Freezer Beef Overview

When you consider purchasing bulk freezer beef, what do you need to understand?

First, you must understand how weights are determined.  Bulk freezer beef is purchased based on the hanging weight of a particular harvested animal.  Below is an example of a typical beef harvest.

Burton Point Farms delivers a steer weighing 1,200 pounds to the processor. The processor harvests and conducts initial processing which results in two hanging half carcasses.  The combined weight of these two half beefs is the total hanging weight of the animal and is used to determine processing cost and is also used to set the total cost of the purchase of the fractional freezer beef by a customer.  So, in the case of a 1,200 pound animal the approximate hanging weight of a whole carcass would be +/- 720 pounds(**).  This 720 pounds of hanging weight will be used to set the cost of the freezer beef to the purchasing customer.  The final packaged weight of beef after all trimming and processing is approximately +/-60% of the hanging weight.  Therefore, the average packaged weight in this scenario would be approximately +/-430 pounds(**). 

**All beef carcasses trim and process differently.  Therefore, hanging weights and finished packaging weights can be more or less than average depending on the characteristics of the animal being processed.