Grass-Fed Kerry Beef

The family and I finally purchased our first side of grass-fed beef, grass-fed Kerry beef to be exact. The cost for this side was by hanging weight at $4/lb. I spoke with Larry, the farmer and owner of Rosedene Acres early April this year, to get a side of grass-fed beef. When he told me he had a cow available, I asked him when I could pick it up.  He let me know right away that the cow was still walking around so he wouldn’t be ready for pickup any time soon. When I asked when, he told me approximately mid-May. Come mid-May, I didn’t hear from Larry for my much-anticipated picking up of grass-fed side of cow. When I called Larry, he apologized and let me know that when he brought the cow with another over to the butcher, the cows wouldn’t get off the truck. They just didn’t want to go, as he said “I refuse to use a cattle prod on my cows!”. So he brought them back to the farm.  Fast forward a few weeks later at the butcher shop, my Kerry-Beef leaves the truck soon to be on my plate :).

[pullquote]The cost for our beef was $4.00/lb.[/pullquote] June 1st, I finally get to pick up my side of beef, here we are at Rosedene Acres Farm (pictured left). Larry, a family man and farmer who cares about how his cows are raised, humanely, drug free and raised on the diet they are intended to eat – GRASS!!! to go to the butcher shop.  Larry gives me a quick tour of the farm, before I head off down the road to pick up my side of grass-fed kerry beef. The cows are out in the field grazing on luscious pastures of grass except for two who are ready to drop some newborns and are grabbing some shade up against the barn (right behind us in the picture, hard to see and below).

My girls enjoying their trip on the farm:

These cows are evidently happy except for the two that are pregnant and not enjoying the hot temperatures of 30ºC in St.Ann’s, Ontario.[pullquote]These cows are evidently happy except for the two that are pregnant and not enjoying the hot temperatures of 30ºC in St.Ann’s, Ontario.[/pullquote]

The cost for our beef was $4.00/lb. (CAD) for the hanging weight of our side of beef.   The side worked out to 182 pounds, costing us a total of $728.00 (CAD). If I didn’t keep any of the bones and only counted the meat our cost would have worked out to about $6.00/lb. (@121.40 lb. net weight, not including the bones of 35 lbs.). However, I asked for many of the bones including any extra from the other side (depending on how it was cut) which attained me another 35 pounds (see below). Let’s face it, stocks and or bone broth is Paleo and you would be crazy not to ask for the bones, as long as you had the space to store them. I did ask the butcher for any of the beef tallow, however it was already discarded by the time I had spoken with him (a lesson for next time).  The ‘bottom line’ when adding in the bones and ending up with 156.39 pounds, this side ended up costing us a mere $4.66/lb. ($10.25/kg) (CAD). [pullquote]If I didn’t keep any of the bones and only counted the meat our cost would have worked out to about $6.00/lb.[/pullquote]Don’t forget this is local, naturally raised, antibiotic free, grass-fed,high in omega-3, not feed-lot, aged three weeks by the butcher ‘Mark Ridderikhoff‘, and oh, so tasty!

Here is the Breakdown of what we received:

 The Brisket

• I had the brisket cut into two pieces totalling 4.821 lb. (2.189kg) = (966g + 1223g)

The Chuck

• 2 Blade roast totalling 6.183 lb. (2.807kg) = (1285g + 1522g)9 packs of Stewing
• Beef totalling 16.86 lb. (7.654kg) = (889g + 883g + 865g + 870g + 709g + 893g + 851g + 838g + 855g)

The Flank

• 1 Flank Steak of 0.67 lb. (304g)

  The Offal

• Liver: 4.96 lb. (2.251kg) = (352g + 226g + 374g + 337g + 630g + 331g)
• Tongue: 3.25 lb. (1476g)
• Heart: lbs 2.56 lb. (1162g)
• I didn’t ask for any of the brains
• I forgot to get any of the cheeks (lesson learned).

 The Plate

•   37 packs Ground Beef totalling 41.98 lb. (19.06kg). This is where most our ground beef came from, the secondary location I requested the butcher grind from the Round (after all of the roast were cut from there). I asked for approximately 1 pound packs, but as you can see most were a little pound heavy = (551g + 521g + 517g +519g + 439g + 499g + 497g + 543g + 559g + 492g + 454g + 570g + 428g + 479g + 526g + 554g + 546g + 588g + 581g + 508g + 525g + 299g + 548g + 522g + 521g + 561g + 552g + 470g + 439g + 522g + 523g + 503g + 545g + 563g + 574g + 689g + 433g).

 The Rib

• I had this cut into two Rib Roasts totalling 5.98 lb. (2.717kg) = (1511g + 1206g)

The Round

•  3 Inside Round roasts 7.947 lb. (3.608kg) = (1273g + 1186g + 1149g)
• 2 Outside Round roasts 4.99 lb. (2.267kg) = (1134g + 1133g)
• 1 Eye of Round roast 2.694 lb. (1223g)
• Oxtail 1.026 lb. (466g), which I’ll use for a curry dish

The Shank

• 5 Shank Steaks 2.848 lb. (1.293kg) = (365g + 205g + (2 pack) of 430g + 293g)

 The Short Loin

• 13 NY-Strip steaks (2 per pack & one 3-Pack) 3.674 lb. (1.668kg) = (246g + 244g + 266g + 275g + 268g + (3 pack) of 369g)
• 10 Tenderloin steaks (2 per pack) 2.14 lb. (0.971kg) = (248g + 206g + 211g + 158g + 148g)

The Sirloin

• 6 Sirloin steaks (2 per pack) 3.41 lb. (1.548kg) = (468g + 509g + 571g)
• 2 SirloinTip steaks totalling 5.41 lb. (2.454kg) = (1130g + 1324g)

The Bones  

• 18 packs of bones, including bones cut for marrow bones (a paleo delicacy) totalling 34.99 lb. (15.886kg) = (725g + 722g + 795g + 949g + 1175g + 1022g + 1080g + 759g + 718g + 911g + 893g + 1003g + 1040g + 855g + 551g + 833g + 1055g + 800g)