In the mid-‘50’s Sapelo Farms began crossbreeding its polled Herford cattle with a relatively new breed at that time, Santa Gertrudis and within a few years Sapelo Farms became known for its herd of purebred, polled Santa Gertrudis. The solid red "Gert", considered by many as America's original beef breed, was established on the King Ranch in Texas in the early 1900's. Their make-up of 3/8 Brahman, 5/8 Shorthorn has proved to be ideal in most of the varied environments around the world. We can trace the lineage of our herd through many generations of top producing female lines. We value our Gerts for their excellent mothering abilities, adaptation to our Southern climate, excellent growing rates, and wonderful beef.
Our current herd sire, a purebred Santa Gertrudis bull named Boris Bad-Enough, hales from FL and brings the Wendt bloodlines of Texas to the gene pool of our herd. We also use Black Angus bulls on our heifer calves and offer the resulting female calves as F1 replacements for sale annually. Our cows play an important role in cross-breeding programs by making significant contributions to both maternal and growth traits. Santa Gertrudis have proved to be one of the world's leading and most efficient producers of quality beef. Our steers are used in our pasture raised freezer beef program each fall. We continually work to improve the genetics of our herd by maintaining a small herd of exceptional females.
Pastured Beef
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Beef is sold out for 2011. Our next beef will be available in Fall 2012. The following is provided as general information on our pastured beef.
WHAT ARE OUR CUSTOMERS SAYING ABOUT SAPELO FARMS' GRASS FED BEEF?
"Delicious"
"Melt in your mouth"
"Great texture"
"Nice flavor"
and our butcher said, "This is very nice beef. I think your customers will be well pleased."
The beef we are offering will be from seven month old steers that are born and raised here on the farm. They have never been given hormones of any kind. Our beef is available as a whole or half only. Because we will not know the final weight of the beef until it is butchered and hung, we are unable to tell you the exact price on a whole or half of a beef. The following information is based on estimates ONLY.
Our steers weigh approximately 700lbs live weight. We estimate that the beef will be approximately 375-450lbs for a whole beef or 190-225lbs for a half.The breakdown of cuts of beef (by weight) is 25% steaks, 30-35% roasts, 5% soup bones and stew meat and the remainder in ground beef. This breaks down further into round/cubed steak, T-bone, sirloin, rib, rump roast, chuck roast, shoulder roast, stew meat, hamburger, soup bone and liver (if requested).
PLEASE NOTE: We are not prepared to offer speciality cuts of beef at this time. The cuts you will receive are listed above. We do not offer hanger steaks, briskets or other customer cuts. We have asked our butcher to cut our beef to best utilize ALL the meat available. We think you will be pleased.
UNDERSTANDING HANGING WEIGHT
Our beef is sold based on its "hanging weight". Hanging weight is defined as the carcass weight minus the head, hide and entrails. The hanging weight is approximately 50% - 60% of the live animal weight, and therefore you are not charged any of the waste product. So, a 500lb steer would have a hanging weight of approximately 175lbs - 225lbs. After the beef is aged, it is then cut and wrapped. At this time some of the bone is removed from the meat. Therefore, the total amount of beef you receive will differ from the hanging weight. You should expect to receive between 60-65% of the hanging weight as cut, wrapped meat.
The cost of a whole beef is $3.25 per lb. The cost of half a beef is $3.35 per lb.
There is a $200 deposit for a whole beef and $100 for half.
If you have never ordered beef in bulk, before please research to make sure that this option is right for you.
Please remember the following: When you purchase a whole or half of a beef, you are purchasing exactly that. Most of your meat will be roasts and hamburg, not steaks.
Again, the breakdown of cuts of beef (by weight) is 25% steaks, 30-35% roasts, 5% soup bones and stew meat and the remainder in ground beef. This breaks down further into round/cubed steak, T-bone, sirloin, rib, rump roast, chuck roast, shoulder roast, stew meat, hamburger, soup bone and liver (if requested).
As a rule of thumb, one cubic foot of freezer space will hold 35-40 pounds of cut and wrapped meat. (Note that the inside of a milk crate is approximately 1 cubic foot.) Beef stores in a freezer for 9-12 months without loss of quality. Ground beef can be stored for 3-4 months. Most meat items can be safely stored for longer periods, but they lose some quality.
We will do our best to provide you with an accurate estimate of beef weight and cost; however, we have no way of knowing the final cost until the meat has been processed.
We estimate that a whole beef will cost between $1200 and $1400.
FOR YOUR INFORMATION:
In 2010, our half of a beef yielded the following cuts:
11 packages stew meat (bone in)
1 rump roast
7 packages T-bone steaks (2 per package)
4 packages rib steaks (2 per package)
5 sirloin steaks
9 round steak—plain
6 chuck roasts
24 packages hamburger (2lbs per package)
Be aware that this is a sample of beef, this is what our beef returned. Yields will vary depending on the size of the steer.
Again, please contact the farm with any questions or to reserve your beef.
912-264-8535 or ba@sapelofarms.com.