Hanging weight is the weight of the animal after it is killed and gutted. It is typically 50 to 60 percent of the live weight of the animal.

Our butcher is Key Packing in Robbins, North Carolina a smaller family run business. Animals are typically slaughtered on a Tuesday, and later in the week the customer will receive from us the hanging weight and the balance owed on the animal, deducting the deposit. The customer then calls Mrs. Key at Key Packing and gives their custom butchering instructions. We typically email a beef specification sheet to help the customer with this process, and Mrs. Key, being the expert, is always helpful in giving butchering advice. You can make decisions such as how thick you want your steaks, how much hamburger, roasts, stew beef, whether you want beef ribs, etc… The hamburger is divided one pound per package, and all the meat is vacuum sealed in heavy plastic (much much heavier than you see in grocery stores). This packaging in our experience protects the meat at least a year without freezer burn. The meat is hung for 12 to 14 days, and is then available for pick up.

Our quarters are split quarters, equally divided from the front and rear of the animals, so that everyone getting a quarter gets the same cuts. Please be advised that those that order quarters are more limited in their butchering instructions, as it has to be cut the same as the other person purchasing a quarter. Often Mrs. Key can match you with someone that wants similar cuts. Also, if you can get a friend to order a quarter with you, you can have more customized butchering and get the price break that comes with a quarter.

Here, in North Carolina, we have selected Angus and Angus Hereford crosses as our brood cows for our grass fed beef. These do well in our area. We select medium frame cattle that finish well on grass. The Angus influence in our herd provides superior marbling in the meat and the Hereford breed provides the tenderest meat, based on the research we have done. We are moving towards Senapol Bull in 2009, which are bred for grass and also are very heat and fly resistant, enabling our calves to remain healthier naturally. This will also provide hybrid vigor which is helpful for growth and health of the calves. Those that use large frame Angus or Charlaise cattle, in our opinion, can raise bigger calves, but have to keep them longer, which affects the quality of the meat, based on our research.

We use no herbicides or insecticides on our pastures. We practice Management Intensive Grazing (MIG) which helps us to control weeds naturally. Basically, we try to move the cattle every one to three days to mimic nature, and to allow the grass over 30 days rest between every grazing period. This involves using portable electric fencing and providing water in every new paddock. While this is very labor intensive for us, it increases the impact that the manure has on the pasture, it increases the grass production, which in turn helps eliminate weed growth. When the cows graze in very heavy density for a short period of time and then the grass is allowed to rest a long period of time, this helps produce lush, healthy pastures. This also helps our clover to abound in our pastures, which is a natural producer of nitrogen.

We feed hay in the winter, most of it cut off of our pastures. Occasionally we supplement with extra hay from a local, known, reliable and healthy source. We also feed trace minerals, which are natural minerals, salt, etc… that cows need to remain healthy. We will be feeding natural Thorvin Kelp in 2009, which is basically seaweed and natural salt. We feel this is a better supplement than what we have used in the past, and our research shows that cows not only love it, but that it increases their health and reduces the time it takes to breed them back. Other than that, we feed our cows nothing else. No corn, no grain, no steroids, no nothing.

Short answer, yes. We use perennial pastures, instead of planting every year. This is a great protection against soil erosion. Many grassfed beef producers do plant annual crops, because the cows can put on weight faster with some annuals. We have fenced off our ponds and our river (over a mile of river frontage) which helps soil and water quality. Our cows drink deep well water instead of pond water, which increases our cow’s health. Finally, we sell only locally, we do not ship meat. Our butcher is 12 miles away from our farm. The typical grocery store cows have probably traveled over 1,500 miles before he is picked up by the consumer. That same consumer has cows within 30 miles of his house that could and should have been bought locally.

We cover this in other areas of the website, and provide links that provide information as well. The taste of the beef is superior, and the hamburger especially is superior to feed lot hamburger. Because the beef is so much leaner, it does need to be cooked shorter amounts of time, as overcooked lean meat will be tough. Cooked correctly, our beef is healthy, lean, tender, and delicious. We hear this from our customers, the great majority of whom are repeat customers and are excited about our healthy, natural, grass-fed beef.

Checking in on the Farm Blog will give you this information. Once late spring gets here, you need to reserve your meat, as we always run out.

We deliver on specific days to Fayetteville, because of the large number of customers we have there. We can deliver to other places, within reason, if there are enough customers.

The butchering cost is $ 11.25 a quarter, plus 45 cents a pound (hanging weight).

Answers:

The butchering process for pigs is a little different. The butcher date will be on a wednesday, final payment and hanging weight information will be emailed to customers on that wednesday or first thing thursday morning. The customer will have to contact the butcher on thursday to give their custom butchering instructions. The meat will have to be picked up on saturday at key packing between 9:00 a.M. And 11:00 a.M., which is the only time they are open on saturday. Some may make arrangements to pick up the meat first thing monday morning. So the process moves quicker than it does with beef and requires quicker responses from the customers.

No, unfortunately at this time we are just not able to deliver.

The butchering cost for pastured pork is the same as it is for beef; $22.50 a half plus 45 cents a pound hanging weight.

We feed our pigs pasture, giving them plenty of room. We also put them in the woods when appropriate as acorns are a great natural feed. We also feed corn and vegetables from the garden, as well as non-medicated grain based feeds. Our pigs do not receive growth hormones, steroids, or antibiotics.

Pigs, unlike cows, were not created to eat grass only, and need other protein supplements, like grain or corn. But their overall health is greatly increased by being allow to follow their natural foraging instincts and root around in the ground, eating grass, and getting natural minerals from the dirt. It is what allows us to raise them naturally and without antibiotics or other unhealthy inputs.