Here's how it works

1. You Reserve your beef by paying a deposit.→

2. We finish raising it and haul it to the butcher. →

3. Choose your cuts. (I will help you choose the best cuts that you and your family will actually eat.) →

4. Butcher processes it the way you want it. →

5. Pick it up or we will coordinate delivery.→

6. Fill your freezer and eat all year with trust and confidence.

Whole Beef

Cost: $5.00/lb hanging weight + processing
Estimated hanging weight: ~750 lbs

Beef:
750 × $5.00 = $3,750

Processing*:
750 × ~$1.25 = $937.50

Estimated total: ~$4,687.50

Approximately $3,750 paid to Garden Ridge + $937.50 paid to Nordik/Falls Meats

Best value per pound. Great for large families or splitting with family and friends.

Half Beef

Cost: $5.25/lb hanging weight + processing
Estimated hanging weight: ~375 lbs

Beef:
375 × $5.25 = $1,968.75

Processing*:
375 × ~$1.25 = $468.75

Estimated total: ~$2,437.50

Approximately $1,968.75 paid to Garden Ridge + $468.75 paid to Nordik/Falls Meats

A great option for families who eat beef regularly or want to split with another family.

Quarter Beef

Cost: $5.50/lb hanging weight + processing
Estimated hanging weight: ~190 lbs

Beef:
190 × $5.50 = $1,045

Processing*:
190 × ~$1.25 = $237.50

Estimated total: ~$1,282.50

Approximately $1,045 paid to Garden Ridge + $237.50 paid to Nordik/Falls Meats

A great option for first-time bulk beef buyers or families with less freezer space.

*Processing costs vary by what you have done with the meat. ~$1.25 covers the basic costs for steaks, roasts and ground beef. Adding beef sticks, primal blend, dried beef, etc will increase this cost.

This is one of the most common questions we get—and it's a good one!

When you purchase bulk beef, you'll hear us talk about hanging weight, but that's not the same as the amount of beef that will end up in your freezer.

First, what's hanging weight?

Hanging weight is the weight of the animal after harvest and before it is cut and packaged.

For our fall beef, we're estimating approximately 750 lbs hanging weight for a whole beef.

After aging, trimming, deboning and the cutting choices you make, the final amount of packaged beef you take home will be less than the hanging weight.

So how much actually goes in my freezer?

For a whole beef with approximately 750 lbs hanging weight, you can expect roughly 380–460 lbs of packaged beef.

The exact amount will vary depending on your cutting instructions.

For example, choosing more bone-in cuts will result in more take-home weight, while choosing boneless cuts will result in less. Keeping soup bones and other items will also increase the total pounds you take home.

What does that beef look like?

Using approximately 420 lbs of packaged beef as a middle-of-the-range example, you can expect your freezer to contain roughly:

🥩 25% Steaks — ~105 lbs

Ribeyes, T-bones/Porterhouses, sirloins, and other steak cuts depending on your cutting instructions.

🍖 35% Roasts & Savory Cuts — ~147 lbs

Chuck roast, sirloin tip, arm roast, rump roast, brisket, short ribs, stew meat, soup bones and other slow-cooking cuts.

🍔 40% Ground Beef — ~168 lbs

The versatile ground beef you'll reach for again and again for burgers, tacos, meatballs, chili, casseroles and quick family dinners.

What about a half or quarter?

Because a half is half of the animal and a quarter is one-fourth, the approximate take-home amounts are:

Half Beef

Estimated hanging weight: ~375 lbs

Estimated packaged beef: ~190–230 lbs

Quarter Beef

Estimated hanging weight: ~190 lbs

Estimated packaged beef: ~95–115 lbs

These are estimates, not guarantees. Every animal is different, and your final take-home weight depends on the animal, aging time and the cutting instructions you choose.

The important thing to remember: you're not paying for 750 lbs of meat. You're purchasing based on the hanging weight, and after processing you'll take home a substantial variety of steaks, roasts, savory cuts and ground beef to fill your freezer.

We have three scheduled harvest dates for Fall 2026:

September 30
October 21
November 18

When you reserve your beef, you'll choose the harvest date that works best for you based on availability.

Once the beef is harvested, it will hang at the butcher before being cut and packaged.

Our typical aging time is 10 days, but you may choose to age your beef for up to 21 days.

Longer aging allows additional time for the beef to naturally tenderize and develop flavor, but it also means you'll wait a little longer for your beef to be ready and costs a little more.

Then the butcher cuts and packages your beef.

After the aging period, the processor will cut, package and label your beef according to your cutting instructions.

The butcher then needs additional time to complete the processing. Your exact pickup date will depend on the harvest date, aging time and the butcher's processing schedule but is usually completed by 3-4 weeks after harvest date with 10 days hanging.

We'll keep you updated as your beef moves through the process and will let you know when it is ready for pickup.

• Whole beef: 20 cubic feet

• Half Beef: 10 cubic feet or about 4 shelves in a stand-up freezer

• Quarter Beef: 5 cubic feet or about 2 shelves in a stand-up freezer.

Helpful tip: look on Facebook Marketplace there are so many freezers for sale on there!

The right size depends on how many people are in your family and how often you eat beef.

Family of 2

If you eat beef about 3 meals/week:
→ ¼ beef

If you eat beef about 5 meals/week:
→ ½ beef

Family of 4

If you eat beef about 3 meals/week:
→ ½ beef

If you eat beef about 5 meals/week:
→ Whole beef

Family of 6

If you eat beef about 3 meals/week:
→ Whole beef

If you eat beef about 5 meals/week:
→ Whole beef +

Not sure?

If you've never purchased beef in bulk before, a quarter beef is a great place to start.

If your family already eats beef several times a week and you have the freezer space, a half beef is often the sweet spot.

And if you're feeding a large family, eat beef frequently, or want to split an animal with family or friends, a whole beef gives you the best value per pound.

Still not sure which is right for you? Just ask us! We're happy to help you figure out the right size based on your family and how you eat.

This is probably the question we hear most from first-time bulk beef buyers:

"What am I going to do with all that beef?"

Don't worry—I've got you covered.

Buying a quarter or half beef doesn't mean you have to become an expert at cooking every cut of beef. It simply means you'll have a freezer full of options for the meals you're already making.

Ground beef

This is the easy stuff!

Use it for:

• Burgers

• Tacos

• Spaghetti

• Chili

• Sloppy joes

• Meatballs

• Casseroles

• Breakfast hash

Roasts & slow-cooking cuts

These are perfect for the days when you want dinner to cook itself.

Put a roast in the:

• Crockpot

• Instant Pot

• Dutch oven

• Oven

Add a few simple ingredients, walk away, and come back to dinner.

Steaks

Save them for the meals when you want something special—or throw them on the grill for an easy weeknight dinner.

And those cuts you've never heard of?

That's where we can help.

When you receive your cutting instructions, we'll help you make choices based on what your family actually likes to eat. We can also share our favorite ways to prepare the less-familiar cuts.

You don't have to know how to cook a whole cow before you buy one.

We'll help you get the most out of your beef—and we'll keep sharing recipes and meal ideas throughout the year so that your freezer doesn't feel overwhelming.

The goal isn't to have a freezer full of cuts you don't know what to do with.

The goal is to have a freezer full of dinner.

Raised Right Here at Garden Ridge Ranch just outside of Viroqua, WI.

Our cattle are raised on our farm in the Driftless region of Wisconsin, where they spend their days on pasture and have access to fresh forage.

We raise grass-fed, grass-finished Black Angus cattle and manage our pastures in a way that builds healthy soil while providing our cattle with a natural diet and plenty of room to graze.

When you buy beef from us, you're not buying an anonymous package of meat from a grocery store. You're buying beef from cattle we raised ourselves, on land we care for, from a family you know and trust. It’s the same meat we are eating ourselves and feeding our children.

We have customers who drive hours to get our grass-fed beef for its exceptional flavor and marbling.

Why We Do It

We love our cows.

We love this farm.

And we really love good food.

Our cattle are part of our family and part of the way we care for this land. We raise them here 365 days a year, through every Wisconsin season. The beef you're reserving this fall isn't something we decided to produce a few months ago. We've spent the last two years raising these cattle, caring for them and building them into the healthy, well-finished beef we're proud to put in your freezer.

We also believe cattle can be part of something bigger than just producing meat.

Our farm sits on a ridge in the Driftless Region, and the way we manage our pastures is important to us. The cattle help us build healthy soil that has been depleted and lost through years of erosion and conventional farming. Healthy soil holds more water, which helps keep that water on the ridge and out of the trout streams and rivers below us.

We're working to build a healthier farm from the soil up—and the cattle are an important part of that.

And then there's the food.

We think eating should be an enjoyable experience.

Food should be nourishing, but it should also taste really, really good. We believe that when the nutrition is there, the flavor is there, too.

That's why we raise our cattle the way we do. We want to produce beef that we're proud to serve at our own dinner table—and excited to share with yours.

We also want good beef to be easy.

We know you can't always make it to the farmers market every Saturday.

We know market season eventually ends.

And we know you shouldn't have to stand in the grocery store wondering where your meat came from or how the animal was raised.

Buying beef in bulk lets us put a whole lot of really good beef in your freezer at once, so you can enjoy it throughout the year without having to make a special trip to find us every week.

You know where it came from.

You know who raised it.

And you know the family behind your food.

A partnership between our family and yours.

When you reserve beef from Garden Ridge Ranch, you're doing more than filling your freezer. You're helping our family continue to farm this way, care for this land and raise food we believe in.

And in return, we get the privilege of raising something that will become part of your family's meals, celebrations, weeknight dinners and memories.

That's a partnership between our family and yours.

And gosh, we're grateful that we get to do this for you.