In case you were ever curious about how much beef you can get from raising a Dexter beef cow/steer...(I'm sure most people are losing tons of sleep wondering about this exact thing!) If not, feel free to skip this post all together, and come back and visit again soon.
We actually brought our first ever, farm-raised, grass-fed (and partially grain-fed at the end), home-grown beef cow to the butcher about 2 weeks ago. The kids and I got lost trying to find drove out to the place on Wednesday to pick up the meat, which came in lots of very nicely wrapped & labeled packages that you just can't find at your local Wal-Mart. So, here is what we ended up with after raising good, ole T-bone for the last couple of years (we purchased him in May, 2008, when he was just a wee, little calf - it was actually Mother's Day weekend, if I remember correctly):
134 lbs. ground beef (78 pkgs, about 1 3/4 lb. per package)
24 lbs. Ribeye Steaks (24 steaks)
20 lbs. T-bone Steaks (24 steaks)
16 lbs. Sirloin Steaks (12 steaks)
34 lbs. Roast (2 sirloin roasts and 6 rump roasts)
2 lbs. Flank Steak (2 steaks)
8 lbs. Brisket (2 briskets)
So, off of that one steer, we got 238 lbs. of beef! Not too shabby. We actually split the meat with another family, with whom we originally purchased the cow. Is my grammar even correct on that sentence?? I dread the thought that I will be homeschooling my children, and therefore teaching them the English language! I do hope they turn out alright...can you tell I've been reading Jane Austin? On a complete tangent, I have a little confession to make. I have never, ever read any Jane Austin books in my entire life. Can you believe that? Oh, the shame! So, I'm reading Pride & Prejudice right now. It's really good, but I am very slow, because I'm not used to that writing style. Ok, tangent over. The most amazing thing to me about this whole experience was that there was a complete even number of packages for each type of meat! I was kind of expecting for the men to have some kind of knock-down, drag-out fight over who got an extra pack of ribeyes or brisket, but it worked out perfectly. Amazing!
