—organically grown vegetables, fruits, & herbs—
—organically grown vegetables, fruits, & herbs—
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August 23, 2007
Dear Friends,
All prices are for live animals but based on hanging weights, per pound, and include freezing, cutting, and wrapping (to your specifications). Mixed cut beef take home weights are 25-35% less than carcass hanging weight due to trimming and de-boning. Hamburger quarters should provide just over 50% of the hanging weight as meat. A quarter beef fills 3 regular grocery bags. In some special situations there may be additional cutting and wrapping costs. Immediately after butchering we will invoice you based on the animal’s hanging weight. Our butcher, Four Star Meats, will call you for cutting and wrapping instructions. Your meat will be frozen and ready for pick up at Four Star approximately 10-14 days after butchering. We have 19 regular organic mixed cut animals (two of which will be a bit smaller), and 3 non-organic hamburger quarter cows. Our butchering dates this year will be Sept. 29th, Oct. 11th and 25th, and Nov. 1st. Hamburger quarters will be available on Sept. 29 and Nov. 1st. To Order: Just give us a call or email. If you have a strong date preference, let us know and we will do our very best to meet it. Please, and this is very important, if you are ordering a quarter beef, you need to specify the thickness of steak and size of roasts you want. The standard is 3/4 inch thick steaks and 3-4 pound roasts. We need to match all quarter beef orders with another order with identical steak and roast specifications so that the half can be split accurately. Thank you. Organic Animals: As always you are buying a portion of a live animal, which we then have butchered for you. The organic animals are certified as organic only as live animals. In order to get certified butchering, we would have to haul the animals to Roseburg, to a certified organic USDA plant, and have them killed and butchered there. We feel that on farm slaughter is much more humane for the animal, and the butchering process used is no different from what organic regulation requires, so we have chosen to remain with our local non-organic butcher. Beef News: Right now the cows are looking great. As a result of irrigation, weather, fertility and our rotations we have more good pasture available to them than ever before. The heat and dryness of late July, August and early September usually makes this a tough time to keep the pastures in good shape but this year they are doing well. Last year’s experiment with balage (green fermented grass) went very well. The cows and calves loved it all winter long so we put up more balage for this winter. Animal health has been pretty good. We have only had one case of pinkeye. Calving didn’t go quite as well. Last year we had a 100% calf crop but not this year. One cow didn’t get bred and two calves we lost at birth. Of our 21 calves there were 16 heifer calves and only 5 bull calves. I can’t remember ever having such an imbalance before. Next year our weights will be down because heifers just don’t gain as fast or grow as big as bull calves. Next year’s weights will also be determined by our new bull. Franky seems to be doing well. This year’s calves are his first. Give us a call. Thank you very much for your continued support of Winter Green Farm and a healthier earth. If you have any feedback, questions or comments please let us know. Feedback from you is crucial to us. Thank you very much, Jack Gray |