Freezer meat: Is it worth it?

Pork is probably the best way to start buying freezer meat . It isn't quite as overwhelming as buying a quarter beef and, you know, bacon!

We have a lot of people ask about our freezer beef or pork and a good percentage of those people balk at the prices we give them. Spending $650 per quarter of beef and $300 per half hog is a lot of money for most families to spend all at once. If you've never bought freezer meat by the quarter or half because you aren't sure if it's worth it, you're in good company. Today, I hope I can explain how we price our meat, why it's that price, and why you should buy your meat in bulk.

Money in Animals

Pigs take 4 months for us to raise while steers can take anywhere from 8-15 depending on their size and breed. Not only do we have the original cost of that animal to account for when we sell it, we have all the feed it's consumed. the electricity and fuel we've used to keep it fed and watered, and the countless hours we put into keeping that animal healthy. When you start adding those numbers us we have hundreds of thousands of dollars wrapped up in the livestock on our farm. Per head, we may have $200 invested in a pig and $1000 or more tied up in a steer before you account for any of the time we spent maintaining that animal. That's money we have to see come back to us or we will not be able to afford to do what we do for very long.

Hours Invested

It's amazing how different meat straight from the farm tastes!

The process of selling freezer meat obviously includes finding people to buy the meat. This process may be as easy as talking to people who sought us out and putting them on our list or may include running ads in various places online; which can take a large amount of time to make and post depending on the platform. This is all stuff we do at the end of the day after the cattle have been fed and bedded, the baby has been put to bed, and dinner has been made and put away. We spend most nights on our respective computers either running financial numbers, putting in records, maintaining our online presence, making a wide variety of phone calls, and signing up customers for freezer meat. This is all time that we have to account for and figure out if we are getting paid enough for the hours of off-farm work we are doing.

Most of our freezer steers are beef-type cattle. We do use Holsteins occasionally but they generally don't fit the "freezer steer" type like beef cattle do.

Let's get down to business!

Now, let's get to the best part of freezer meat: EATING IT! I'll be honest, the only time we have meat this isn't pork or beef is if we go out. Other than that we might only buy chicken once every 3 months because it's just so much easier to make meals based on the meat we already have. We spend between $80 and $100 per week on groceries and we are a family of three (I'm including the baby because he eats as much as an adult most days). Those groceries are generally enough for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks for the entire week. We decide what we are having for dinner each week by looking at the cuts of meat we have in the freezer and deciding how to use them. It's just so convenient that I know, even if we didn't raise our own meat, we would still buy our meat directly off the farm.

Quality and Taste

Our pigs come from Michigan State and are usually cross-breds. This means they grow very fast and stay very healthy!

We know that taste can be subjective, but everyone who eats our meat can taste a difference between the quality of ours and that which you buy at the store. If we eat at a friends or relative's house, we can tell immediately if they used store-bought meat because it just doesn't have the depth of flavor off-farm meat does. Cooking with our hamburger only yields you about a tablespoon of fat per pound and you've never tasted a good steak until you've had one of our melt-in-your-mouth rib-eye or T-bone steaks. Store-bought sausage links taste flavorless compared to our pigs and don't even get us started on the bacon because "mouthwatering" doesn't even come close to doing it justice.

It's 1000% worth it!

Did we mention bacon? 

You may be on the fence about whether or not to buy freezer meat from us. You may be thinking that there isn't a real difference, that it's too expensive, or that it doesn't make sense for your family. Yes, it's a lot of money to spend on a freezer full of meat, but we believe in the quality of our product and know you'll notice a difference right away between our meat and meat from the store. We know families of all sizes who buy meat in bulk and it always makes sense because once you have the meat, it's super easy to plan meals with and use way before it goes bad sitting in the freezer. Life is too short to waste your time making and eating food that doesn't taste the absolute best it can taste, trust us!

Thanks for reading!