1/4 Beef (Quarter Beef / Half Side)

A Mixed Quarter Beef (sometimes called a half-side beef) is a quarter of a cow with cuts from both the front and hind.

Buying beef in bulk in a great way to fill your freezer with a variety of delicious, healthy organic grass fed and finished beef cuts while getting the best value for your money. A mixed quarter offers a little bit of everything from the beef animal.

It is industry standard to charge by the hanging carcass weight (HCW) of the beef animal.  We expect the yield (actual amount of meat you get) to be about 72% of the HCW.  For a mixed quarter beef, the HCW is usually about 137.5lbs so you would expect approximately 100lbs of actual meat for your freezer.

What Cuts are in a Quarter Beef?

It can be hard to visualize 100lbs of meat so here is a photo of a mixed quarter layed out. 

In this standard example 50lbs is divided between steak cuts and 10 – 4lb roasts, then the rest is soup bones, 10lbs of stewing beef and ~40lbs of ground beef. 

Roasts you can expect to receive in a standard cut include: cross rib, blade, steak (rump) roast, prime rib, sirloin tip.

Steak cuts you can expect to receive in a standard cut include:  T-bone, sirloin, tenderloin, round.

In a standard cut ground beef and stew beef are in 1lb packages.  Bones can be requested if you like making soup or have animals who love them.

If you still have questions about buying beef in bulk or are looking for other beef buying options go check out our blog post:  Bulk Beef Buyers Guide.