PREMIUM ALL NATURAL BEEF

Actually, there's no exact answer to this question. Here are some reasons: Each animal is built differently. They have different amounts of muscle, fat & bone. Meat can be closely trimmed or left with some fat on. Cutting preferences can determine quantity. Meat can be boneless or bone-in. This will make a difference in the weight and amount of meat you put in your freezer. In general these are the cuts you can expect to get from half a beef: Rib Steaks - 15 Sirloin Steaks - 6 to 7 T-Bone Steaks - 8 Porterhouse Steaks - 4 Round Steak - 6 to 8 Rump Roast at 3 lbs. ea. - 2 to 3 Sirloin Tip Roast at 3 lbs. ea. - 4 Chuck Roast at 3 lbs. ea. - 10 to 12 Burger - 100 to 120 lbs. Short Ribs - 6 pieces Soup Bones - 8 pieces

30 lb.s of meat takes up appoximately one cubic foot of space. A whole beef needs 16 cubic feet of freezer space for storage (2'x4'x2'). In other words a middle-sized chest freezer. Make sure that you have ample freezer space at the time that you order, not after you get the meat home.

When picking up the meat, be prepared to keep the meat frozen for the entire trip home. In the summer, bring coolers. Meat will stay frozen 1.5 to 2 hours in a cooler. Move it into a freezer as soon as possible.

Meat freezes at 28.6 degrees F. You can keep frozen beef up to 1 year. Refrigerator life at 30-32 degrees F normally keeps beef 5 - 7 days.

About one month.

We have beef available for harvest every month of the year. When we butcher depends on the availability of the processor (they are sometimes booked months in advance) and whether we have enough orders to harvest a whole steer. For example, if one person orders a half and another orders a quarter - we might not be able to harvest that steer until we fill an order for another quarter. This is why it's beneficial for you to get a group of people together to order beef. Not only do you get a reduced rate with ordering a whole beef, you get your beef more quickly.

Holsteins are a very hardy breed of cattle, which is a huge benefit considering we do not give our steers any antibiotics, hormones or steroids. Plus, the Holstein is a larger-framed animal and the steaks are bigger than with other breeds. In addition, Holsteins produce a leaner meat than other breeds (yielding 25-30% less trimmable fat) making it attractive to calorie-conscious consumers.(1). They store a majority of their fat in the muscle, which causes exceptional marbling. Other breeds tend to store wasteful fat on the outside of steaks. By raising Holsteins Steers for Beef, we provide tender, buttery, flavorful, lean beef. Things to know about Holstein beef: Most of the sub-primal cuts require little or no trimming to get them down to the ¼” trim level. Holsteins represent the largest, most homogenous group of cattle in the beef industry. Industry graders commonly indicate that Holstein steers generally have higher marbling scores than beef breeds. (Marbling is the amount of intramuscular fat that the animal has. Marbling is partly responsible for the flavor and tenderness of beef cuts.) Our beef consistently scores at upper choice & prime as a result of our fine-tuned feeding program. 1) Dvorak, Norval. 1991. Opportunities for marketing Holstein beef. In: The Proceedings of the Holstein Beef Production Symposium. Northeast Regional Agricultural Engineering Service, Cooperative Extension, Ithaca, NY. p. 1-5.

Forty years ago, most of our beef was dry aged. In the early 1960's the process of vacuum packing beef became the norm for most processors. The advantage of this process was that they could "wet age" the beef in the bag and not lose any of the weight of the beef (remember – you’re paying by weight). Most of the beef offered for sale as retail cuts at supermarkets is wet aged only 5 to 7 days, which would be called moderately aged beef. It is found that beef tenderness increases with aging up to 11 days. So something aged less than that may be a bit on the tough side. Today 99% of Supermarkets sell wet aged beef. Dry aging is an art that requires extensive training and knowledge. This process takes special care and requires a relatively large inventory. The beef is aged in the open air at controlled temperature between 34 F and 38 F with an ambient humidity adjusted between 50% and 75% for two weeks. During this time, the beef looses moisture and develops flavor. During this process a crust forms on the outside of the loin, very similar to the texture of beef jerky. This layer is trimmed away, leaving steaks that are superior in tenderness and flavor. Dry aging is more costly due to the loss in shrinkage and extra trim required, time, storage, refrigerator space, and labor. Yet, the texture, flavor and tenderness benefits mean dry aging far outweighs the added cost. The result is a steak that is bolder, extremely tender, and has a buttery taste. This is why dry aged steak is offered only in fine restaurants, upscale grocery stores and gourmet steak companies.

The owners of Prem Meats did their research and learned that the level of stress caused to the animals by transporting, unloading, and putting them in unfamiliar surroundings is an immensely overlooked issue that plays a vital role in meat quality. Even if we exercise extreme caution during the loading and transporting of your animal, we have no control over how our animal is treated inside the slaughter facility. After more research and talking with their customers they felt that it was imperative to offer their customers a State Licensed Mobile Slaughter Unit. They met with supervisors from the Department of Agriculture and Meat Safety inspectors to make them aware of their plans and worked hand in hand with them in developing a refrigerated unit that is functional, clean and provides a humane environment to harvest our animals in. Representatives from the State Department were excited to be involved in this process and provided them guidance and support throughout the planning and building stages. Know your butcher • Know your food.

Nitrite has been used as a food preservative and anti-botulinal agent for decades. Creek Bed Farm uses only .02% of nitrites in curing our sticks, sausage, and jerky - and does not use any nitrates. All smoked sausages must be cured. The reason for this is the threat of botulism (food poisening). The bacterium responsible, Clostridium botulinum, is ubiquitous in the environment, grows in the anaerobic conditions created in the smoke house and thrives in the 40 °F to 140 °F (5 °C to 60 °C) temperature range. Nitrites themselves are very common in our food supply and for instance are found at levels up to 3,000 ppm by weight (w/w) in foods like beets, lettuce, potatoes, and radishes. It has been estimated that 10 percent of the human exposure to nitrite in the digestive tract comes from cured meats and 90 percent comes from vegetables and other sources. Nitrite use has been a subject of controversy since the 1970s, when some of its reaction-products (i.e., nitrosamines) were associated with cancer in laboratory animals. However, following a 1981 review of all scientific data on nitrite, the National Academy of Sciences/ National Research Council indicated that Nitrite does not directly act as a carcinogen in animals Nitrate, converted to nitrite in the human body, is neither carcinogenic nor mutagenic and Nitrite-preserved or nitrate-containing foods account for only a very small proportion of the human body's total exposure to nitrosamines. Nitrite has never been shown to cause cancer in humans or animals. The American Cancer Society concluded in its 1996 dietary guidelines that "nitrites in foods are not a significant cause of cancer among Americans." A 1996 National Research Council (NRC) report entitled "Carcinogens and Anticarcinogens in the Human Diet" made no mention of cancer risk associated with cured meat consumption. Today, it is clear that the benefits of nitrite in cured foods far outweigh any potential risks.

Indeed, research does show that grass-finished beef has higher levels of Vitamin A, Vitamin E, omega-3 fatty acids, and conjugated linoleic acid or CLA (Duckett et al., 1993; Smith et al., 1996; French et al., 2000; Grześkiewicz et al., 2001; Poulson et al., 2004; Engle and Spears, 2004; Noci et al., 2005; Daley et al., 2005). Therefore, marketing claims that those nutrients are present in higher concentrations in grass-finished than in conventional beef are correct. However, claims that grass-finished beef is “healthier” as a result are not true, because the differences are not significant for human health. For instance, to achieve Recommended Daily Allowances and/or daily chemoprotective dietary levels of omega-3 fatty acids a person would have to eat at least 12 pounds of grass-fed beef (Rule et al., 2002; Martz et al., 2004; Guiffrida de Mendoza et al., 2005; Daley et al., 2005; Smith et al., 2005). While grass-finished beef has approximately 1/100 of a gram more omega-3 than grain-finished beef, salmon has 35 times as much omega-3 as grass-finished beef. So, if you want Omega 3 - eat Salmon. If you want a fork-tender awesome tasting steak, then order today!