It takes two years after a calf is weaned for him to reach processing weight, so this year's product came from our 2022 calf crop.  Grassfed beef is slow food, not a widget we can pick up at the market and flip for profit.  Climate change slapped us in the face with the reality that our food production system is forever changed.  Fifteen years ago, we could finish 25-30 steers per year on this ranch while also maintaining a breeding herd of 75-80 cows.  Longer dry and hot spells in the summer and more severe freezes in the winter compounded by a reduction in rainfall during critical growing seasons has forced us to scale back numbers of animals.  Where we used to concentrate steers for high animal impact that improved soil quality, we now must ration the time and numbers grazed so that same soil is not damaged.  Longer recovery times are required between grazing, and we cannot invent more land.  The variable that we can control is numbers.  These days, we finish 7-10 steers per year and our breeding herd is half the number we used to run.

La Niña has returned and is predicted to remain through April 2025.  That means we cannot count on growing lush cool season forage of clovers, vetch and ryegrass this winter and early spring.  We plan to rest our finishing pasture through the winter and are hopeful to be able to move our heaviest steers in to graze in May 2025.  We anticipate the first of our 2023 calf crop to reach processing weight in early summer 2025.  Some of that beef is already reserved by customers thinking ahead for next year's needs.  If you would like to reserve an order, please send an email to Beef Orders. Please include your best contact telephone number, your town and the quantity you wish to reserve.   

Great Tasting Beef

Texas Longhorn beef is known for its intense beef flavor inherent in the muscle. Some breeds tout the intermuscular marbling that gives their product flavor. Texas Longhorn beef is typically leaner, grading high select or low choice in its fat content. Its flavor comes from the combination of heritage genetics and complexity of forages consumed over the course of the lifetime of the animal. Texas Longhorn cattle mature slowly. Growth cannot be rushed by forcing feedlot grain diets and achieve the same quality product that nature creates. Bandera Grassland beef is harvested from Grassfed steers born and raised here on our Hill Country ranch and allowed to reach maturity over two years of age.

Bandera Grassland Grassfed longhorn beef is available for purchase in whole carcasses, sides, quarters and eighth carcasses.  Whole carcass and sides are priced is $8.75 per pound.  Side weights vary from 204 to 238 pounds, so the average price is $1933.75 per side.  Quarter and eighth carcasses consisting of equal cuts from the fore and hindquarters are priced at $9.00 per pound.  Quarters average 110 pounds each, so the quarter price will be around $990, and eighths average $495.  Organ meats (liver, heart, kidney and tongue) are sold separately at $3.50 per pound.

The cost break for sides and whole carcasses comes from ease of boxing at the processor. It takes approximately one hour per steer to separate into quarters or eighth orders. We are not able to offer side prices to customers that request the order be split into separate boxes for more than one buyer splitting the order.

We serve the Austin and San Antonio areas and points in-between. We no longer offer to ship product outside of our delivery area.

The quarters and eighths we sell contain mixed cuts from both the forequarter and hindquarter.  The break down of a carcass is approximately 50% trim that is ground for hamburger, 15% premium steaks and 35% other cuts.  A quarter will contain approximately:

2 pkg. shank (osso buco/soup bones) 2 shoulder roast-appx. 2 lbs. 2 chuck roast-appx. 2 lbs. 1/2 brisket-appx. 2 lbs. 1 pkg. fajita meat or flank steak 2 racks of short ribs and 1 rack of back ribs 6 pounds stew meat (1 lb. pkgs) 45 pounds ground beef (1 lb. pkgs) 4 pkgs. strip steaks (2 steaks per pkg., 1-1/4" thick) 2 pkg. ribeye steaks (2 steaks per pkg., 1-1/4" thick) 3-4 sirloin steaks (1" thick) 2 pkg. tenderloin (2 filets per pkg., 1-1/2" thick)

Forms of Payment Accepted We prefer payment by Zelle, Venmo, personal check, or cash. Orders totaling $500 or less may be paid by Zelle to either cell 830-796-1057 or email beef@banderagrassland.com. Larger order payments may be sent to the Venmo funds address @Debbie-Davis-190. If you need to pay for your order using a credit card, you may make a payment with PayPal to: beef@banderagrassland.com Please notify us prior to beef delivery if you intend to pay by credit card. Payment must be received before delivery.

Sides contain approximately double the quantity of the same cuts except customers may request the brisket and tenderloin be left whole, and ox tail is included. Eighths contain approximately half the quantity of the same cuts as the quarter. 

To any order, customers may request the addition of organ meats at $3.50 per pound.  The liver is sliced ½” thick or chopped into cubes and packaged in 1 lb. packages.  Our processor does not grind liver. It is too hard on their equipment because it must be ground while frozen to maintain its integrity. Kidneys are sold two per package.  Hearts are sliced into thirds and sold by the pound.  Tongues vary in weight from 2-4 lbs.  The thymus gland is only present in young, growing calves and atrophies when it becomes inactive in adult cattle.  Our Grassfed steers take a minimum of two years to reach slaughter weight, therefore, sweetbreads are not available from our cattle.  Texas Longhorns are lean, efficient animals with little wasted subcutaneous fat to be trimmed away. However, they do possess some suet primarily around the kidneys, so we are able to request the processor save some for persons wishing to render their own tallow for soap or other products. It is priced 50¢ per pound and must be requested prior to processing.  We ask our processor to save the bones and cut them small to fit into stockpots.  These are available in 25-30 lb. boxes for $25.

Our ground longhorn is a blend of the chuck, sirloin and round trim and averages 12% fat and 88% lean.

Great carcass cutting video.

Chuck The chuck includes ribs 1-5 and the shoulder blade. Roasts from the chuck contain a lot of connective tissue and generally require moist heat cooking to become tender. They also contain a higher percentage of fat than other roasts. Flat iron steaks also come from this section. Rib The rib section contains ribs 6-12. A full boneless rib roast, weighs 8-9 lbs. These premium cuts have a moderate fat covering, are tender and generally are grilled or roasted in dry heat. Back ribs are also located here. Short Loin This part of the cow is usually cut into premium steaks including New York Strips and Tenderloin, or T-bone and Porterhouse. These steaks are lean and grilled or roasted over dry heat. Sirloin The sirloin is a little less tender than cuts from the short loin and have a little more fat content. Their flavor and lower price make them popular with families that enjoy grilling. These cuts also lend themselves well to recipes with sauces and breading.	Round Cuts from the round include lean roasts for braising, economy steaks that require tenderizing, and trim for lean ground beef. Flank These thin, lean cuts are used for grilling. Plate This section contains ribs 6-12 where skirt steaks are trimmed very lean for marinating and grilling. This is also the area from which short ribs are cut. Brisket from longhorn cattle is quite lean and lends its self well to braising or smoking with a source of moist heat. Shank Meat from the upper fore and rear legs contains a lot of connective tissue and requires braising for long periods of time. Thick broths from marrow give soups and osso buco their rich flavor. Organ Meats, Tongue and Ox Tail also make flavorful and nutritious dishes. These need to be requested prior to slaughter.

Cooking Tips: We often tell people to cook Grassfed meats over a low flame to avoid loss of moisture because Grassfed meats are lean and lack the fat content that gives steaks from grain-fed meats the appearance of juiciness. To reserve the actual moisture in your meats, sear briefly over high flame to seal in the juices, then reduce the heat for cooking. Shannon Hayes, author of The Grassfed Gourmet cookbook, says it best here.

Orders for Sides of Beef include cuts from all sections listed above.
Organs:  Obviously, there is only one ox tail, one heart, and one tongue per animal. The heart can be cut in half or thirds and the liver (weighing 7-9 lbs.) can be cut into many portions. There are two kidneys.

How much freezer space is needed? One cubic foot of freezer space will hold approximately 45 pounds of beef. One whole beef will fill a full-size 10 cu. ft. freezer.

Texas Drought News:

We made it through nine years of drought that was only broken by a rainy growing season in 2007. We had to reduce our numbers to comparable with available forage on our ranch to preserve both the health of our range soils and health and genetics of our core breeding herd. This dictated the number of beef calves we keep to grow out for meat sales. We wre cautious about rebuilding our herd numbers due to certainty of rainy weather patterns. We are of the opinion climate change has forever reduced the number of beef animals, particularly Grassfed, that Texas is able to supply to the market. Regardless of short periods of moisture, the drought historical records tell the truth. In the spring of 2012, our Seco Valley Ranch was green with legumes for the first time since the spring of 2010, but warm season grasses that were damaged in the drought had a hard time recovering. Our ranch has never recoved with healthy climax species of forage. We are now back into a drought La Niña cycle that is predicted to continue through spring 2021. We reduced our stocking rate in the Fall of 2020 and are apprehensive we may require further cuts to survive. Many parts of Texas received ample rainfall in the Fall of 2020, but not our part of the Hill Country. We do our part through planned and managed grazing and closely monitoring our stocking rate. Locally produced, source verified from birth to harvest, Grassfed meats will be scarce and expensive in the coming years.   

Our focus is to preserve for the benefit of future generations, heritage Texas Longhorn cattle declared a critically endangered breed by the Livestock Conservancy.  Bandera Grassland is the result of our desire to create a viable market for this breed so ranchers will continue to raise them. We reserve our heifer calves to provide replacement breeding animals for other ranchers.  Our goal is to make available the right kind of cattle for ranchers building herds.  There are numerous horned cattle on the market that we refer to as "wronghorns" because they are introgressed with Bos Indicus genetics. The Cattlemen’s Texas Longhorn Registry reports there are fewer than 3000 historic phenotype Texas Longhorn cattle in existence.  These are animals whose genotypes reflect descent only from Iberian stock brought to the New World by Spanish explorers in the 1500's with no recent introgression from other breeds.  These are the kind of cattle we raise.  Unlike many other beef breeds they are endangered and not available like a widget from your local supercenter livestock auction.