All of our cattle that are for sale for breeding purposes are listed on the Heartland Highland Cattle Association website. Please click HERE to access that site.
We occasionally have steers and cows available for sale as meat animals. Please call us at 636-544-1724 and ask about current and near future availability.
The process is fairly simple: You voice interest in buying an animal, and tell us your desired age or weight. We will match you to whatever we have that is close and quote you a price, good for 30 days. Send us full payment after which we will schedule the butcher to come and slaughter it. Slaughtering date will be determined by the butcher, not us, and may have seasonal delays. We will notify you once the slaughtering is complete. You call the butcher and specify how you want it processed (3/4" steaks, 1 1/4" steaks, roasts vs. hamburger, soup bones, etc.). You will need to call the butcher in advance of the slaughter to arrange for organ meat (liver, heart, tongue, etc.) if you desire that. They will harvest the organs but do not process them - you will need to be at our farm to pick those us when the animal is slaughtered. The butcher will age the meat for about 2 weeks prior to processing it. Once processed, the butcher will hard freeze the meat and you will pick it up from them. The butcher, Purdin Processing, is in Purdin, Missouri (Google "Purdin Processing, 100 C St, Purdin, MO 64674" for directions). You will be responsible for their processing charges.
We sometimes have multiple animals for sale and you will be offered a choice. Here are a few things for you to consider if given one:
* Younger animals (< 2 years old) have more tender meat, but less flavor, and are, of course, smaller.
* Older animals (>2 years old, typically <4 years old) have more flavorful meat, but are less tender. They tend to have better yields (packaged meat per pound of live animal) and weigh more.
* Anything older than 4 years should probably just be used for hamburger or jerky. We seldom have these for sale unless one of our breeding herd develops bad behavior (like jumping fences or agression).
* Cross-bred animals (we sometimes sell 75% highland, 25% angus) have a great reputation and tend to be a bit bigger than an equivalent age pure-bred.
Numbers will vary, but here is an example based on a hypothetical 3 year old steer:
Live Weight: 1000lbs
Cost: $1250
Hanging weight: 575lbs (the weight of the animal after slaughter, head&leg removal, skinning and cleaning)
Slaughter charge: $70
Processing charge: $258.75 (Hanging weight times $0.45/lb - which includes aging, trimming, cutting, wrapping, freezing, etc.)
Yield: 374lbs of packaged meat (varies based on amount of bone removed and processing options)
Your total cost: $1250 to Carpenter Farms, $328.75 to Purdin Processing, $1578.75 total.
Price/lb: $4.22 for pasture born, pasture raised, minimally stressed, antibiotic and growth hormone free meet, plus your travel expenses to pick up the packaged meat at Purdin Processing.
Its worth noting that upwards of 20% of the hanging weight is lost due to water evaporation during the ~2 weeks of dry aging. That evaporation is normal and helps concentrate the flavor in remaining meat. That is a large part of the difference between hanging weight and total package weight.
Remember to ask for soup bones (which have a huge amount of meat on them). You are paying a flat per pound charge for their service. It doesn't matter how you have it sliced up: more thin steaks or fewer thick steaks, hamburger or roast. For example, if you ask for soup bones, you will get a bit less hamburger and a bit more bone (for a bit more packaged weight), but the amount of meat will be the same - just how its packaged will be different.
Note that the frozen meat will be placed in ~50lb heavy paper sacks. Make sure you have enough room and muscle power! Throw some blankets over the bags and run your AC on full if picking up in the summer and it should be fine for several hours. They do charge 10 cents apiece for the bags, but that is less than $1 per animal... This is all considered labor, so there is no sales tax.
We can not guarantee actual yield, but the numbers above represent our experience. Older/larger animals tend to have higher yield percentages than smaller animals/younger animals. Remember that flavor is balanced against tenderness. The older the animal, the more flavor, but the meat will be somewhat less tender.
Here are a few other references with additional examples from the web (we are not endorsing these companies, just providing their figures for comparison):
Buying Beef in Bulk GreatGrassBeef
GreenVistaFarm ODA
Edmundsonbeef Chicamarun
One final note: Grass fed, grass finished beef is MUCH leaner than store bought meat. Please make sure you web-search and find proper cooking instructions for grass fed meat. If you cook it like normal grocery store corn-fed beef, it will be grossly overdone and tough.
* All of our meat animals are, of course, available for purchase as companion steers. If you are starting your own herd, or only want to raise one or two cows, consider the addition of companion steers. Highland cattle are HERD animals, one alone will be severely stressed - we recommend a minimum of 3 animals in a herd, and 5 is better.
We occasionally have steers and cows available for sale as meat animals. Please call us at 636-544-1724 and ask about current and near future availability.
The process is fairly simple: You voice interest in buying an animal, and tell us your desired age or weight. We will match you to whatever we have that is close and quote you a price, good for 30 days. Send us full payment after which we will schedule the butcher to come and slaughter it. Slaughtering date will be determined by the butcher, not us, and may have seasonal delays. We will notify you once the slaughtering is complete. You call the butcher and specify how you want it processed (3/4" steaks, 1 1/4" steaks, roasts vs. hamburger, soup bones, etc.). You will need to call the butcher in advance of the slaughter to arrange for organ meat (liver, heart, tongue, etc.) if you desire that. They will harvest the organs but do not process them - you will need to be at our farm to pick those us when the animal is slaughtered. The butcher will age the meat for about 2 weeks prior to processing it. Once processed, the butcher will hard freeze the meat and you will pick it up from them. The butcher, Purdin Processing, is in Purdin, Missouri (Google "Purdin Processing, 100 C St, Purdin, MO 64674" for directions). You will be responsible for their processing charges.
We sometimes have multiple animals for sale and you will be offered a choice. Here are a few things for you to consider if given one:
* Younger animals (< 2 years old) have more tender meat, but less flavor, and are, of course, smaller.
* Older animals (>2 years old, typically <4 years old) have more flavorful meat, but are less tender. They tend to have better yields (packaged meat per pound of live animal) and weigh more.
* Anything older than 4 years should probably just be used for hamburger or jerky. We seldom have these for sale unless one of our breeding herd develops bad behavior (like jumping fences or agression).
* Cross-bred animals (we sometimes sell 75% highland, 25% angus) have a great reputation and tend to be a bit bigger than an equivalent age pure-bred.
Numbers will vary, but here is an example based on a hypothetical 3 year old steer:
Live Weight: 1000lbs
Cost: $1250
Hanging weight: 575lbs (the weight of the animal after slaughter, head&leg removal, skinning and cleaning)
Slaughter charge: $70
Processing charge: $258.75 (Hanging weight times $0.45/lb - which includes aging, trimming, cutting, wrapping, freezing, etc.)
Yield: 374lbs of packaged meat (varies based on amount of bone removed and processing options)
Your total cost: $1250 to Carpenter Farms, $328.75 to Purdin Processing, $1578.75 total.
Price/lb: $4.22 for pasture born, pasture raised, minimally stressed, antibiotic and growth hormone free meet, plus your travel expenses to pick up the packaged meat at Purdin Processing.
Its worth noting that upwards of 20% of the hanging weight is lost due to water evaporation during the ~2 weeks of dry aging. That evaporation is normal and helps concentrate the flavor in remaining meat. That is a large part of the difference between hanging weight and total package weight.
Remember to ask for soup bones (which have a huge amount of meat on them). You are paying a flat per pound charge for their service. It doesn't matter how you have it sliced up: more thin steaks or fewer thick steaks, hamburger or roast. For example, if you ask for soup bones, you will get a bit less hamburger and a bit more bone (for a bit more packaged weight), but the amount of meat will be the same - just how its packaged will be different.
Note that the frozen meat will be placed in ~50lb heavy paper sacks. Make sure you have enough room and muscle power! Throw some blankets over the bags and run your AC on full if picking up in the summer and it should be fine for several hours. They do charge 10 cents apiece for the bags, but that is less than $1 per animal... This is all considered labor, so there is no sales tax.
We can not guarantee actual yield, but the numbers above represent our experience. Older/larger animals tend to have higher yield percentages than smaller animals/younger animals. Remember that flavor is balanced against tenderness. The older the animal, the more flavor, but the meat will be somewhat less tender.
Here are a few other references with additional examples from the web (we are not endorsing these companies, just providing their figures for comparison):
Buying Beef in Bulk GreatGrassBeef
GreenVistaFarm ODA
Edmundsonbeef Chicamarun
One final note: Grass fed, grass finished beef is MUCH leaner than store bought meat. Please make sure you web-search and find proper cooking instructions for grass fed meat. If you cook it like normal grocery store corn-fed beef, it will be grossly overdone and tough.
* All of our meat animals are, of course, available for purchase as companion steers. If you are starting your own herd, or only want to raise one or two cows, consider the addition of companion steers. Highland cattle are HERD animals, one alone will be severely stressed - we recommend a minimum of 3 animals in a herd, and 5 is better.
