Cow-Sharing

In general, the authors on this blog have each been ‘preppers’ for a relatively long time and have been working for years to make preparing for any emergency (pandemic, earthquake, personal financial difficulties, etc.) a way of our everyday life. I personally find it heartening to see things that I and my circle of friends have been practicing make it into the ‘mainstream’ A good, fairly recent example is “cow-sharing”. Two years ago, you would have been hard pressed to find someone in a large metropolitan area who would have any idea what you were talking about if you were to use the term. Most likely, aside from a blank stare you would likely be asked how you planned on riding a cow to work :) In case you are still confused about what exactly is this cow sharing thing, let me explain. Cow sharing is a simple concept whereby a group of people join together to purchase a butchered cow directly from the rancher. The cost is generally cheaper than what you might expect to find in your local grocery store and the quality is far higher. Other benefits are that you can generally choose for cows that are grain fed, hormone free or organic, depending on what your preferences are. You also have a say in exactly how you want your beef prepared. If your family prefers ground beef to steaks, the butcher will oblige you, preparing the meat per your request. Generally, when you are purchasing a ‘share’ in a cow it is in full, half or quarter cow increments. This is NOT to say that with your quarter share you would end up with only the meat from the rear right side of your cow. Rather this means that you will be entitled to one quarter of the total meat from the cow (1.4 of the ribs, 1.4 of the rump meat, etc.). One of our authors organized a cow share last year with two other authors last fall and will be describing how it was set up. Jayce, please describe what you did to set this up, anything to look out for, etc.