcher we use.

Farmers will base price on the "hanging weight" of the carcass after 2 weeks of dry aging at the meat locker. Most people will do what's called a "cowpool": buy either a quarter or half and split with a neighbor, family member or friend because you get a LOT of beef in those increments and you will need an appropriately sized freezer to accommodate it all.

MD Farmer: I'm located in the Darnestown area in MoCo. Can you recommend a farm to buy from in my general area (Poolesville?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MD Farmer

Buying meat "on-farm" is possible, but you won't find any that will be butchered on-site due to MDA/USDA/health department regulations. We send out our steers to a local USDA butcher we use and then get everything back about a month later (dry aging, cut-to-order, vacuum packaging and flash freezing takes time), and then either people pick up their beef from our farm or directly from the butcher we use.

Farmers will base price on the "hanging weight" of the carcass after 2 weeks of dry aging at the meat locker. Most people will do what's called a "cowpool": buy either a quarter or half and split with a neighbor, family member or friend because you get a LOT of beef in those increments and you will need an appropriately sized freezer to accommodate it all.

MD Farmer: I'm located in the Darnestown area in MoCo. Can you recommend a farm to buy from in my general area (Poolesville?)

I don't know anyone that far down from us - we are about 45 minutes north of you in western Frederick County. But - butcher shops we use are Hemp's Meats in Jefferson and Three Springs Meats in Sharpsburg. Friends of ours also use Wagner's in Mt. Airy and are happy with what they have gotten back, and for hogs; Shuff's up in Thurmont is highly recommended and we've used them when we have bought and split a hog with friends a few years back. They do their own smoking of hams and bacon too. You can call those places and maybe they can connect you with someone who has available beef or pork - Tracy Cleary @ Three Springs is really great about that - it's a woman owned business and she has a FB business page.

If you have a catch-all anonymous email address, you can leave it here and I can respond later today after a farm vet visit is over. We just got a steer back from processing last week and I have 2 quarters available.

[Anonymous]

Try Wagner Meats up in Mt. Airey. It is not. Farm, but rather. We’ll know butcher and I think this is what you are looking for.

[Anonymous]

You could try Sandy Bottom Acres. They come to my farmer’s market and do good meat, although I’ve never tried to buy a whole cow (I don’t have a deep freeze for one thing).