Hanging weight, take-home weight, and what you actually pay
Nearly every question we get is some version of "so what does a quarter cost?" The honest answer is "about $1,200, and here's why we can't say exactly." This page is the whole explanation, with the arithmetic shown.
Live, hanging, take-home
Live weight is the animal walking onto the trailer: for our finished steers, 1,150–1,350 lb. You never pay on this.
Hanging weight (also called carcass weight, dressed weight or "HW") is what the carcass weighs on the locker's rail after the hide, head, hooves, organs and blood are removed. For grass-fed Red Angus that's about 60% of live weight — around 750 lb for a 1,250 lb steer. This is the number we charge on, because it's measured on a certified scale by someone who isn't us, and because it's the industry standard, so you can compare our $5.25 to any other ranch's price.
Take-home weight is what goes in your freezer after the carcass dry-ages for 14 days (it loses a few percent in moisture) and the butcher trims fat and removes bone. For a standard cut sheet with mostly boneless cuts, expect 60–64% of hanging weight. Ask for bone-in steaks, soup bones, and the organs and it climbs toward 70%. Ask for everything boneless and lots of trimmed ground and it drops toward 58%.
$5.25 per lb hanging, plus processing
The $5.25/lb is what you pay us for the animal. It covers the 26 months of raising it, the land, the hay, the hauling and our living.
Processing is paid to Fjelstad Locker and passed through at cost. For 2026–27 that's:
- Kill fee: $110 per animal (so $27.50 on a quarter, $55 on a half)
- Cut, wrap, vacuum seal, freeze: $1.05 per lb hanging
- Extras, if you ask: patties $1.50/lb, organ meats bagged free, tallow rendered $12 per animal
So the all-in cost is roughly $6.45 per lb hanging, or about $10.40 per lb take-home. Steaks, roasts, ground and bones all come at that one average price. Compare that to $8.50 for ground alone and $22–26 for a ribeye in the freezer store.
We don't price by take-home weight because it rewards us for trimming heavy and leaving bone in. Hanging weight makes the price the same whether you want bone-in or boneless.
The same steer, three ways
A typical 2026 finished steer: 1,250 lb live, 750 lb hanging, standard cut sheet. Your animal will vary by 10% either way, which is why the deposit is fixed and the balance isn't.
Quarter
| Hanging weight | 187 lb |
| Beef @ $5.25 | $981.75 |
| Cut & wrap @ $1.05 | $196.35 |
| ¼ kill fee | $27.50 |
| Deposit paid | −$250.00 |
| Balance at pickup | $955.60 |
| Total | $1,205.60 |
| Take-home ~116 lb | $10.39/lb |
Half
| Hanging weight | 375 lb |
| Beef @ $5.25 | $1,968.75 |
| Cut & wrap @ $1.05 | $393.75 |
| ½ kill fee | $55.00 |
| Deposit paid | −$500.00 |
| Balance at pickup | $1,917.50 |
| Total | $2,417.50 |
| Take-home ~232 lb | $10.42/lb |
Whole
| Hanging weight | 750 lb |
| Beef @ $5.25 | $3,937.50 |
| Cut & wrap @ $1.05 | $787.50 |
| Kill fee | $110.00 |
| Deposit paid | −$1,000.00 |
| Balance at pickup | $3,835.00 |
| Total | $4,835.00 |
| Take-home ~465 lb | $10.40/lb |
A big steer can push a quarter to 210 lb hanging ($1,355 all-in); a small heifer can bring it down to 165 lb ($1,064). You'll know the number the day after processing, two weeks before you pay the balance.
How much freezer do you need?
Vacuum-sealed cuts pack at roughly 35–40 lb per cubic foot. Paper-wrapped beef is bulkier (closer to 30 lb) but we don't paper-wrap. Allow a little headroom: a freezer packed to the lid takes longer to re-freeze after you dig around in it.
| Share | Take-home | Cubic feet | Fits in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quarter beef | ~116 lb | 3–3.5 | A fridge-top freezer, if it's empty |
| Half beef | ~232 lb | 6–7 | Small upright or 7 cu ft chest |
| Whole beef | ~465 lb | 12–14 | 15 cu ft chest |
| Half hog | ~65 lb | 2 | Fridge-top freezer |
| Whole hog | ~130 lb | 3.5–4 | Small chest, or share a half beef chest |
| Family Box | ~28 lb | 0.8 | Any freezer drawer |
A 7 cu ft chest freezer runs $200–$280 new in Decorah or Rochester and costs about $3 a month to run. If you buy one for a half beef, it pays for itself against grocery prices in the first half. Try the calculator on the beef page.
Is this actually cheaper?
Per pound, for the mix you get, yes — and it's a mix you can't buy at a store at any price. Here's a 116 lb quarter valued at our own freezer-store prices, which already run under the Decorah Co-op's grass-fed case:
| 42 lb ground @ $8.50 | $357 |
| 22 lb steaks @ avg $19 | $418 |
| 24 lb roasts @ avg $10 | $240 |
| 18 lb ribs, brisket, stew @ avg $11 | $198 |
| 10 lb bones & shank @ avg $5.50 | $55 |
| Freezer-store value | $1,268 |
| Quarter share price | $1,206 |
If you only ever eat ground beef, a share isn't the cheapest way to buy from us — buy 10 lb bulk ground at $7.95. If you eat steaks and roasts too, it is.
What's not included
- Delivery to a drop point: free on shares (always over $150)
- Extra freezer bags or coolers — bring your own; it's frozen hard and rides fine for 3 hours uncovered
- Sales tax: none on food in Iowa
Still have a question about the math?
Call Anna at (555) 016-8810. She has explained this at every farmers' market since 2016 and genuinely doesn't mind.