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How it Works: Buying Freezer Beef
How it Works: Buying Freezer Beef
Buying beef in bulk is a cost-effective way to fill your freezer with high-quality, locally raised Black Angus beef. If you’ve never ordered a beef share before, don’t worry - we walk you through every step of the process.
1. Choose Your Share Size
We offer two main options for our beef shares depending on your household's needs and freezer capacity:
Whole Beef: Ideal for large families, avid home cooks, or those looking to split with friends or extended family.
Freezer Space: Requires approximately 20 – 24 cu. ft. For a whole beef share, you generally need 16 to 28 cubic feet (cu. ft.) of freezer space and a 20–22 cu. ft. freezer is a comfortable average, providing enough room to easily organize and access various cuts; a 14–16 cu. ft. freezer is the absolute minimum but would require very tight packing. For an order of this size, an upright freezer is highly recommended over a chest freezer to help you keep your steaks, roasts, and ground beef organized and accessible.
Half Beef (Side of Beef): It provides a perfect variety of every cut, from premium steaks to slow-cooker roasts.
Freezer Space: Requires approximately 10 - 12 cu. ft. For a half beef, you generally need 8 to 14 cubic feet (cu. ft.) of freezer space, with 10-12 cu. ft. being a comfortable average, allowing room for packing; a 7-9 cu. ft. freezer might work as a minimum if packed tightly. Upright freezers are easier to organize than chest freezers.
2. Customize Your Cut Sheet
The Basics: You choose your steak thickness, roast sizes, and which specialty cuts you’d like to keep (such as brisket, flank steak, or short ribs).
Ground Beef: You can decide on the packaging size (e.g., 1lb or 2lb packs).
3. Understanding the Weight
When purchasing farm-to-table freezer beef, it’s important to understand how pricing works.
Hanging Weight: Our pricing is based on the "hanging weight".**
Hanging weight is the weight of the animal after it's been dressed, but before it’s butchered into individual cuts.
Take-Home Weight: This is the actual weight of the meat that goes into your freezer. You can generally expect to take home about 60% of the hanging weight after the bone and excess fat are trimmed away during the aging and butchering process.
**For more detail, see the article below from the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service.
4. Pickup & Quality Aging
To ensure maximum tenderness and flavor, our beef is aged. Once aged, it's professionally cut, vacuum-sealed, and flash-frozen. We'll notify you when your order is ready for pickup.
Understanding Beef Yields
Understanding Beef Yields
Click the picture or click this link for an excellent fact sheet from the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service that explains expected yields from custom beef processing.
Customize Your Cuts
Pick your favorites using Cut Sheet links below. Select your preferences - steaks, roasts, and other cuts. The rest will be made into ground beef.
The Basics
Beef is divided into nine big sections called primals. Butchers work with each primal separately and cut it into smaller pieces.
Inside each primal are sub-primals. These are then broken down into smaller pieces called portion cuts.
Portion cuts are the ones you usually buy at the grocery store. They come from either a primal or a sub-primal.
Each primal or sub-primal can be cut in different ways to make different portion cuts. For example, the short loin can be turned into big bone-in porterhouse steaks or smaller boneless tenderloin and strip steaks.
The Sections / Filling out your Cut Sheet
Beef is divided into four main sections (two on each side of the animal), plus a few extra parts. You’ll always get some ground beef -- how much depends on how the other sections are cut.
Steak thickness is up to you, but the average is 1 inch. Typical thickness is 1" to 2".
Roast size is also your choice, with most roasts weighing 3 to 4 pounds.
Ground beef packages can come in 1 lb or 2lb packs.
The Round - This part of the beef is divided into four smaller sections:
Eye Round: The smallest section. It can be prepared in three ways:
As a roast (long, tube-shaped; usually one or two per side depending on size)
As steaks (round, medallion-shaped cuts)
Ground up for hamburger
Top Round: Can be cut in four ways:
Roasts
Steaks
London Broil (about 2 inches thick or around 2 lbs each)
Ground for hamburger
Bottom Round: Usually cut in three ways:
Roasts
Steaks
Ground for hamburger
Sirloin Tip: Can be cut in three ways:
Roasts
Steaks
Ground for hamburger
The Chuck and Arms – This is the largest section on each side of the beef. From this section, you can choose:
Steaks (bone-in or boneless)
Roasts
Stew meat
Ground beef
For a whole or half beef, you can pick two cutting options from the list above. If you’re getting a quarter beef, you can choose one option.
The Rib – Each side of the beef has seven ribs. From this section, you can choose:
Bone-in Rib Steaks
Boneless Delmonico/Ribeye Steaks
Rib Roasts (done either by the rib or by weight)
For example, a 3-rib roast will weigh more than a 3-pound roast. If you’re buying a whole or half beef, you can select two of these three options. For a quarter beef, you can choose one option.
The Loin – Each side of this section can be cut in one of two ways:
Standard Cut: Includes bone-in steaks like T-Bones, Porterhouses, and Sirloins.
Optional Cut: Includes boneless cuts such as Filets, NY Strips, and Top Sirloin (Sirloin Strip).
The Other Parts – These cuts can be kept as described below or ground into hamburger. Choosing any of these will not reduce the amount of meat from the main sections.
Flank Steak: A thin steak from the groin area on either side.
Short Ribs: Taken from the plate, cut about 1 inch wide and 3 inches long.
Stew Meat: (usually in 1 lb packs)
Brisket: From the chest area—perfect for slow smoking or long, low cooking.
Soup Bones: Our version includes all four shanks, sliced about 1 inch thick from top to bottom. Upper slices have more meat than lower ones. If you prefer, we can remove the meat and save just the bones—please note this in the special instructions section.
Freezer Information
Freezer Information
Half (Side) Beef Share
Half (Side) Beef Share
Freezer Math - A Half Beef share typically fits into a standard 10-12 cu. ft. freezer - roughly the size of two large boat coolers (160 qt each) or the size of 2 large laundry baskets.
Whole Beef Share
Whole Beef Share
Freezer Math: A Whole Beef share typically requires a dedicated 20-24 cu. ft. upright or chest freezer - roughly the size of four large boat coolers (160 qt each) or the size of four to five large laundry baskets.
Approximate Quantities
Our farm is open by appointment only.
Our farm is open by appointment only.
Located in Warrenton, Virginia
(Fauquier County, Northern Virginia)
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