From Paddock to Your Freezer — How a Whole, Half or Quarter Beast Works

Buying meat by the cut is easy and familiar. But there's an older, smarter way to stock a kitchen — buying a whole, half or quarter beast direct from the farm.

It's the best-value grass-fed meat you can buy, and it connects you to a single animal, raised on Bonavista, from start to finish. If you've never done it, here's exactly how it works.

What you're actually buying

When you order bulk beef or lamb from Hunter Natural, you're buying a share of a specific animal — a whole carcass, a half, or a quarter — which we then cut and pack for you at our own Morpeth Butchery.

It comes back to you as a freezer full of named cuts: not a mystery box, but the steaks, roasts, mince and more that come off that beast.

A bulk beef order typically includes a spread like:

• Steaks — fillet, scotch fillet, porterhouse, T-bone, rump, round and blade
• Roasts — topside and rolled roasts, silverside, pot roasts
• Slow cuts — osso bucco (shin beef, bone-in)
• Everyday — diced beef and mince
• Preservative-free sausages
• Soup and dog bones — included if you'd like them

A bulk lamb order is cut to your preferred cuts and might include cutlets or a rack, loin chops, leg roasts (or half leg and chops), shanks, chump chops, shoulder roast or forequarter chops, neck rosettes for slow roasting, and bones and trimmings.

Everything comes cut and vacuum-packed, ready to go straight in the freezer.

Why it's worth it

A few good reasons people buy this way:

• Value. Buying a whole, half or quarter is the most cost-effective way to fill your freezer with genuine grass-fed beef and lamb.
• Variety. You get the full range of an animal — the premium steaks and the brilliant slow cuts that often get overlooked.
• Provenance. Your meat comes from one animal, raised by one family, on one farm. You can't get closer to the source than that.
• Convenience. One order, one delivery, and months of good meat on hand. No more last-minute "what's for dinner".
• Less waste. Whole-animal buying honours the whole beast — exactly how we think meat should be treated.

Use the planner

The most common question we get is simply: "What size should I buy?"

It depends on how many people you're feeding, how much freezer space you have, and how often you cook red meat. To make it easy, we've built a Whole-Animal Planner — answer a couple of quick questions and it will suggest whether a quarter, half or whole beast suits you, with a rough guide to the freezer space you'll need.

Have a play with it before you order. It takes about thirty seconds.

How to order

The process is simple, and personal:

1. Give us at least four weeks' notice. We require a minimum of four weeks for all bulk orders — we sell out fast and plan well ahead, and it takes time to select the right beast and prepare it properly for you.
2. Choose your size and pay one flat price. Pick a quarter, half or whole on the beef or lamb page and pay the single flat price to lock it in — no weigh-up surprises, no final invoice.
3. We select, process and pack. We choose the animal, and cut and vacuum-pack it at Morpeth Butchery.
4. Collect or get it delivered. Pick up from Morpeth Butchery at 143 Swan Street, or have it delivered direct to your door — we deliver whole, half and quarter beasts to the Scone, Muswellbrook, Morpeth and Newcastle areas.

A freezer full of the good stuff

There's a real satisfaction in opening a freezer stocked with grass-fed beef and lamb you can trace to a single paddock on a single farm.

When you're ready, try the Whole-Animal Planner to find your size, or get in touch and we'll talk it through with you. From our farm, direct to your freezer — the way it should be.