How much freezer room for a cattle beast?

[redcoo235]

Getting a fat heifer killed for sharing between three families and wondered roughly how much freezer space we will need? Beast is 650kg and will be an R grade. Have 2, 300 litre chest freezers, be enough?

TIA, John

 

[milkloss]

Can’t help but add another question, sorry. Haven’t had one done here for years but I gather there’s various ways of having them chopped up, anyone know any more?

 

[Bald n Grumpy]

Each 10 kilos takes as much space as about 4 loaves of bread in a freezer depending on breeding age and how it's cut up would have thought in the region of 200 kg meat

 

[Hesstondriver]

Our chest freezer is 5’ long and we could fit that beast in . The one we had at 240kg/ side was a tight fit

 

[Highland Mule]

R3 sim x 350kg carcass took about eight banana box sized cartons of meat, plus three more of burgers (450 x 4oz) and two of sausages (700-ish).

 

[An Gof]

Your problem won’t be just space but freezing capacity. Most domestic freezers don’t cope with much more than 18-20kg of fresh meat at a time in their recommendation. I just had a bullock killed, was a little smaller than yours and we were fortunate to split it between 3 deepfreezers. Even then we had to move the meat around after 24 hours to ensure it was all freezing. As this was an unexpected beast for us I had to buy a new extra freezer as well. Bought a Liebherr freezer as they are the best spec. If both your 300L freezers are empty you should have enough space but watch the freezing capacity. As a rule of thumb I was told by my butcher to take LW x KO% x 2/3 for an estimate of final quantity.

 

[Hampton]

My advice would be that you will eat more mince than stews. Don’t be shy to mince the braiding beef as you will have tonnes of it. Burgers are excellent for this
Also, the Croft steak, if eaten soon after cutting is like a good rump steak. I would eat that first as it after a few months it becomes stewing beef too. The good cuts like fillet and sirloin will happily freeze for longer.
Organise your freezer: steak together, roasting joints together, stewingbeef and mince together.
oh, and have a think how you want the top ribs. Full rib of beef or rib eye steak?

 

[Wink]

My advice would be that you will eat more mince than stews. Don’t be shy to mince the braiding beef as you will have tonnes of it. Burgers are excellent for this
Also, the Croft steak, if eaten soon after cutting is like a good rump steak. I would eat that first as it after a few months it becomes stewing beef too. The good cuts like fillet and sirloin will happily freeze for longer.
Organise your freezer: steak together, roasting joints together, stewingbeef and mince together.
oh, and have a think how you want the top ribs. Full rib of beef or rib eye steak?

Croft steak? - not heard of it and did a quick Google and can't find anything. Is it a regional term? I'm interested to know.

 

[Treecreeper]

Your problem won’t be just space but freezing capacity. Most domestic freezers don’t cope with much more than 18-20kg of fresh meat at a time in their recommendation. I just had a bullock killed, was a little smaller than yours and we were fortunate to split it between 3 deepfreezers. Even then we had to move the meat around after 24 hours to ensure it was all freezing. As this was an unexpected beast for us I had to buy a new extra freezer as well. Bought a Liebherr freezer as they are the best spec. If both your 300L freezers are empty you should have enough space but watch the freezing capacity. As a rule of thumb I was told by my butcher to take LW x KO% x 2/3 for an estimate of final quantity.

As above turn meat after 24hrs, just remember if it's a tight fit when it goes in first you may struggle to get it all back in when semi frozen.

 

[Princess Pooper]

If you can, (ie if you can store some of it chilled rather than frozen for a few days) then freeze it down in batches not all at once, as others have said your biggest challenge is getting it frozen quickly. Your two freezers better than one for this reason. Put them on fast freeze well before you start putting meat in.

 

[Whitepeak]

Definitely try to freeze in batches, or spread between as many freezers as possible. If you just put it in one freezer as a lump the middle will rot before it gets chance to freeze.
We freeze over a couple of days (leaving the meat in a cold outhouse). We also partially freeze steaks on metal trays before bagging, makes it easier to separate later.

 

[Hampton]

Croft steak? - not heard of it and did a quick Google and can't find anything. Is it a regional term? I'm interested to know.

It’s best end of braising steak. Could be regional, it’s what the butcher who cuts my beasts calls it.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Sacrilidge mincing a braising steak....slow cooked in the oven it’s one of my faves

 

[Hampton]

Sacrilidge mincing a braising steak....slow cooked in the oven it’s one of my faves

Not sure I said that. Big difference between best braising steak and stewing beef.
often you can have 50-100kg stewing beef.
I suppose my point is, decide what you want to eat and butcher accordingly. If you don’t want too many stews, mince more and make burgers.
If you prefer good steaks, eat the best braising steak as pieces of steak soon after butchering, not months down the line, it eats like a good rump steak.

 

[unlacedgecko]

Not sure I said that. Big difference between best braising steak and stewing beef.
often you can have 50-100kg stewing beef.
I suppose my point is, decide what you want to eat and butcher accordingly. If you don’t want too many stews, mince more and make burgers.
If you prefer good steaks, eat the best braising steak as pieces of steak soon after butchering, not months down the line, it eats like a good rump steak.

im chewing my way through some short horn at the minute. The braising steak is being eaten as blue fried steak, and its better than many shop bought sirloins.

 

[Jimfandango]

You probably need 2 chest freezers if you want to have it organized with room to get specific cuts out. It would also be worth trying to move on some of the bigger joints to people before you get them in the freezer. When I did a Devon heifer I got a load of banana boxes from the super market (they fit nicely in the chest freezer side-by-side) and put cuts in the boxes that way you aren't rifling through bags and messing stuff up so you never find anything again.

 

[Hampton]

im chewing my way through some short horn at the minute. The braising steak is being eaten as blue fried steak, and its better than many shop bought sirloins.

Agree, 6 months in the freezer can change that though

 

[Hampton]

I have a chest and an upright.
Steaks, and quality meat goes in upright. Mince, shin etc goes in chest.
If I was buying again I’d just buy uprights

 

[Wink]

It’s best end of braising steak. Could be regional, it’s what the butcher who cuts my beasts calls it.

Thankyou. I'm certainly no beef expert but sounds like the chuck eye from the chuck in front of the fore rib which would be best Braising but are fantastic steaks in their own right close to the rib of beef. Full of flavour and a hell of a lot cheaper. Thankyou - likely an old school or regional term.

 

[Wisconsonian]

Here in the US, meat from any respectable butcher will come back frozen. You'd only have to worry about dividing it up to keep from ruining the meat if you butchered your own. The issue is freezing it slowly will allow ice crystals to grow larger and break cell walls, then when the meat thaws more liquid will run off and you'll be left with dry, tough meat when it's cooked. If it's flash frozen, it will keep the ice crystal size to a minimum.

For the same reason, meat stays in better shape in a chest freezer than an upright, less air exchange when opening, so less freezer burn. And a mostly full freezer is better than mostly empty.