Quarter Cow Guide: How Much Beef You Get, What It Costs, and Whether It’s Worth It

How Much Is a Quarter Cow? (Quick Answer)

A quarter cow from a direct-to-consumer ranch typically costs between $1,500 and $2,000 all in, and yields roughly 105 to 125 pounds of finished, vacuum-sealed, frozen beef. That works out to about $13 to $16 per pound across every cut in the box: ribeyes, New York strips, tenderloin, roasts, brisket, short ribs, and ground beef. The price already includes USDA processing, custom cutting, vacuum sealing, and labeling. A 25 percent deposit reserves your share, and the balance is due before pickup or shipping. A quarter cow needs roughly 3 to 4 cubic feet of freezer space and feeds a couple or small family for 4 to 6 months of regular cooking.

Featured image: overhead flat-lay of a quarter cow share, vacuum-sealed steaks, ground beef chubs, roasts, and short ribs laid out on butcher paper with a Circle 7 brand mark in the corner. Alt: Quarter cow share of Black Angus beef vacuum-sealed and packed for the freezer from Circle 7 Meats

If those numbers make you pause, stay with this guide for a few minutes. By the end you will know exactly what a quarter share contains, the difference between a quarter that is split off a half versus split off a whole, how the weights work, what freezer you need, and whether a quarter, a half, or a whole share is the right call for your household.

What Is a Quarter Cow, Exactly?

A quarter cow is one-fourth of a finished beef animal, sold as a freezer share. That part is simple. What confuses buyers is that ranches define a “quarter” two different ways, and both are common in the U.S. market.

Quarter as a Split of a Half (the most common definition today)

This is the version Circle 7 uses, and it is what most modern direct-to-consumer ranches mean when they list a quarter share. You and a partner buyer (or the ranch matching two buyers) purchase a half cow, then split it down the middle into two mixed quarters. Each quarter contains a balanced mix of every cut on the half: steaks, roasts, ground, brisket, short ribs, organs if you want them. Both buyers walk away with the same cut list.

This is the right structure for one obvious reason: you get every premium cut in proportion. Nobody ends up with all front-quarter meat and no ribeyes.

Quarter as a Front Quarter or Hind Quarter (the old-school definition)

Older ranches and some small custom processors still sell quarters as anatomical quarters: a front quarter (chuck, brisket, shank, short ribs, plate) or a hind quarter (round, sirloin, short loin with the ribeyes and strips, tenderloin, flank). A hind quarter eats very differently from a front quarter. The hind has the high-end steaks. The front is heavier on roasts, ground, and braising cuts.

If a ranch sells true anatomical quarters and lets you pick front or hind, expect the hind to cost more per pound and sell out first. Always ask the question before you put down a deposit. According to South Dakota State University Extension’s bulk-beef buying guide, this confusion is the single most common source of unhappy first-time freezer-beef buyers.

[INSERT NAMED EXPERT QUOTE 1: extension meat scientist or rancher on why the split-half quarter became the modern standard for direct-to-consumer beef]

Image: cattle in pasture at golden hour, Black Angus herd grazing in southern Utah hill country. Alt: Black Angus cattle finishing on pasture at the Circle 7 family ranch.

Hanging Weight vs Take-Home Weight (the Math That Matters)

A beef animal gets weighed three different times, and each number is a different size. Get these straight and pricing stops feeling like a shell game.

Live Weight

What the animal weighs standing in the pasture. A finished Black Angus steer typically lives at 1,200 to 1,400 pounds. You almost never pay on live weight when buying direct from a finished-beef ranch.

Hanging Weight (Carcass Weight)

After harvest, the head, hide, hooves, and viscera come off. What is left, hanging in the cooler, is the carcass or hanging weight. Penn State Extension publishes a dressing percentage of roughly 60 to 64 percent of live weight for well-finished steers. A 1,300-pound steer hangs at roughly 800 pounds. A quarter of that hanging weight is about 200 pounds.

Some processors price your beef on hanging weight and tack the cut-and-wrap bill on separately. That structure looks cheap on the list price and stacks up fast at pickup. Always ask which weight a quote is based on.

Take-Home Weight (Cut, Wrapped, Frozen)

After dry-aging, deboning, trimming, cutting, grinding, vacuum sealing, and freezing, what lands in your boxes is the take-home weight. Take-home is typically 60 to 65 percent of hanging weight, or roughly 38 to 42 percent of live weight. Those ratios are documented in both the Beef Cattle Research Council carcass-yield literature and Kansas State University Extension’s beef cutting-yield work.

Take-home weight is the only number that matters to your freezer and your dinner table. At Circle 7, a quarter share delivers approximately 105 to 125 pounds of finished, customer-ready beef.

Why the Quarter Cow Weight Range Has a Spread

Live finishing weight varies. Genetics vary. How you fill out the cut sheet matters too: bone-in roasts pull more take-home weight than boneless, and asking for thicker steaks reduces grind weight. A buyer who keeps the bones, organs, and tallow comes home heavier than one who passes on them.

Internal: detail on grass-fed vs. grain-finished and how finishing affects yield

Average Quarter Cow Weight and Cost Math

Real numbers from the ranches and university extensions that publish them:

Metric	Typical Range	Circle 7 Quarter
Live weight (full animal)	1,200 to 1,400 lb	1,250 to 1,350 lb
Hanging weight (full animal)	750 to 875 lb	approximately 800 lb
Hanging weight (quarter share)	185 to 220 lb	approximately 200 lb
Take-home weight (quarter share)	105 to 125 lb	approximately 120 lb
All-in price range (national)	$1,500 to $2,000	$1,573
Effective price per take-home lb	$13 to $16	approximately $13

National pricing pulled across published rates from family-scale, direct-to-consumer Black Angus and Hereford operations in 2025 and 2026, cross-checked against USDA Agricultural Marketing Service wholesale beef reports. Circle 7 pricing is what we charge today for a Black Angus quarter share. Lock-in is a 25 percent deposit; balance is due before pickup or shipping.

[INSERT NAMED EXPERT QUOTE 2: university extension specialist on how to compare freezer-beef pricing across ranches without getting fooled by hanging-weight quotes]

What Cuts Are Included in a Quarter Cow

This is the question that stops more first-time buyers than any other. People imagine a box of mystery meat. The reality is the opposite: you get every premium cut on the animal, in proportion, plus a real supply of roasts and ground.

A representative Circle 7 quarter share runs about 120 pounds of take-home beef, and breaks down roughly like this. Cut counts assume default thickness (1.25-inch steaks, 3 to 4 lb roasts, 1 lb ground beef packages). Your share will vary by the cut sheet you fill out.

Category	Cuts	Approximate Pounds
Premium steaks	Ribeye (4 to 6), NY strip (4 to 6), tenderloin / filet mignon (2 to 3), top sirloin (2 to 3)	18 to 22
Other steaks and grilling cuts	Flank, skirt, hanger, flat iron, tri-tip	5 to 7
Roasts	Chuck roast (2 to 3), rump roast (1 to 2), sirloin tip (1 to 2)	15 to 20
Brisket	Whole or split brisket	5 to 8
Short ribs and back ribs	Bone-in beef short ribs, back ribs	5 to 8
Stew, kabob, stir-fry	Cubed beef, stew meat	4 to 6
Ground beef	80/20 default; can request 85/15 or 90/10	40 to 50
Soup bones and marrow bones	Optional, on request	5 to 10
Liver, heart, tongue, oxtail	Optional organ meats	3 to 6

This is real food. Forty-plus pounds of ground beef alone is several months of weeknight tacos, chili, burgers, meat sauce, and meatloaf for a family of four. Add in 30-plus pounds of steaks, roasts, and braising cuts and you have stopped buying beef at the grocery store.

Image: cut sheet open on a butcher block with a pen, sample bag of vacuum-sealed steaks beside it. Alt: Circle 7 Meats quarter cow cut sheet showing default steak thickness, roast size, and ground beef package weight.

Internal: best cuts for grilling, ranked by texture and flavor

Freezer Space Required for a Quarter Cow

Plan on 3 to 4 cubic feet of dedicated freezer space for a quarter share. The North Dakota State University Extension freezer-beef guide and the University of Tennessee Extension bulk-buying guide both publish the same rough rule: one cubic foot of freezer holds 35 to 40 pounds of cut and wrapped beef. A 120-pound quarter fits comfortably in a 5 cubic foot chest freezer or the lower half of an upright deep freezer.

You do not need a second refrigerator. You do need a freezer that holds zero degrees Fahrenheit or colder consistently. USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service guidance lists 0 degrees F as the storage benchmark for indefinite food safety, and vacuum-sealed beef holds quality at that temperature for 12 to 18 months without freezer burn.

A few freezer notes worth knowing before you buy:

• Chest freezers run cheaper to operate and hold temperature better during power blips than uprights. A 5 to 7 cubic foot chest costs roughly $200 to $300 new and is the right size for most quarter buyers.
• Garage placement works in moderate climates but not in extreme heat or extreme cold. Most chest freezer warranties limit operation to ambient temperatures between roughly 0 and 110 degrees F. Southern Utah garages in July can push that.
• Organize by cut category, not by date. Steaks together, roasts together, ground beef together. You will dig less.

Internal: full guide to storing bulk beef without freezer burn

Quarter Cow vs Half Cow vs Whole Cow: How to Decide

The honest answer comes down to three variables: household size, freezer space, and budget cycle.

Go with a quarter cow if you are:

• A couple or a household of 2 to 3 people
• A first-time freezer-beef buyer who wants to test the experience before committing to a half
• Working with a smaller freezer (4 to 6 cubic feet of dedicated space)
• Comfortable spending $1,500 to $2,000 in one transaction
• Cooking beef 2 to 4 nights per week

A quarter cow lasts a couple or small family roughly 4 to 6 months at typical cooking frequency.

Go with a half cow if you are:

• A family of 4 to 5 who eats beef 3 to 5 nights per week
• Equipped with 7 to 10 cubic feet of freezer space
• Comfortable with a $2,800 to $3,800 transaction
• Looking for the best cost per pound (half cows price slightly lower per take-home pound than quarters because the processing fee is divided across more meat)

A half lasts a family of four roughly 8 to 12 months.

Go with a whole cow if you are:

• A larger family, a multi-generation household, or splitting with a sibling or close friend
• Holding 14 to 18 cubic feet of freezer space
• Comfortable with a $5,500 to $7,000 transaction
• Maximizing cost per pound and willing to commit to a year-plus of one animal’s worth of beef

A whole share is the best per-pound math available in direct-to-consumer beef.

Internal: deeper comparison of half vs whole cow purchases

Cost Per Pound vs Grocery Store (the Honest Comparison)

The case for a quarter cow stops feeling like a luxury purchase the moment you do the cut-by-cut comparison. USDA Economic Research Service retail price tracking puts 2025 and 2026 grocery beef well above pre-pandemic levels, with prime cuts up 50 percent and more at major chains. Direct-from-ranch pricing has stayed roughly flat in real dollars over the same window.

Per take-home pound at $13 to $16, a Circle 7 quarter share works out like this against typical grocery pricing in 2026:

Cut	Grocery Store Range	Circle 7 Quarter Share Effective Price
USDA Choice ribeye	$18 to $24 per lb	approximately $13 per lb
USDA Choice NY strip	$16 to $22 per lb	approximately $13 per lb
Tenderloin / filet	$26 to $40 per lb	approximately $13 per lb
Brisket	$8 to $14 per lb	approximately $13 per lb
Chuck roast	$7 to $10 per lb	approximately $13 per lb
80/20 ground beef	$6 to $9 per lb	approximately $13 per lb

The brisket and ground beef lines look like the worst trade in the table, and they are the most important. You are paying the same price per pound for every cut, which means the ribeyes, NY strips, and tenderloin effectively cost what ground beef costs. The premium steaks are where the entire deal lives, and on those cuts you are saving $5 to $25 per pound versus the supermarket.

A typical Circle 7 quarter share holds 18 to 22 pounds of premium steaks. Apply a conservative $8 per pound savings across those cuts and you have already covered roughly $160 of the purchase price before you touch the brisket, roasts, ribs, or ground beef.

Image: side-by-side of a vacuum-sealed Circle 7 ribeye and a shrink-wrapped grocery store ribeye on the same wood cutting board with a USDA Choice grade card. Alt: Circle 7 Meats dry-aged Black Angus ribeye next to a USDA Choice grocery store ribeye for price-per-pound comparison.

Internal: marbling score guide, why dry-aged Black Angus eats above its USDA grade

Customizing the Cut Sheet

A cut sheet is the form you fill out before processing that tells the butcher exactly how to break down your share. This is where you actually shape what arrives in your freezer. Most ranches send the sheet electronically a few weeks before harvest. At Circle 7 we walk every first-time buyer through theirs by phone or email.

The decisions that matter most:

Steak thickness

Default is 1.25 inches. Thicker steaks (1.5 to 2 inches) eat better, sear better, and are harder to overcook, but they pull weight out of your ground beef total. Thinner steaks (0.75 to 1 inch) cook faster on a weeknight but lose some of the dry-aged Black Angus character. Most buyers stay at 1.25 inches and are happy.

Ground beef ratio and package size

Default is 80/20 in 1-pound packages. Leaner options (85/15 or 90/10) are available on request but pull from your trim and reduce overall flavor on burgers and meat sauce. Package sizes of 1.5 or 2 pounds are an option if you cook for a bigger table.

Roasts

Default is 3 to 4 pound chuck and rump roasts, which fit a 6 to 7 quart Dutch oven. Larger roasts (5 to 6 lb) eat better but take longer to thaw. You can also have part of the chuck ground if you do not braise often. Most buyers keep at least two chuck roasts.

Stew, kabob, and stir-fry

You can have some of the round and sirloin cubed for stew or kabobs rather than left as roasts or steaks. This is a useful conversion if you cook a lot of one-pot meals.

Sausage and patties

Some processors will turn part of your trim into seasoned sausage, breakfast patties, or pre-formed burger patties for an added fee. Worth doing once to see if your household uses them. Kansas State University Extension’s beef cutting-yield work notes that value-added processing like sausage and patty pressing typically adds $0.50 to $1.50 per pound in processing fees.

Organ meats and bones

Liver, heart, tongue, oxtail, marrow bones, and soup bones are yours if you want them and free at most ranches. They get discarded if you do not. Take them. Even if you do not personally cook organ meats, a slow-cooked oxtail or marrow bone broth is a different food category from a grocery store can. Penn State Extension and Oklahoma State University Extension both flag organ meats and bones as the most underused yield in a freezer-beef purchase.

[INSERT NAMED EXPERT QUOTE 3: butcher or chef on the one cut-sheet decision first-time buyers regret most often]

When a Quarter Cow Doesn’t Make Sense

We will not sell you a share you do not need. A quarter cow is the wrong purchase if any of these are true:

• You eat beef less than once a week. A quarter holds 4 to 6 months of typical cooking. If you are casual on beef, you risk freezer burn before you eat through it. Buy individual cuts from us instead.
• You do not have 3 to 4 cubic feet of dedicated freezer space. Trying to cram a quarter into the half-empty side of your kitchen fridge-freezer is going to end badly. Buy the freezer first, then the beef.
• You travel for extended stretches. A 10-day power outage during a summer vacation will cost you the entire share. If your living situation is unstable on power or storage, do not buy bulk.
• You strongly prefer a single cut. If your household eats nothing but ribeyes, a quarter share will leave you with brisket, roasts, ground beef, and short ribs you do not want. Buy individual ribeyes instead.
• You cannot float $1,500 to $2,000 in one transaction. Spreading the same money across 12 months of grocery beef ends up costing significantly more in total, but cash flow is real. We would rather you wait three months and buy a share you can afford than carry stress on a freezer.

That is the honest version. A quarter is a serious purchase. We want it to be the right one.

How Circle 7 Quarter Shares Work

Here is the actual process, beginning to end.

Step 1: Reserve your share

Pick your share on the Circle 7 shares page and place a 25 percent deposit. The deposit reserves your spot in the next harvest window. We harvest on a rolling schedule and reservations typically run two to four months ahead, depending on demand.

Step 2: Fill out your cut sheet

Two to three weeks before harvest, we send you the cut sheet. First-time buyers get a 15-minute call with us to walk through every option. We have done this enough times that you should not feel like you are making the decisions alone.

Step 3: Harvest and processing

Your beef is harvested at BarW Custom Meats in Nephi, Utah, a USDA-inspected facility, then dry-aged in the cooler for 14 to 21 days. Dry aging is what makes the Black Angus eat the way it does. Cutting and packaging follows your sheet exactly. Everything is vacuum sealed in food-grade plastic and labeled with the cut name and weight.

Internal: dry-aged vs wet-aged, why the dry-age window matters

Step 4: Final payment

We invoice the remaining 75 percent of your share before pickup or shipping. The invoice is final. No surprise processing fees, no add-ons.

Step 5: Pickup or shipping

You can pick up at the ranch in southern Utah, or we ship frozen in insulated boxes with dry ice via UPS or FedEx within the continental U.S. Shipping details, costs, and lead times are on our shipping page.

Pickup vs Shipping

Pickup is free and lets you meet the family that raised your beef. If you live within reasonable driving distance of St. George or southern Utah, this is the experience we recommend. Most buyers who pick up once continue to pick up for the life of their share habit.

Shipping is the right call for buyers who are out of state or do not want to make the drive. We ship in insulated coolers with dry ice, with overnight or two-day service depending on distance. Shipping a full quarter share runs roughly $150 to $300 to most U.S. addresses; the shipping page has live ZIP-by-ZIP estimates. The shipper guarantees frozen arrival, and we have the routing dialed in for hot-weather summer deliveries.

Either way, your beef arrives frozen, vacuum sealed, and ready to go straight into the freezer.

Infographic: “What’s in a Quarter Cow” Layout: outline of a quarter beef carcass on the left, exploded box of vacuum-sealed cuts on the right. Center column shows the weight conversion (live to hanging to take-home), and a stacked bar chart breakdown of pounds by cut category (steaks, roasts, brisket, ribs, ground, stew, organs). Bottom strip lists “120 lb take-home, 3 to 4 cu ft freezer space, 4 to 6 months of meals.” Brand mark in the corner. Alt: Infographic showing the contents of a Circle 7 Meats quarter cow share, including cut breakdown, weight math, freezer space needed, and household duration.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much is a quarter cow in 2026?

A quarter cow from a direct-to-consumer ranch typically costs $1,500 to $2,000 all in, depending on the region, the breed, and the finishing protocol. A Circle 7 Black Angus quarter share is $1,573 for approximately 120 pounds of take-home beef, which works out to roughly $13 per pound across every cut. The price includes USDA processing, custom cutting, vacuum sealing, and labeling.

How much beef do you actually get from a quarter cow?

Plan on 105 to 125 pounds of finished, vacuum-sealed, frozen beef. That is the take-home weight after dry-aging, deboning, trimming, cutting, and packaging. Live weight and hanging weight are larger numbers (roughly 325 lb live and 200 lb hanging for a quarter share), but take-home is the only number that matters for your freezer and your meal planning.

How long does a quarter cow last?

For a household of 2 to 3 people cooking beef 2 to 4 nights per week, a quarter share lasts 4 to 6 months. Vacuum-sealed beef held at 0 degrees F maintains quality for 12 to 18 months according to USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service guidance, so you have plenty of buffer.

What is the difference between a quarter cow and a half cow?

A half cow is twice the beef of a quarter cow, costs roughly twice as much, and prices slightly lower per take-home pound because the processing fee is divided across more meat. A half yields roughly 240 to 250 pounds; a quarter yields 105 to 125 pounds. If you have the freezer space and the cash, a half is the better per-pound math. If either is constrained, the quarter is the right call.

Is a quarter cow worth it compared to the grocery store?

Yes, if you cook beef regularly and have the freezer space. At an effective $13 per pound across every cut, you are paying ground-beef prices for the ribeyes, NY strips, and tenderloin. The premium-steak savings alone cover a meaningful share of the purchase price, before you touch the roasts, brisket, ribs, or ground beef. The grocery store cannot match that math because the supermarket has to make margin on every cut individually.

How much freezer space do I need for a quarter cow?

Plan on 3 to 4 cubic feet of dedicated freezer space. A 5 cubic foot chest freezer fits a quarter share with room left over. The rule of thumb published by North Dakota State University Extension and the University of Tennessee Extension is one cubic foot per 35 to 40 pounds of cut and wrapped beef.

Can I customize the cuts in a quarter cow?

Yes. The cut sheet lets you set steak thickness, roast size, ground beef ratio and package size, sausage and patty options, and whether you want organ meats and bones. First-time buyers at Circle 7 get a walkthrough with us before submitting their sheet so the choices are not overwhelming.

Can I get just the steaks, or just the front of the cow?

Not from a split-half quarter share. The whole point of a modern quarter share is a balanced cut list with every cut in proportion. Some older ranches sell true anatomical quarters (front quarter or hind quarter) where you can pick the hind for the steaks, but those are increasingly rare. If you only want premium steaks, buy individual cuts from our shares page rather than a freezer share.

What does Circle 7 charge for a quarter cow?

A Circle 7 Black Angus quarter share is $1,573 for approximately 120 pounds of take-home beef, dry-aged 14 to 21 days, USDA processed, vacuum sealed and labeled, with a 25 percent deposit to reserve and the balance due before pickup or shipping. Pickup is free at the ranch in southern Utah; shipping is $150 to $300 to most U.S. addresses.

Is the meat USDA inspected?

Yes. Circle 7 processes at BarW Custom Meats in Nephi, Utah, a USDA-inspected facility. Every share is processed under USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service oversight and labeled accordingly. The distinction between USDA-inspected and state-inspected matters for legal sale and interstate shipping; we cover the full picture in our USDA vs state-inspected guide.

The Bottom Line on Quarter Cow Buying

A quarter cow is the right call when your household cooks beef regularly, has 3 to 4 cubic feet of freezer space, can float $1,500 to $2,000 in one transaction, and wants to stop being a price-taker on grocery beef. You get every premium cut in proportion, the ribeyes effectively cost what ground beef costs, and you know exactly who raised the animal and where it was processed. If your household is bigger or you have more freezer space, the half share or whole share is a stronger per-pound trade. If you eat beef less than once a week or you do not have dedicated freezer space, buy individual cuts and skip the share.

Either way, you are buying real food from a family that finishes the cattle, knows the butcher by name, and stands behind the cut sheet. That is the actual product. The math just happens to also be good.

Ready to lock in a quarter share?

Reserve your Circle 7 Black Angus quarter share with a 25 percent deposit. We will send your cut sheet two to three weeks before harvest and walk you through it on a call if you want one. Pickup at the ranch, or frozen shipping to most U.S. addresses.

If you are still deciding between a quarter, a half, and a whole, our full half and whole cow guide lays out the cost-per-pound math at every share size. If you want to taste before you commit, individual cuts ship year-round from the shares page.

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External Citations

1. Penn State Extension. “Beef Yield and Cost Calculations for Whole, Half, or Quarter Beef.”
2. USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service. “Freezing and Food Safety.”
3. Beef Cattle Research Council. “Carcass Yield and Cutting Yield in Finished Beef Cattle.”
4. University of Tennessee Extension. “Buying Beef in Bulk: A Consumer’s Guide.”
5. Oklahoma State University Extension. “Buying Beef for Home Freezer Use.”
6. North Dakota State University Extension. “Freezer Beef From a Quarter, Half, or Whole.”
7. Kansas State University Extension. “Beef Cutting Yields and Retail Cut Charts.”
8. South Dakota State University Extension. “Buying Beef by the Quarter, Half, or Whole: What Consumers Should Know.”
9. USDA Agricultural Marketing Service. “Wholesale Boxed Beef Cutout and Cuts Report.”

Image Specs

1. Hero / featured image. Overhead flat-lay of a quarter cow share, vacuum-sealed steaks, ground beef chubs, roasts, and short ribs laid out on butcher paper with the Circle 7 brand mark in the corner. Warm natural light, premium-but-not-fussy aesthetic. Alt: Quarter cow share of Black Angus beef vacuum-sealed and packed for the freezer from Circle 7 Meats.
2. Cattle on pasture. Wide shot of Black Angus herd grazing in southern Utah hill country at golden hour. Alt: Black Angus cattle finishing on pasture at the Circle 7 family ranch.
3. Cut sheet on butcher block. Cut sheet open with a pen, sample vacuum-sealed steak bag beside it. Alt: Circle 7 Meats quarter cow cut sheet showing default steak thickness, roast size, and ground beef package weight.
4. Side-by-side ribeye comparison. Vacuum-sealed Circle 7 ribeye next to a shrink-wrapped grocery store ribeye on the same wood cutting board with a USDA Choice grade card. Alt: Circle 7 Meats dry-aged Black Angus ribeye next to a USDA Choice grocery store ribeye for price-per-pound comparison.
5. Chest freezer organized. Chest freezer open showing organized beef by cut category, labeled vacuum-sealed packages. Alt: Chest freezer organized for a Circle 7 Meats quarter cow share with steaks, roasts, and ground beef sorted by category.
6. Dry-aging cooler. Inside the dry-aging cooler at BarW Custom Meats showing hanging carcasses. Alt: Black Angus carcasses dry-aging at the USDA-inspected BarW Custom Meats facility in Nephi, Utah.
7. Vacuum-sealed cut close-up. Macro shot of a single vacuum-sealed Circle 7 ribeye with the cut label visible. Alt: Vacuum-sealed and labeled dry-aged Black Angus ribeye from a Circle 7 Meats quarter cow share.
8. Family pickup at the ranch. Customer loading a cooler of beef into a vehicle at the ranch, ranch backdrop. Alt: Customer picking up a Black Angus quarter cow share at the Circle 7 Meats ranch in southern Utah.
9. Cooking shot. Grilled ribeye sliced and plated alongside cast iron pan, dinner-table aesthetic. Alt: Grilled Circle 7 Meats Black Angus ribeye sliced and plated for dinner.

Infographic Spec

Title: What’s in a Quarter Cow

Layout: - Left column: outline silhouette of a quarter beef carcass with anatomical labels (chuck, brisket, rib, short loin, sirloin, round, flank). - Center column: weight conversion stack. Top: “325 lb live.” Middle: “200 lb hanging.” Bottom: “120 lb take-home.” - Right column: exploded box of vacuum-sealed cuts (steaks, roasts, ground, ribs, brisket). - Lower band: stacked horizontal bar chart breaking down take-home pounds by category: Steaks (20 lb), Roasts (18 lb), Brisket (6 lb), Short Ribs (6 lb), Stew (5 lb), Ground (45 lb), Bones and Organs (10 lb optional), Other (10 lb). - Bottom strip: three icons with labels. Freezer icon: “3 to 4 cu ft.” Calendar icon: “4 to 6 months of meals.” Dollar icon: “approximately $13 / lb.” - Circle 7 brand mark and URL in the corner.

Alt text: Infographic showing the contents of a Circle 7 Meats quarter cow share, including cut breakdown, weight math, freezer space needed, and household duration.