How much does half a cow cost?

You pay a price per pound of hanging weight to the farmer plus a separate processing fee to the butcher. A half typically hangs between 300 and 400 pounds and yields roughly 60 to 65 percent of that as take-home packaged meat.

How much freezer space do I need for half a cow?

Roughly 8 to 10 cubic feet for a half. A standard chest freezer around 7 cubic feet holds a quarter comfortably and a half only if it is nearly empty.

Buying direct

What a half cow actually costs

29 August 2026 · 6 min read

Buying a half is the single biggest change most households can make to their food bill and to how much of that money reaches a farmer. It also has three numbers in it that nobody explains until after you have said yes.

The three weights

Weight	What it is	Rough share
Live weight	The animal on the hoof	100%
Hanging weight	After slaughter and dressing. This is what you are usually quoted per pound.	~60–64% of live
Take-home weight	Boxed, wrapped, in your freezer after cutting and trimming	~60–65% of hanging

The gap between the second and third row is where people feel misled, and it is not a trick: bone, fat and trim are real. A half that hangs at 350 pounds comes home as roughly 210 to 230 pounds of packaged meat.

You will get two bills. One from the farmer, priced on hanging weight. One from the butcher, for cut and wrap, usually per pound of hanging weight plus a kill fee. A farm quoting a price that sounds far below everyone else is often quoting only their half of it. Ask directly: "does that include processing?"

What you get to decide

The cut sheet is the fun part and the part people rush. You choose steak thickness, roast size, how much goes to ground, whether you want the bones and the organs, and how it is packaged. Ground beef is the default destination for anything you do not claim — so if you want more roasts, say so, or you will get eighty pounds of ground.

Freezer reality

Around 8 to 10 cubic feet for a half; 4 to 5 for a quarter. A typical 7 cubic foot chest freezer holds a quarter comfortably. If you are buying a half and own one freezer with food already in it, you need a second freezer, and it should be bought before the pickup date rather than after the phone call.

Why our commission drops as the order grows

A half beef is a single four-figure transaction. A flat percentage on it would be indefensible, so meat and livestock is tiered: 15% on the first $1,000, 12% to $2,000, 10% to $3,000, 8% to $5,000, and 5% above that — each rate applying only to its own slice of the order. The rate falls as the order grows, which is the opposite of how most platforms treat their largest sellers. On a $2,800 half, the farm is charged 8%.

Questions worth asking

Is the price per pound hanging weight or take-home?
Is processing included, and which butcher?
When is the harvest date, and when do I pick up?
Grass-finished or grain-finished, and for how long?
What is the deposit, and is it refundable?

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