What's in a Quarter Beef?
A quarter beef is about 115 lb of take-home, freezer-ready beef — vacuum-sealed, labeled, and frozen. It is not 115 lb of ribeye. One animal yields a fixed mix of ground, steaks, roasts, and more. Here's roughly what to expect, and — honestly — why your exact box will be a little different.
Roughly what ends up in your freezer
Pounds below are typical for a 115 lb quarter beef, based on standard University of Tennessee / Penn State Extension beef-cutting yields. Think of them as the center of a range — see "why it varies" below.
🍔 Ground beef — about 52 lb total
| Cut | Typical lbs | About how much |
|---|---|---|
| Ground 80/20 (1-lb pack) | 52.0 lb | ~52 one-lb packs |
🥩 Steaks — about 26 lb total
| Cut | Typical lbs | About how much |
|---|---|---|
| Ribeye steak | 4.5 lb | ≈ 5–7 steaks |
| NY Strip (top loin) steak | 3.9 lb | ≈ 4–6 steaks |
| T-bone steak | 1.3 lb | ≈ 1–2 steaks |
| Porterhouse steak | 1.3 lb | ≈ 1–2 steaks |
| Filet mignon steaks | 1.3 lb | ≈ 3–4 steaks |
| Top sirloin steak | 4.5 lb | ≈ 5–7 steaks |
| Tri-tip | 0.6 lb | |
| Chuck steak | 2.6 lb | ≈ 2–3 steaks |
| Round steak | 3.9 lb | ≈ 3–5 steaks |
| Flank steak | 1.3 lb | ≈ 1–2 steaks |
| Skirt steak | 0.6 lb |
🍖 Roasts* — about 32 lb total
| Cut | Typical lbs | Or grind to | About how much |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chuck roast | 6.5 lb | → ~6.5 lb burger | ≈ 2–3 roasts |
| Rib roast / prime rib | 1.9 lb | → ~1.9 lb burger | |
| Strip roast (whole top loin) | 0.6 lb | → ~0.6 lb burger | |
| Sirloin tip roast | 3.9 lb | → ~3.9 lb burger | ≈ 1–2 roasts |
| Top round roast | 6.5 lb | → ~6.5 lb burger | ≈ 2–3 roasts |
| Bottom round roast | 5.2 lb | → ~5.2 lb burger | ≈ 1–2 roasts |
| Eye of round roast | 3.9 lb | → ~3.9 lb burger | ≈ 1–2 roasts |
| Rump roast | 3.9 lb | → ~3.9 lb burger | ≈ 1–2 roasts |
* Prefer hamburger? Any roast can be ground instead — about 1:1 by weight (see the 'Or grind to' column). Mix and match on your cut sheet: keep some roasts, grind the rest into burger.
🍖 Ribs — about 5 lb total
| Cut | Typical lbs | About how much |
|---|---|---|
| Short ribs | 2.6 lb | ≈ 1–2 packs |
| Back ribs | 0.6 lb | |
| Plate short ribs | 1.3 lb |
🍛 Stew, soup & specialty* — about 12 lb (special order — additional cost)
| Cut | Typical lbs | About how much |
|---|---|---|
| Stew meat (1-lb packs) | 5.2 lb | ~5 one-lb packs |
| Osso buco (cross-cut shank) | 1.3 lb | ≈ 1–2 packs |
| Oxtail | 0.6 lb | |
| Soup bones | 0.6 lb | |
| Marrow bones | 0.6 lb | |
| Heart | 0.6 lb | |
| Liver | 1.3 lb | ~1 one-lb packs |
| Tongue | 0.6 lb | |
| Tallow / suet (raw fat) | 1.3 lb |
* Special request only — these specialty, organ, and bone cuts are added to your cut sheet on request, at an additional per-pound cost. Just ask when you order.
What's in every quarter beef box: about 115 lb of everyday cuts.
That's the everyday cuts included in every quarter beef at the share price. Organ meats, bones, and tallow (and brisket) are available by special order at an additional cost per pound — they are not included in the weight or price above. Exact cuts and weights vary a little from one animal to the next.
A brisket comes off the animal as one whole ~10–14 lb cut, sized for a half or whole share — so a quarter doesn't include one by default (that's why it isn't in the list above). Want one? Add brisket by the pound at $10/lb when you place your order.
On any beef animal, most of the meat is hard-working muscle that's leanest and best as ground beef or roasts — the tender steak muscles (ribeye, strip, tenderloin) are only a small slice of the whole cow. In a typical share that's about 40% ground beef and roughly 20% steaks (the rest is roasts, ribs & specialty). So you take home roughly 2.0 lb of hamburger for every 1 lb of steak — totally normal, and you set the exact mix on your cut sheet (grind the roasts for even more burger, or keep them whole).
Why your exact box will be a little different
Every number above is a typical, not a promise of exact weights. Two things drive the difference: your cut sheet (the choices you — or we — make at the processor) and the animal itself. Here's exactly what shifts:
- How thick you want your steaks. Ask for 1.5″ ribeyes instead of 1″ and you get fewer, bigger steaks from the same muscle — same total weight, different count.
- How much you want ground. This is the big one. Chuck and round can be cut into roasts and steaks or sent to grind. Want more hamburger? We grind the chuck roasts and round roasts and your ground jumps well past the typical 52 lb — with fewer roasts to show for it. Want more roasts and steaks? Ground drops. Same beef, your call.
- Roast size. Two 3-lb chuck roasts or one 6-lb roast? Your family, your freezer.
- Bone-in vs. boneless. Bone-in ribeyes, T-bones, and porterhouse weigh more per package but yield less edible meat; boneless gives you cleaner weights. T-bone and porterhouse come from the same short loin — ask for more of one and you get less of the other.
- Organ meats & bones. Heart, liver, tongue, oxtail, marrow and soup bones, and tallow are yours if you want them — tell us to keep them or skip them.
- Each animal is an individual. A well-finished steer carries more on the rib and loin; a leaner one gives a bit more ground. We raise 1–2 cows a year, so you're getting that cow, not a blended average.
Some farms and the sale barn quote a "hanging" or "carcass" weight and a low-sounding price per pound on that number. But you don't take home the bones, fat, and moisture lost in dry-aging — take-home weight runs roughly 60–65% of hanging weight. The 115 lb we quote is take-home, packaged beef — the stuff that actually goes in your freezer. When you compare us to anyone else, make sure you're comparing the same number.
Whatever your cut sheet, it's still the better deal
Here's the part the variation doesn't change: your price is locked to the share, not to which cuts you pick. A quarter beef is $1,125 for ~115 lb — about $9.78/lb blended across every cut, from the filet mignon to the ground.
Buying that same beef cut-by-cut at the grocery, you'd pay grass-fed steak prices for your steaks and grass-fed ground prices for your ground. With a share, the pricey cuts and the everyday cuts average out in your favor. Want the receipts? See the live, cut-by-cut math on our "Is it cheaper?" page and the store-by-store price comparison.
📈 How we set the price: we track the local sale barn so you don't have to
We're not guessing at our prices and we're not padding them. We follow the same local Middle Tennessee cattle auction prices (Unionville / Tennessee Livestock Producers) and USDA Market News reports that every cattle producer watches. That's what it costs us to buy and raise the calf in the first place.
So our deal with you is simple and honest:
- When the cattle market climbs, our prices have to climb with it — the calf we buy this year costs what the market says it costs.
- When the market falls, you save — we pass the lower cost straight back to you instead of pocketing the difference.
Either way, you're always paying a fair price anchored to a number you can look up yourself — not a sticker we made up. You can see exactly what a calf costs us today on the "Is it cheaper?" page, with the sale-barn figures cited. Prices current as of June 2026.
📅 Looking ahead to 2027: our 2026 calves cost $400–500/head more than 2025's, but we're holding the increase to just +$50 a quarter (+$100 a half, +$200 a whole). Place a deposit and your price locks in — even if the market climbs before delivery.
Ready for a freezer full of Disney Farm beef?
We raise just 1–2 cows a year. When this season's shares are gone, the next pick is spring.