Lambs and cows

[The rabbit]

Well just got back from a family member birthday gathering here. Two uncles of my wife are farmers who own organic farms , with grass fed cattle , and Ive ordered three lambs from one of them. He said the weight of each lamb by July /August will be 20 kg. Another Uncle keeps cows and the cost of one whole cow will be 2.882 U.S. dollars or 1, 746 English pounds. I have not ordered the cow yet as at present I have no idea on how best to deal with dehydrating the parts to conserve the meat , or how to deal with each of the different parts of these animals.

Does any one know of any links where I can learn how to do this.

Thanks.

Oh I had Ostrich meat for the first time in my life today and enjoyed very much. Did not Know it was Ostrich until afterwards. I was surprised.

 

[3DStudent]

I don't know about the different parts of the animal. But dehydrators are discussed a bit in the Preparedness thread.

 

[RyanX]

He said the weight of each lamb by July /August will be 20 kg. Another Uncle keeps cows and the cost of one whole cow will be 2.882 U.S. dollars or 1, 746 English pounds. I have not ordered the cow yet as at present I have no idea on how best to deal with dehydrating the parts to conserve the meat , or how to deal with each of the different parts of these animals.

Hi AWTF,

Are you sure you want to order a whole cow? That's a lot of meat to store. Just to give you an idea, with three people in my household, I go through at most about 1/4 of a cow each year. Sometimes more sometimes less depending on the cow size, my cooking habits and so forth. You'd need a good size chest freezer to store a full cow, but if you're going the dehydrated route I'm not sure what you'd do since I've never dried beef before. Maybe others can chime in.

I'd think canning it like Laura has mentioned in the Preparedness thread that 3D Student mention might be a better option. Even then, you might have more meat than you can handle in a single year. Maybe you could find another family to split the portions so you're only getting 1/2 a cow?

FWIW.

 

[rrraven]

in my household of 6 we go through 240kg of beef in 6 month ,that is 2 yearlings of ca.120kg of DRESSED weight.
The animals go to the abbs and from there to your nominated butcher.
We give the butcher a list of how we like it cut,like how much mince and sausages,roasts or corned pieces etc.and pick it up in labeled plastic bags
FREEZING THAT MUCH MEAT TAKES A 700 L FREEZER
because you have to layer it with newspaper and re-stack it after a day or so
if you don't do that it will freeze into one solid mass
finding another family to take half of the cow is a good idea
find a good butcher who wont put MSG into the sausages and explain that you want some of the meat as jerky,maybe he can dry it in his coolroom for you,and that you want all the fat and bones

 

[The rabbit]

Thanks for the responses to date all. Well a whole cow and what that means has now been grasped. A percentage of the price includes the cow being cut up into its parts , stamped and labelled organic by the state.

As we do not know anyone at present who would be interested in sharing , we will most probably not be getting a cow. Anyways we will talk more with the uncle soon and get a better picture of the best way to do things should we go this way in the future.

He was thrown by our want to dehydrate the meat , and did not really understand what our wishes are.

So the lambs from uncle 1 it is for now.

 

[herondancer]

Hi AWTF,

Maybe your uncle knows folks who might be interested in the other 1/2? Or even the butcher? It's in both their interests to get as many customers as possible, so you could try tapping their network. Or even put up an ad on a local internet bulletin board. Do you have the equivalent of Kijiji where you live?

When we bought a cow, we took 1/2 and then had two other families who only wanted quarters. It worked out pretty well. Once folks get used to having a good supply of meat around, they usually become repeat customers.