How Our Beef Gets to Your Table
Curious how our beef gets to your table? It's a 2 year process to bring the retail-ready beef cuts into our Farm Store & ultimately, into your home.
Calf is born - following a 9 month gestation, and we record a birth date and weight usually around 70 lbs. We calve twice a year-one group in the “spring” (Jan thru May) and one in the “fall” (Oct thru December).
The calf grows "at the side" of the cow receiving most of it's nutrition from nursing, receives its first set of vaccinations and males are castrated.
The calf is weaned from the cow around 6 months old; calves receive another vaccination and an weaning weight is recorded, usually around 550 lbs
Calves remain together and move into pens where they’re introduced to eating from a bunk and continue growing, gaining between 2-6 lbs per day, depending on the season.
Between 18-24 months and at around 1250 lbs the animal is nearly “finished” meaning its size and fat cover will yield premium product at slaughter.
On our slaughter appointment date, we haul the live animal to the processor’s where a USDA inspector must watch it walk off the trailer, across scales and into the facility’s alley way leading to slaughter.
After an initial dressing, the carcass is split down the spine and “hung” - literally! - for 2 weeks to develop flavor and tenderness.
On day 14, employees begin the process of breaking down the carcass, first into primals. We provide specific cut instructions for each animal, outlining the cuts we want, size, thickness and other specifics.
From the primals, employees hand-trim, package, seal, label, and freeze the retail cuts
One to two days later we make the 170 mile round trip bringing nearly 400 lbs home to the Farm Store.
Every package is quality checked and inventoried with data recorded on quantity and weight for each animal’s retail package yield.
Pre-orders for ⅛, ¼ or ½ Beefs are packed first. The remaining inventory is stocked in the Farm Store or listed online for you to purchase.
Keep in mind, from birth through retail-ready product, it all happens within 60 miles of Springfield, Missouri. Minimal hands touch each retail package. There's no languishing in cold storage or shuttling in and out of distributor warehouses, our products move out to customers in less than 4 weeks after slaughter. And then YOU put them on the dinner table...
We are obsessed with producing a premium product our neighbors can trust to serve their families!
