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.
Real numbers: a "Steaks & Hamburger" quarter beef
This is the actual processor return from our July 2026 animal, cut on a custom USDA "premium steaks & hamburger — no roasts" cut sheet: every roast cut was either steaked or ground. 790 lb hanging weight came home as 454 lb of vacuum-sealed beef. Counts below are those whole-cow numbers scaled to a quarter beef and rounded down — so if anything, your box beats this list.
| Cut | Packages | Pounds |
|---|---|---|
| Ground beef 80/20 (1-lb packs) | ~81 | 81.8 lb |
| Ribeye steak | ~3 | 6.3 lb |
| Sirloin tip steak | ~2 | 4.9 lb |
| NY Strip steak | ~3 | 4.6 lb |
| Chuck steak | ~3 | 3.7 lb |
| Sirloin steak | ~1 | 3.1 lb |
| Denver steak | ~2 | 2.0 lb |
| Filet mignon | ~3 | 1.8 lb |
| TOTAL | ~98 pkgs | 108 lb |
Package counts and weights vary a little animal to animal; small indivisible cuts (brisket, skirt, flank) are sized for a half/whole — quarter shares give those up. Prefer roasts after all? That's the beauty of a custom cut sheet — flip back to the standard mix or set any blend you like when you 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 53 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 $1,323 for ~115 lb — about $11.50/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 July 2026 - actual processing invoice (Six $1,228.98).
📅 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.