Grass Fed Beef

We recently ordered a full grass fed beef from Iain Aitken at Medicine River Luings.  After searching extensively for a grass fed source, we found out our friends Todd and Cheryle have been ordering from Iain for a few years.  They both rave about the better taste of the beef and pork they obtain for Iain.  

Is grass fed beef better?

“We already have a few customers in Canmore who pick up their beef in Calgary but my intention has always been that if we get sufficient orders from Canmore I would deliver there also. I hope that this year we will have enough orders to justify that trip and make it easier for you to collect your beef.”

“I am sending this email to all our potential first-time customers who have expressed interest in our grass-fed beef or pasture pork. I apologize in advance for the length of the email but I want to give you enough information so that you can decide if you want to purchase from us. I have attached information sheets showing the typical cuts you would receive with both a pork and a beef order and also an information sheet regarding our search for a supplier of pasture poultry.

Grass-fed Beef
We fatten our cattle entirely on grass so it is seasonal production; we only harvest the cattle once a year, in the fall, when they have put on the maximum amount of beef.  We get our cattle processed at a small Swiss family-owned plant, YB Quality Meat in Penhold. This is a provincially approved plant which means their processing facilities are government inspected to ensure food safety and hygiene. The cattle are slaughtered and then hung in a chiller for around 18 days to age the beef. Dry-aging beef in this manner is a long established practice proven to make the beef more tender and accentuate the flavor. Unfortunately, the large corporate packing plants that handle most of the nation’s cattle refuse to hang cattle as it would slow the turnover at their plants and cost them money – the supermarket consumer pays with a poorer eating experience!  After the carcass has aged sufficiently, the butcher will carve the carcass to your specifications, wrap the beef and freeze it. We then hire the processing plant’s refrigerated delivery truck and personally deliver the beef to a central point in Calgary,Edmonton or locally. Delivery dates are mainly in October but we will also be processing an extra batch of cattle that should be ready in late August or September.

For those of you who have not bought beef as carcass cuts before, I will try to explain the procedure by which we calculate price. When a beef animal is slaughtered, 40% or more of its live weight is discarded as non-edible waste. The carcass that is left is weighed to establish what is known as its “hanging weight”. The reason for charging on a hanging weight is because an animal with a hanging carcass weight of 600 lbs prior to final cutting still contains between 30-35% by weight of bone, fat and trim; the actual edible beef off this carcass will be closer to 400-420lbs. The final weight of beef you take home from your animal depends, to an extent, on your cutting specifications.  The butcher’s basic cut out will provide you with steaks, roasts and 85% lean ground (hamburger) but you also have the option of ordering some minute steaks or stew meat. YB Quality Meat can also further process some of your beef into a range of sausages, jerky, pastrami or stir fry beef for an additional cost. We are currently negotiating with our processor to offer some additional cutting options that customers have requested and I will have this finalized before we send out order forms in July. Customers are welcome to take home some short ribs, dog bones, soup bones and organ meats if they can use them. We consider these latter items extras and they are not included in the estimated weight of take home beef shown below.

Our beef quarters usually have an average hanging weight of 150 lbs; the beef you will take home will be roughly 100 lbs depending on cuts chosen.  The average hanging weight of halves is around 300 lbs; take home weight of beef is roughly 200 lbs depending on cuts chosen. The average hanging weight of whole beefs is around 600 lbs; take home weight of beef is roughly 400 lbs depending on cuts chosen. We find that a quarter beef often keeps a couple, or a couple with young children supplied with beef for a year. Some families eat more beef, some eat less but a quarter is a good estimate for most couples buying in bulk for the first time.

We are holding our beef prices at last years levels - $3.00 per lb *(hanging weight) on quarters and $2.95 per lb * (hanging weight) on halves or whole beefs. These prices include the cutting and brown paper wrapping service by the butcher. Clear plastic vacuum wrapping is available as an option at an additional cost of 5 cents/lb hanging weight. This only adds around $7.50 per quarter to your bill and many customers prefer it. In my experience the beef keeps equally well in either form of packaging but the vacuum wrap allows you to see the meat before you open the pack.

* Note: Prices will be confirmed in July when order forms are sent out due to the possibility of the processor raising his fees.

We also intend to offer a few “beef boxes” this year for customers with limited freezer space or smaller consumption needs. The beef boxes contain basically half the beef off a quarter – you will get 50lbs of vacuum wrapped beef (20lbs lean ground beef, 15lbs mixed steaks and 15lbs of roasts with the option to substitute some roasts for stew meat) The price of the boxes will be $235 which is a little more expensive than our beef quarters to cover the extra handling involved.

Please let us know at your earliest convenience if you are considering buying beef from us in 2010…We take orders on a first come – first served basis and the only way to ensure you get beef is to respond as soon as possible and give an indication of the quantity you might require. There is no binding commitment to purchase on your part however, until you send back a completed order form/cutting instruction sheet by the end of July deadline. Letting us know your requirements now however guarantees you supply and allows us to manage our inventory so that we know when to stop accepting new orders.

Pasture Pork
In addition to our grass-fed beef we will again be offering pasture-raised pork reared for us by a friend in the area. The pork price for 2010 will be $2.80 per lb (hanging weight) on half hogs and $2.70 per lb on whole hogs.Our whole hogs last year averaged 190lbs hanging weight, 95lbs for a half hog and the take home weights were around 120lbs and 60lbs respectively. Our pork is paper wrapped as the butcher who processes our hogs for us does not offer vacuum plastic wrap. I have attached a pasture-pork information sheet to this email – it gives more information on the cuts you will receive as well as the options to have some cured or made into sausages.The pork should be ready by September/October so that we can deliver it along with some of our beef orders. Our pork sold out before the beef last year so please contact us soon if you are interested.

Storage Solution
A question many first time customers ask is how much freezer space will I need for my beef? We have found that the common type of chest freezer of around 20-22 cubic feet is more than enough to store a whole beef. A quarter beef, not including organs, soup/dog bones etc, will take up around 2.5 cubic feet.  One suggestion I have if your freezer space is limited is to consider buying an old chest freezer to use as a second freezer. We have picked up several of these for free through classified ads in the cities and find they are very reliable and don’t use as much power as we thought. We currently have one 21 cubic foot freezer 75% full of meat out in an unheated shop that we open once a week to bring meat into our regular household freezer. We keep a heavy weight on the lid (an old battery) to keep the freezer well sealed and between Christmas and February 10^th this freezer only used 6.54 KW Hours of electricity at a cost of under 70 cents!! It uses more power during the summer when it is hotter outside but as long as the seal is fairly tight I don’t think it will cost as much to run as we had initially expected.

If you do have further questions or if you require further clarification on anything please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Thank you,
Iain Aitken
[email protected]”

“Typical cuts and quantities you can expect off a 150lb quarter

Steaks – around 23-28lbs

Tenderloin Steaks, New York Strip OR T-Bone steaks, Rib OR Rib-Eye steaks, Sirloin Steaks, Round Steaks

Roasts – around 30-35lbs

Cross Rib Roasts, Sirloin Tip Roasts, Chuck Roasts, Rump Roasts

Hamburger – around 35-40 lbs

85% lean ground beef

These are your basic cuts and quantities. I have shown below how you can vary the quantities you get of the different cuts by ordering some further processed products for which there is an additional charge;

If you order sausages, patties, smokies, or garlic rings these will be made from some of your ground beef.

If you order beef jerky, minute steaks, stir fry, pastrami, salami these will be made from your Rump Roasts.

For no addition charge you can specify the following options which will again alter the quantities of the different cuts you take home;

If you order stew meat it will be cut from your chuck roasts.

If you decide to take your short ribs this will slightly decrease the amount of ground beef you get.”