Reply to Farm & butcher to buy cow

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=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. [/quote]

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

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.

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