Is buying beef direct from the farmer for you?

Sulzer Natural Beef

262.538.4382

If you have never purchased beef directly from the farm before, here are some things you should know.  You are going to get a LOT of beef.  When you by a 1/4 beef, you are getting literally 1/4 of the entire animal.  On the Product & Pricing page, I try to give you a good approximation of what you will get in a 1/4.  It's not like going to the grocery store for a cut here and a cut there.  If you and your family like to have roasts, hamburgers, steaks, stew or beef based meals, this is  for you!  If you aren't a big meat eater or don't like cooking beef dishes at home, this is NOT for you.

Price and Weight.  When we are selling beef, it is difficult to predict exactly how heavy each animal will be, how efficient the animal is (muscle, hide, bone, fat, etc) so that is why we cannot predict exactly how much meat you will receive and what your final take home price will be.  After the processing, the weight is substantially reduced (not the whole animal is meat).  After the processing charges are added, your final take home price/lb will turn out to be somewhere around $3.25/lb to $4.00/lb depending on the size of your order (wholes and 1/2's get you a better price per pound than 1/4's or 1/8's). The final price varies based on the cutting order, how much or little bone you will have in the end product (steaks & ribs which have more bone than ground beef will alter the price/weight ratio) and any extra services (like pre-formed hamburger patties, wieners, cubing, etc).

Availability:  Since we breed, calve and wean the entire herd all at the same time, we have cattle ready for market at roughly the same time every year.  We have beef in the deep freezers for sale all year round but the new beef is ready for sale between the end of April and beginning of June each year. 

When you purchase a quarter, you are really getting a "split side" which means the side of beef is evenly divided into 2 lots (quarters).  Classically, when you purchase a "quarter", you are either getting a FRONT or REAR quarter of the entire animal.   Since the front and rear of an animal have significantly different possible cuts of meat, it's somewhat confusing and somewhat inconsistent.  In order to make our sales balanced, we use the split side method instead and give everyone getting a 1/4 beef a fair share of the cuts.  When we sell 1/8 beef, we have to do the best we can to give everyone a good mix of meat.

Specialty cuts (heart, liver, tongue, etc) are available upon request.  We know some people really appreciate some of the more unusual cuts of meat and for those folks, we are more than happy to oblige.  If you are not interested, no problem!