How much to ask for a side of beef?

Pay close attention to the two main differences in weight. Hanging and final, cut and wrapped. Not only are you paying for the cutting and wrapping, there is a lot of trimming involved. I can buy a whole loin of New York strips for $3.50 a pound, but by the time they trim it, I'm paying close to $5.50 a pound. Same for a hanging side. If I paid $2.00 a pound, 350 pounds hanging, I might end up with 275 pounds of packaged meat. With cutting and wrapping that'll be $3.00 a pound beef.

Something else to remember when buying whole, half, or split, is that the price you pay does not change from cut to cut. New York Strip and soup bones cost the same price per pound. So it all balances out.

Pony!

We bought a side this summer. Certified organic, grass-fed, for $3 a pound hanging weight. We are an hour outside DC and stuff is pretty pricey here, for comparison. Non-organic is going for about $2.75 a pound and up.

I locked in $1100 for a full half last January. He'll be processed in January of '07 into lovely little white packages. That price includes everything, and yes, he's being grain fed as I type, but we still consider that grass fed.

I never know exactly how many pounds he'll be, but it worked out to be 600 pounds last year.

We're in CO.

PHL