About Us
Order Beef
Order Beef
Order Beef
Quantity & Prices
Whole Beef
$4.00/lb (720-800 lbs) Average Price $3,040*
Half Beef
$4.00/lb (360-400 lbs) Average Price $1,520*
Split Half
$4.00/lb (180-200 lbs) Average Price $760*
*In addition to the $4.00 to Long Family Farm, a $0.99/lb charge is payable to Del Fox for
cutting and wrapping.
Order Form (click here to open .pdf)
How to Begin
The
Quantity & Prices
Whole Beef
$4.00/lb (720-800 lbs) Average Price $3,040*
Half Beef
$4.00/lb (360-400 lbs) Average Price $1,520*
Split Half
$4.00/lb (180-200 lbs) Average Price $760*
*In addition to the $4.00 to Long Family Farm, a $0.99/lb charge is payable to Del Fox for
cutting and wrapping.
Order Form (click here to open .pdf)
How to Begin
The process will begin when we receive your completed form and $50 deposit.
Processing
We use Del Fox Meats in Stanwood, a small family-owned packer, to process meat. Del Fox is State inspected and hand-processes all cutting and packing.
Options
A variety of processing options are available through Del Fox Meats such as converting portions of your beef to sausages, jerky and pepperoni. You may also choose the thickness of your cut as well as quantities of fat and bone. Del Fox will contact you regarding individual processing preferences, or ask us for help.
Pick-up
Your beef is to be picked up at Del Fox Meats (7229 300th Street Northwest; Stanwood, WA 98292).
Payment
Payment is due in full when you pick up your order. Because each animal is a unique weight, we will not know your exact price until butchering. Live weight is approximated from hanging weight.
Timing
Once you put a down payment on the animal we will contact you with a delivery date. We may have to wait for the cattle to grow.
Packaging
The beef is frozen and packaged and labeled according to cut.
Storage
Meat in vacuum-packed parcels will last at least two years in a freezer. 40 pounds of beef will fit in a typical refrigerator freezer with some room to spare.
Cuts
A beef cow yields 7 different cuts of meat, in addition to variety meats described in more detail below. You can expect a sampling of these cuts with each whole, half and split-half order beef (this sampling does not include #8 “variety meats” below).
1. Chuck –Chuck eye roast, boneless top blade steak, arm pot roast, cross rib roast, mock tender, blade and pot roasts, short ribs, flank-style ribs
2. Rib – Rib roast, rib eye steak, rib eye roast, back ribs
3. Short Loin –Boneless top loin, tenderloin (roast or steak), New York, T-bone
4. Sirloin – Sirloin steak. flat bone, top sirloin, sirloin steak round
5. Round – Top & bottom round (roasts or steaks), tip roast, eye of round, tip steak
6. Brisket & Fore Shank – Corned brisket point half, brisket flat half, shank cross cut
7. Short Plate & Flank – Flank steak, skirt steak (fajita meat)
8. Variety Meats – Liver, Heart, Kidney, Tongue
9. Other Cuts – Ground Beef, Cube Steak, Stew Meat
Our Beef
Order Beef
Order Beef
Quality
We ensure the highest quality beef. Our cows eat only the best grasses and live a comfortable, stress-free life from start to finish. Once cut, the beef is dry aged 10-14 days, a process that enhances flavor and tenderness. See Our Family for favorite recipes.
Nutritious
Our cows are free of any antibiotics or hormones. Grass-fed c
Quality
We ensure the highest quality beef. Our cows eat only the best grasses and live a comfortable, stress-free life from start to finish. Once cut, the beef is dry aged 10-14 days, a process that enhances flavor and tenderness. See Our Family for favorite recipes.
Nutritious
Our cows are free of any antibiotics or hormones. Grass-fed cows produce leaner beef with high omega 3 fatty acids and increased vitamins and minerals. Chemical-free, grass-fed, free-range beef is an important and essential part of any nutritious diet. Some benefits to people include strengthening the heart, preventing cancer and promoting healthy weight. See www.eatwild.com.
Heritage
The herd is a Black Angus variety originating from Scotland. Our cows have been breed and raised by our family on our farm for almost one hundred years.
Sustainable
We have been farming for 5 generations and have raised our herd for long-term sustainability. This means never breeding more animals than the land can support. We grow supplemental feed crops on the farm. Forest and wetlands cover over 40% of our property to help protect water quality and wildlife.
“Forest and wetlands cover over 40% of our property to help protect water quality and wildlife.”
- Leland Long
Local
The herd grazes freely and feeds year-round on a diversity of grasses growing in the Maxwelton Valley. Your purchase keeps 200 acres of Whidbey Island farmland in production, and supports a longtime family-run business. See Our Family for more detail on the Long Family and Farm Operations.
Thank you for your support!
Our Family
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Our Family
Five generations & farming
Leland Long operates Long Family Farm with his sons Robert and Loren, and Robert’s sons, Ryan and Reed, along with much help from the girls Berta, Ronni, Stephani and Megan. The 200-acre farm has been in the family for 5 generations with the intention to be in the family for another 100 years.
In 1912, Claus Browe
Five generations & farming
Leland Long operates Long Family Farm with his sons Robert and Loren, and Robert’s sons, Ryan and Reed, along with much help from the girls Berta, Ronni, Stephani and Megan. The 200-acre farm has been in the family for 5 generations with the intention to be in the family for another 100 years.
In 1912, Claus Brower came to Maxwelton Valley from Holland, and worked for Charles Feek on what was then a dairy farm. In 1913, Harry Pontius came from Kansas, to work for Claus. George Long and his wife Nancy homesteaded in Montana where George died in 1925. Nancy and their three little boys, Lloyd, Joe and Paul moved west, picking fruit in Yakima which many others from Whidbey Island were doing to supplement their farm income. There, Nancy met Harry and came to Whidbey Island to be a housekeeper for Claus. Claus and Nancy were married soon after.
Nancy and the boys bought 300 cull chicks from Percy Wilkenson’s hatchery in Clinton, and the boys started their own farm. Over the years, it grew to 5,000 laying chickens and some cattle. Claus continued to farm next door with Angus cattle until his death in 1958. In 1958, the Joe Long Farm began a growth that eventually led to 130,000 laying chickens and over 100 descendents of Claus’s Angus cows. The oldest boy, Lloyd, drowned in Deer Lake in 1938, and the youngest Paul moved to Minnesota in 1967. Joe Long continued to farm until his death in 2005.
Leland, Joe’s son, returned to the farm in 1971 after graduating from Washington State University. In 1988, the farm dropped the chickens and kept the cows. They sold 800-pound calves at the auction in Marysville. Robert and Loren Long joined the farm from their school years on, and Ryan and Reed are eager to lend a hand.
Our Farm
Operations & The Life of a Cow
The life of our beef cows begins with use of a bull for natural breeding. 9 months later, in late spring when the cows can be on pasture, the calves come. The males are steered with an elastrator band when they are a few days old, and both sexes are tagged so we can identify them. Their number consists of the year of their birth (“9” for 2009) and their mother’s number (example: the calf of mother 15 born in 2009 would be 915). This way, we can always put calves back with their moms if they get mixed up.
The cows provide plenty of milk to their calves through the summer. In the fall when the pasture is finished the calves are creep fed good quality forage. A creep is a device that allows the calf to enter a pen but prevents the cow from following. The calf is free to go in and out without its mother eating its feed. The calves have the best of both worlds, good forage along with access to the cow for milk.
Our winter forage is about one third corn silage and two-thirds grass silage. Silage is forage that is compressed to remove oxygen and then naturally ensiled, like our Sauerkraut. Grass/alfalfa silage has good protein but not enough energy for good growth. In this area corn grain is grown with corn seed having an 83 to 90 day maturity. By using 110 day maturing corn and then feeding cows the entire plant, not just the grain, we avoid the problem of unhealthy Omega 6 fatty acids in beef. The industry calls it “corn grass.” A corn plant is a grass that produces sugars through the summer, and only at the end of its life concentrates carbohydrates and oils in the grain. We harvest the corn while it is still too young for mature grain.
We wean the calf at about 7 months of age when it weighs about 600 pounds. Its second summer is spent on pasture, coming back to stored forage in the fall. The following spring the animal is two years old. The biggest calves can be nearly up to finish weight and are ready for slaughter at around 1200 pounds. We feed as much to the cattle as they want, which is a lot. Besides the silage, we provide a couple bales of hay for them to play with. They really seem to enjoy it.
Slaughter is the hardest part but we have found a respectable way that makes it acceptable with low stress to the animal. We run the herd through the corral with a truck parked at the loading chute. From the point of view of the herd, this is a normal process. During this time, two animals are shunted to the truck. The next morning the butcher comes with the animals in the truck parked by a high place with a clear shot. They usually pay little attention. One pop, the other looks up and within 10 seconds, the other pop, and it is over. Their adrenaline is not aroused, the ”lights” just go out. The butcher takes the halves for aging, cutting, wrapping and freezing.
We hope to create a video of our operation so all can see what we do. We continually make changes as we learn more.