Buy Beef Direct: Whole Beef
A whole beef is the entire animal, cut and wrapped to your instructions. It is the biggest way to buy, the one that gives you the most say over every cut, and on American Beef Direct it is always bought from the producer, never from us.
When a rancher sells a whole cow, or more accurately a whole steer or heifer, you are buying the entire carcass after harvest. It goes to a processor, hangs to age, and is cut, wrapped and frozen to a cut sheet you fill in. Everything the animal yields comes home to you: the steaks, the roasts, the ground beef, the brisket, the short ribs and, if you ask, the bones, the organs and the fat.
Whole animal beef is priced the same way most direct beef is priced, by the pound of hanging weight, plus the processor's fee. A typical finished steer hangs somewhere around 600 to 850 pounds, and what you carry home after cutting and trimming is usually 60 to 70 percent of that. That is a few hundred pounds of beef, so most buyers who take a whole beef either have a large chest freezer or split the animal with family or neighbors.
The reasons people buy a whole cow are control and value. You choose the thickness of every steak, how much goes to ground beef, whether the brisket stays whole, and how the package sizes suit your household. And because you are buying the whole carcass at one price per pound, the expensive cuts and the everyday cuts come in at the same rate, which is where the value of whole beef comes from.
Start with your state page or the producer map, then read the ranch's own site. Not every producer sells whole animals, and the ones that do often book harvest dates months ahead.
Most producers take a deposit to hold an animal for a harvest date. Ask what the deposit covers, whether it is refundable, and when the balance is due.
The processor or the ranch sends a cut sheet: steak thickness, roast size, how much ground beef, package weights, and the extras you want kept. Ask for help if it is your first one.
Once the carcass is weighed you pay the producer on hanging weight at the agreed price per pound. Processing is either included or paid to the processor directly.
After aging and cutting, the beef is frozen and boxed. You collect it from the processor or the ranch, or the producer delivers or ships it where it offers that.
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 whole animals. Availability and pricing are theirs, so confirm both with the ranch before you plan around a date.
Dewey, Arizona
Founded in 2007 by Tim Petersen, a third generation meat cutter and first generation cattle rancher. The cattle graze native Arizona grasses year round, and every cut is dry aged and hand cut in the company's own USDA inspected plant.
From the ranch's own listing: Whole animal orders
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
Barnesville, Georgia
Ivan Minks raises cattle on rotated Georgia pasture, finished on native grasses and legumes with a free choice supplement, then dry aged into a craft product. The ranch also runs a store carrying local pork, chicken, eggs and seafood.
From the ranch's own listing: Whole animal and wholesale orders
Meyersville, Texas
Tanner and Catherine left careers in oil and gas and pharmaceutical sales to restore a 1915 farmhouse on 57 acres and raise beef, chicken and heritage hogs on pasture. Beef is dry aged and cut by the farm's own butchers.
From the ranch's own listing: Half and whole animal reservations
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: Individual cuts, butcher blocks, quarter, half and whole 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.