How to buy a quarter cow: cost, cut sheet and freezer space

By the grassfed.food editors. Updated October 26, 2026.

A raw beef steak resting on a sheet of butcher paper — Photo: Llio Angharad

A quarter cow is one fourth of a beef carcass, bought straight from a farm and cut to your instructions by a local butcher. You usually pay the farm a price per pound of hanging weight, then pay the butcher for slaughter and cutting, and you take home roughly 55 to 70 percent of the hanging weight as packaged meat, depending mostly on how much bone is removed. By our estimate, a grass-finished quarter (from an animal that ate only grass and other forage through to harvest) gives you somewhere around 100 to 140 pounds of beef and needs about 2.5 to 4.5 cubic feet of freezer space.

Quarter, half and whole shares

Farms sell bulk beef in three main sizes:

Whole: the entire carcass. Oklahoma State University Extension puts an average carcass at about 600 pounds hanging weight.
Half (also called a side): one side of the carcass, split down the backbone. Oklahoma State says a side usually weighs a little over 300 pounds.
Quarter: half of a side. Traditionally this meant either a forequarter (chuck, rib, brisket, plate) or a hindquarter (round, loin, flank). Oklahoma State says the hindquarter gives more steaks and roasts but costs more per pound, while the forequarter has more of the less tender cuts.

Some farms sell a mixed quarter instead, with cuts from each end. The University of Minnesota Extension example of a quarter includes ribeyes and T-bones as well as round steaks, roasts and 35 to 60 pounds of ground beef. Ask the farm which kind of quarter it sells before you pay a deposit.

Share	Hanging weight (estimate)	Take-home meat, bone-in (estimate)	Freezer space (estimate)
Quarter	150 to 200 lb	100 to 140 lb	2.5 to 4 cu ft
Half	300 to 400 lb	200 to 280 lb	5 to 8 cu ft
Whole	600 to 800 lb	400 to 560 lb	10 to 16 cu ft

This table is our own estimate, built from the extension figures in this guide: carcass weights of about 600 to 830 pounds, a 65 to 70 percent bone-in cutting yield and 35 to 40 pounds of meat per cubic foot. Boneless cuts lower the take-home weight, and Minnesota Extension recommends more freezer room than this math suggests (see below). Your animal can fall outside these ranges.

Hanging weight vs. take-home weight

Three weights matter, and farms quote different ones:

Live weight is the animal on the hoof.
Hanging weight (also called carcass or hot weight) is what is left after slaughter, once the hide, head, feet and organs are removed. The University of Georgia Extension gives a typical range of 58 to 64 percent of live weight.
Take-home weight (also called packaged or net weight) is the cut, trimmed and wrapped meat you put in your freezer.

The drop from hanging to take-home weight is the one that surprises buyers. University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension says a carcass is 70 to 75 percent water and can lose 2 to 5 percent of its weight in the first 24 hours as it chills. Then the butcher removes bone and fat. Ohio State University Extension (Wayne County) says bone-in beef typically returns 65 to 70 percent of the carcass weight and boneless beef about 55 to 60 percent. Oklahoma State puts losses from cutting, trimming and boning anywhere from 24 to 45 percent, depending on the carcass yield grade (a USDA score driven largely by how much fat the carcass carries).

Your own choices move the number. Wisconsin Extension notes that boneless cuts and trimmed, lean ground beef (such as 90 percent lean) lower your take-home pounds, and that taking organ meats such as liver, heart and tongue also changes the total.

Grass-finished cattle can be smaller. An Oklahoma State fact sheet compares a grass-finished steer with a carcass of about 638 pounds to a grain-finished steer at about 832 pounds. By our estimate, a quarter of that grass-finished carcass would be about 160 pounds hanging and, at a 65 to 70 percent bone-in yield, roughly 105 to 110 pounds in the freezer. That is one comparison, not a rule.

How pricing works

Most bulk beef is priced in three parts:

The beef itself, paid to the farm, usually as a price per pound of hanging weight. Oklahoma State Extension notes that the price you pay is based on hanging weight.
Processing (cut and wrap), usually a price per pound of hanging weight, paid to the butcher.
A slaughter or kill fee, a flat charge per animal. Ask whether share buyers split it.

Some farms roll processing into one price, and some price by live weight or by the head instead. Oregon State University Extension says that in Oregon, custom-exempt sales (explained below) must be priced on live weight or per head, not on the weight of the cut and wrapped meat. Other extension guides cited here describe hanging-weight pricing, so rules and habits differ by state. Ask exactly which weight you are paying on and what is included.

What it costs (2025 data)

The most recent national figures we found come from the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). Its National Grass Fed Beef Report for July to September 2025, dated September 26, 2025, includes a general direct-to-consumer carcass price table that listed:

Item (paid by the consumer)	Range	Average
Quarter, per lb hanging weight, paid to producer, processing not included	$4.50 to $8.00	$6.21
Half, per lb hanging weight, processing not included	$4.25 to $6.95	$5.75
Whole, per lb hanging weight, processing not included	$4.00 to $6.75	$5.61
Processing, per lb hanging weight, paid to processor	$0.57 to $1.25	$0.94
Slaughter fee, per head	$100 to $150	$125

These numbers sit in the general direct-to-consumer section of the report, not its grass-fed section, so they are not grass-fed prices. Treat them as a starting point: a grass-finished farm may charge more or less. The same table lists quarters priced with processing included at $5.25 to $12.95 per pound of hanging weight (average $8.04), and quarters priced by packaged meat weight at $8.50 to $19.00 per pound (average $13.09). Prices vary by region and year, so confirm the current price with the farm.

A worked example

This is our own estimate, using the 2025 USDA averages above and a 160 pound grass-finished quarter:

Beef: 160 lb × $6.21 = about $994
Processing: 160 lb × $0.94 = about $150
Your quarter of a $125 slaughter fee: about $31
Estimated total: about $1,175

If you take home 105 pounds, that works out to about $11.20 per pound across every cut, from ground beef to ribeyes. That per-pound-of-meat number is the one to compare with store prices. Oklahoma State Extension also lists the cost of running the freezer as an expense to count.

Ask the processor for its price list, since extras such as patties may be charged separately.

How to fill in a cut sheet

A cut sheet (or cutting instructions) is the form that tells the butcher how to cut your share. With custom-exempt beef, Oregon State Extension says the share owners should call the cut-and-wrap shop directly to give cutting instructions. If you are splitting a half with someone, ask the butcher whether each share can have its own instructions.

The main choices below follow one butcher’s form, from Boone’s Butcher Shop in Bardstown, Kentucky. Other shops offer different options and defaults, so use this as an example, not a standard.

Steak thickness and count. That form calls three quarters of an inch standard. Thicker steaks mean fewer of them. Choose how many steaks go in each package for your household.
Roast size. The form gives 2.5 to 3 pounds as average. Many roasts can go to ground beef instead.
Ground beef. Pick package size (the form offers 1, 1.5 or 2 pound packages) and whether you want any patties.
Chuck. All roasts, the best roasts with the rest ground, or all ground. You can also choose whether to save the flat iron steak and chuck short ribs.
Rib. Bone-in ribeyes, boneless ribeyes or ground.
Short loin. T-bone steaks, or New York strips plus filets. The form lists these as either/or choices.
Sirloin and round. Top sirloin steaks or kabob meat, sirloin tip steaks or roast, tri-tip, round steaks, roasts, cube steaks or ground.
Brisket, shanks, flank and skirt. Save them or send them to ground.
Organs and bones. The form lets you ask for liver, heart, tongue, oxtail and marrow bones.

On aging (letting the carcass hang in a cooler before cutting), the same form lists an average hang time of 12 to 21 days and does not promise an exact number. If aging matters to you, ask your butcher how long they hang beef.

A rough rule of thumb from Oklahoma State: by weight, an average carcass is about one quarter waste, one quarter ground and stew meat, one quarter steaks and one quarter roasts. If your household mostly eats ground beef, you can send more cuts to ground.

Freezer space

Oklahoma State Extension says to allow one cubic foot of freezer space for every 35 to 40 pounds of cut and wrapped beef, and more if the packages are oddly shaped. University of Minnesota Extension recommends at least 4.5 cubic feet in a chest freezer, or 5.5 cubic feet in an upright, for a quarter that yields about 142 pounds of meat (from a 1,300 pound live animal). Storage time matters too. Oklahoma State says beef can be stored 9 to 12 months and ground beef 3 to 4 months. A quarter often includes a lot of ground beef, so plan to use the ground beef first, and size your share to what your household can eat in that time.

Timing and seasonality

Bulk beef is not an on-demand purchase. Expect a wait, sometimes months:

The animal has to be ready. Oklahoma State reports grass-finished cattle are typically harvested at about 20 to 26 months old, and that timing depends on the forage available. It also notes that the shorter growing season in northern states can mean lighter animals at harvest. Ask the farm when its next animals will be ready.
The butcher has to have a slot. Cornell’s Small Farms Program advises calling the processor well ahead of the slaughter date you want.
Shares sell before slaughter. With custom-exempt processing, Oregon State Extension says every share must be sold before the animal is slaughtered. That is why farms take deposits early.
Aging and cutting take time. Add the hang time plus time to cut, wrap and freeze. Ask the butcher for a pickup estimate.

Custom-exempt vs. USDA-inspected

When you buy a share of a live animal, the beef is often processed at a custom-exempt shop. According to Oregon State Extension, that meat cannot be sold, traded or given away, packages must be marked “not for sale,” and they cannot carry other claims, such as “natural” or “humane.” Some farms instead use a USDA-inspected plant; ask which kind your farm uses. Neither type is a grass-fed guarantee by itself.

Questions to ask the farm about grass-finishing

Ask about how the animal was finished (its diet in the last months before harvest), not just whether it ate grass. Under draft FSIS (USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service) guidance from 2016, as quoted by the American Grassfed Association, a grass-fed label claim meant the animal ate only forage after weaning, with no grain or grain by-products, and had continuous pasture access during the growing season. In August 2024, FSIS released an updated guideline on animal-raising claims and said it strongly encourages third-party certification to back them up. Because custom-exempt packages carry no such claims, your assurance is what the farm tells you and any certification it holds, so ask:

Was the animal grass-fed and grass-finished, with no grain at any point after weaning?
What does it eat in winter or during a drought? The 2016 draft definition excluded grain and grain by-products, so ask whether any were fed, even briefly.
Is the farm certified grass-fed, and by whom? See our certifications guide for what each label requires.
How old will the animal be at harvest, and what is the expected hanging weight?
What is the price per pound, on which weight, and what does it include?
Who is the processor, is it custom-exempt or USDA-inspected, and how do I submit my cut sheet?
How long does the processor age the beef?
What deposit is due, when is the balance due, and when and where do I pick up?

When you are ready, browse the farm directory to find farms near you that sell quarters and halves.

Sources

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