Half Calf vs Half Cow. What you need to know and why you should ask questions

Are you considering purchasing beef in bulk? Are you running into different terms like cow, steer, heifer, calf? I'd like to take a minute to address these terms to help with your decision.   

Half Cow: Is This Term Enough

When you are shopping around for bulk beef a lot of people will search for half a cow or buy a whole cow near me. The problem with that is a cow can mean anything from a young fat calf perfect for steaks to an old cow or bull that is best fit for Hamburger. Cow is the most common term to define our most commonly encountered member of the bovine family. I know many producers like to use the term buying a cow because its easy and they don't need to explain the difference but I believe its best to get everyone on the same terms so that you can make an informed purchase that best fits your needs.

Fat Calves

At Half Calf we prefer to use fat calves, fats, or butcher calves to describe the cattle we sell. When we use these terms we know we are talking about a young animal typically around 24 months old. They are in excellent condition and will have a good size carcass between 600-900lbs that has good fat cover/marbling and will make for a good eating experience. 

Did you Get an Old Half Cow?

We all know of the stories people tell about buying half a cow and they were extremely tough or had no marbling. Chances are if they purchased half a cow and had the above issues they may have actually received half of an old cow that should have gone directly to hamburger and not been cut into steaks. I'd also like to mention that on the other end of the age group we also use the term calf to describe just born calves and sometimes you will run into higher priced grass fed beef that  has a small carcass weight. In this case you will probably have a very lean but tender meat because you have purchased a young animal before it goes on feed. 

Buying a Half Cow

In any case when someone says buying a half cow its good to ask questions to clarify that what you are purchasing is in fact not just a cow or bull but a good grass or grain finished calf that's ready to butcher.

Beef Cattle Terms

Bovine- an animal of the cattle group, which also includes buffalo and bison.

Cow- female that has had one or more offspring

Heifer- young female typically less than 3 years old that has not had offspring

Bull- intact male

Steer- castrated male

Calf- refers to a young animal typically less than 30 months of age can be steers, heifers, or bulls

Fat Calf- young animal typically less than 30 months of age can be a steer or heifer that has been on feed or pasture and is ready to butcher.