The GOOD 100: Cowpooling
- Posted by: GOOD
- on October 21, 2009 at 8:08 am
Share Your Meat with All Your Friends
Because buying in bulk is always better
by Tamar Adler
Adler is the director of the Bay Area Meat CSA and Meatshare.org, which help hungry people buy wholesale meat directly from local farmers.
Optimizing a whole animal’s value by buying all of its cuts isn’t new—a half century ago, it was commonplace to buy a whole cow or pig from a neighbor and work your way through the meat over a course of a few months.
But cooperating with neighbors to absorb all of that meat in one shot—called “cowpooling,” or meat sharing—is. Groups ranging in size from two to 20 people have begun sharing the burdens and the benefits of buying meat straight off the pasture. The groups contract with farmers for one whole animal, and split it up by the pound. The more people who are sharing an animal, the less meat each takes home: When 20 people buy one cow, each only ends up with 15 to 20 pounds.
As people become more intent on verifying their food’s sources, we predict they will rely more heavily on alternative buying mechanisms like community-supported agriculture and meat-sharing to create critical links between those who want good food and the people who produce it.
To connect with neighbors interested in starting a local meat co-op, visit localharvest.org.
DISCUSSION: 9 Comments
More people should “cowpool”. Another advantage of this method of buying meat would be that more people would likely be helping out the smaller ranchers/farmers, rather than support all of the big or foreign ones by buying beef at a place like WalMart or other grocery stores.
This is an excellent way of buying the cow. We sold three steers from our small herd to 6 different people last year. Paired them up, we delievered steer to slaughter house and the butcher picked it up and prepared to order. They ranged in weights from 750 to 900+ pounds. Everyone was happy and it was all done. You can get cow to meat for less than $2 per pound.
hmmmmmmmpeople have been doing that ever since I was a kid.. then with allthe “supermarkets” and places like COSTCO coming around it then became a very expensive way to purchase (that and having to pay for everything at once) even if 3 people purchase one good steet (900 lbs) that is 300 pounds of meat that you not only ahve to pay up front for.. at even 2-3 bucks a pound and does that include cutting and wrapping? you still have to have a freezer big enough for 300 pounds of beef…and let me tell you that is a LOT of meat….
dang… wieh I could spell better.. that last post of mine reads horribly…oh wellhukt on foniks werkt fer me
The article, while good, is incomplete. There is more to buying and butchering a steer than it would indicate. First of all, if one purchases a 1000 pund steer, you will lose 55 to 60 percent of the live weight upon slaughter. The rail, or hanging weight, say 450 pounds, is not all meat either. There is a lot of fat and bone in that 450 pounds. It’s easy to divide an animal between two, three or four people, but after that, it gets a little tough. You cannot equally divide the cuts of meat between twenty people, unless someone really doesn’t mind getting nothing but burger and stew meat while someone else gets all the choice cuts. If that’s the case, I’ll split a beef with them!
The article is good, this is the best way to buy beef in particular. Tenderness is always a consideration in beef and the beef purchased through a local packer like this is usually hung in the cooler for 21 days compared to 48 hours at one of the large meat packers. This has a very advantegous effect on the tenderness. Farmgirl is not entirely accurate on the weight loss either. IF the steer or heifer is grain fed to a weight of Steers approx 1200 and up he will yield 62 – 65% of his live weight in hanging weight. There will be additional loss once particular cuts are deboned. The advantage though is you can have your meat packaged the way you like rather than having to take what the store offers. Grass fed beef is gaining in popularity and is supposed to have numerous helth benefits. I’m not sold on the taste completely but if you purchase from someone that has good quality genetics it can be very good as well. The capability to test the DNA in cattle and predict tenderness is in practice as we speak and tends to be very accurate. You can ask the producer if he has this information on his herd.
farmgirl, and cattlman both have good statements. i would however like to comment on cattlemans statement about grain fed cattle. while they do yield more weight back at slaughter, grain fed cattle have a tendency to have much more marble in the meat. marble being fat. now, many people swear by this and actually look for marble in what they call a good steak. often saying that the juices from the fat add to the flavor of the beef. this is true. grass fed beef like my angus have a much leaner stronger beef flavor as there is less tallow in the beef to mellow the flavor. i myslf prefer grass fed beef as it is what i raise and what i was raised on. how ever to each ther own and i myself have gone to many restuarants and consumed a grain fed cut of beef and was quite satisfied at the time. it is simply a difference in flavor. im sure that cattleman could himself positively identify grainfed vs. grass fed both by sight and taste also.
Since watching “Fast Food Nation” I’ve tried to stay away from meat products produced by factory farms. But, oh my! I do love a good rib-eye steak now and then, as well as beef stew, chili and the like. I was raised where we kept meat in a smokehouse all year long. I think cowpooling is a great idea, and any worries about storing one’s share could be solved with a little research into the methods of our past combined with today’s technology and innovative thinkers.
This would work better, if the people involved would do their own butchering. Purchase some type of food sealer, thus cutting some of the middle man exspense, you can learn the different cuts of meat and such on the net. Most places you take the critter does have small lockers you can rent. People who does their own butchering knows how it has been processed, something else is you would get all your meat, including the choice cuts, because it is common practice of some meat packers to keep some. You can buy seasonings and spices to the way you want. I also can meat it saves on freezer space and a very quick way to have a meal on the table minutes.