As we are selling our Live Beef Animals as Custom Beef Shares from our farm to your freezer/table, certain regulatory protocols have been set up by the TDA and USDA that allow us to do this.  There is an informative publication that has been put together by UT extension and TN center for profitable agriculture that explains these basic regulatory considerations for farmers in TN involved in the non retail sell of meat off the farm.  If you would like to know more of why we offer our beef cattle in share form and why the animal's shares need to be pre-sold while they are still alive and before slaughter/processing, then please refer to this link and read under the topic "Custom Harvest and Processing Facilities" p.8-9.  

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The main gist of purchasing a live animal custom beef share is so customers become owners/shareholders of the live animal, that Foothill Frolic Farm on Gammon Creek (i.e. Barkley Mills Farm) has farm raised, before it leaves the farm for slaughter/processing/butcher. 

Once you place an order for however many live animal custom beef shares, you have that portion of ownership.  

Therefore, when the beef animal is being processed by Russell Meat Packing they are processing/butchering the shareholders/customers beef animal. 

Hence, custom beef shareholders are contracting us to transport the beef animal to Russell Meat Packing and to bring the shareholders custom beef share/shares back to Foothill Frolic Farm for On Farm scheduled Pick Up.  

So, when you see the words, Live Animal Custom Beef Share, please don't let it make you think that you are going to end up with a real live beef animal in your yard.  Your end product will be your ordered custom beef share of Frozen Edible and Delicious Beef that Foothill Frolic Farm raised specifically for our custom beef shareholders! 

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By becoming a custom beef shareholder, you are connecting directly with us, your LOCAL, FAMILY OWNED and OPERATED REGENERATIVE and 100% GRASSFED BEEF CATTLE FARM. 

With that, you are playing an active role in creating a viable and sustainable agricultural community. 

You are choosing to put food on your families table that is raised in such proximity that you could drive and see exactly where your custom beef share is coming from. 

Your are loving, showing your due respect, and paying tribute to the marvelous COW genus specie!

You are choosing to purchase a beef directly out of our fields instead of out of the grocery store.  Generally, when one buys beef from a grocery store, that animal has passed though about 8 different outfits and has possibly been transported through at least 10 states...absolutely illogical right!!  

You are putting your food dollars towards a densely nutritious and tasty whole food beef product that makes cooking delicious and hardy meals a breeze.  Lastly, you are actually SAVING $$money$$. 

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Often when farms sell live animal custom beef shares, they only offer them in wholes, halves, and quarters. As this does make the process easier for the farmer, it often leaves customers off board as it is hard for modern consumers to grasp purchasing a beef animal that they feel will engulf every inch of available freezer space they own. Therefore, we have decided to break down our TRADITIONAL VARIETY BEEF SHARES to offer even eights & sixteenths. 

In reality, even a whole 870 lb live beef animal that has a hanging weight of about 523 lbs, ends up only packing the freezer with about 345 lbs of edible end product, which includes steaks, roasts, ground beef, liver and stock/soup bones.  This loss of pounds in between live animal and consumable beef meat seems inconceivable, but indeed it is true. We encourage customers to work towards purchasing the largest custom beef share you can in order to accommodate your families needs for months at a time, even a year.   It always feels good to have a freezer full of beef.  With all this mentioned, we hope that customers feel informed, empowered, and excited to be able to purchase a live animal custom beef share that is suiting to their families needs.