Buy Beef Direct: Quarter Beef
A quarter beef is the easiest way into buying beef direct: enough to fill a small chest freezer, a mix of steaks, roasts and ground beef, and a first relationship with a producer you can buy from again.
A quarter beef, also sold as a quarter cow or quarter steer, is a quarter of the carcass. How the quarter is made up matters. Many producers sell it as a split half, meaning two buyers share one side and each gets an even mix of cuts from the front and the hind of the animal. Others sell a true forequarter, heavier in chuck roasts, ribs and brisket, or a hindquarter, heavier in loin steaks and round. Ask which one you are buying.
A quarter usually hangs at around 150 to 210 pounds and comes home as roughly 90 to 140 pounds of packaged beef. Plan on about 4 cubic feet of freezer for it, which is a small chest freezer or most of the freezer side of a large refrigerator.
Because a quarter is often part of a shared side, you may get less say over the cut sheet than you would with a half. Some producers let the two quarter buyers agree on one cut list, and some use a standard list for quarters. Either way, a quarter beef share is priced the same way as larger shares, usually per pound of hanging weight, so it still brings the value of buying a mix of cuts at one rate.
Check your state page and the map, then the ranch's own site. Quarters are popular and are often the first share size to sell out.
A split half gives you a mix of front and hind cuts. A front or hind quarter does not. Ask before you reserve so the box matches what you expect.
Producers usually take a deposit to hold a quarter on a harvest date, and pair you with the buyer of the other quarter on that side.
Your balance is figured on the quarter's share of the hanging weight, plus processing if it is billed separately.
The beef comes back frozen and labeled by cut, ready to go straight into the freezer.
A good producer is glad to answer every one of these. Ask before you put down a deposit, and compare producers on the same answers.
Each of these ranches says on its own site that it sells quarters. Confirm the split, the price and the next harvest date with the ranch.
Eloy, Arizona
Mark and Annette Smith are fourth generation Eloy area farmers who went back to their ranching roots in 2021 to raise American Wagyu. The herd eats alfalfa, corn, barley, bermuda, triticale and oats grown on the family's own ground.
From the ranch's own listing: Quarter, half and whole beef
Hampton, Georgia
Wayne, Charmaine and Jekhi Swanson run a 32 acre farm south of Atlanta raising Georgia Pineywoods cattle, hair sheep and heritage hogs on pasture and in the woods, with no commercial feed, steroids or hormones.
From the ranch's own listing: Eighth, quarter and half beef shares
Slaton, Texas
The ranch has been in the Forrest family for over 100 years and is raising its sixth generation. Amber and Casey Davis and their daughters run cattle on ranch pasture, finished on grass and grain, with no hormones or antibiotics.
From the ranch's own listing: Eighth, quarter, half and whole beef
Marble Falls, Texas
Beef from the original Samuel Ely Holland Ranch in Burnet County, established by the family's great great grandfather in 1848. Cattle are pasture raised and grass fed, and the beef is dry aged 14 to 18 days.
From the ranch's own listing: Whole, half, quarter and eighth beef
Wells, Nevada
A family ranch in Clover Valley, in the foothills of the East Humboldt range, started in 1947 and now in its fifth generation. Jordan and Kari Lyn Brough sell the ranch's Wagyu and Angus beef direct, from a single cut to a whole beef.
From the ranch's own listing: Custom quarter, half and full beef
Wheatland, Wyoming
The Goertz family has raised cattle and wheat on the same southeast Wyoming ground since 1910, and started selling beef direct in 2004. The cattle graze prairie grass and cover crops, finish on grain raised on the family's own farm, and are dry aged 21 days.
From the ranch's own listing: Whole, half, quarter and eighth beef
Yoder, Colorado
Freedom Acres Ranch is a Marine Corps veteran family's ranch in Yoder, Colorado, founded in 2020 to bring healthy, farm fresh food to families who lack it. The cattle are grass fed and free range, every product is Certified Homegrown by Heroes, and the beef ships to every state.
From the ranch's own listing: Whole, half and quarter beef for the freezer
These are the producers with full written profiles. Many more farms and ranches are on the registry with a listing, and every one of them is on its own state page.
Every state has its own page listing the farms and ranches on record there, the nearest producers in neighboring states, and the ranches that ship. These states have at least one member today.
American Beef Direct is a registry of American beef producers. We help you find a farm or ranch and learn how it raises its cattle, then send you to the producer's own website, phone or store. We never take the order, the deposit, the payment or a commission, and the producer is always the authority on price, availability and pickup or shipping.
Search the map or open your state to find farms and ranches selling beef close to home.