FAQs

Ichthys: An acronym made from the original Greek letters that represent Jesus Christ God’s Son Savior. We aim to “acknowledge Him in all of our ways”, Proverbs 3:6, thus the name Ichthys. Premium: We believe that we offer the best meat you can buy thus the word premium. The value of our meat comes in the quality. Do not expect a luxury automobile if you are only willing to pay for a cheap car. Grocery store meat might be cheaper but our taste and tenderness are not comparable. In our weight test, a hamburger made with our beef weighs 40% more than store bought ground beef post-cooking. In that regard our beef is actually cheaper, but I’d rather say a better value. We do not use antibiotics, growth hormones, or any unnatural ingredients whatsoever.  Meats: Well this one is obvious, we offer beef, pork and lamb for sale.

We charge $4.50/lb. hanging weight for regular beef ($5.50 for Wagyu and grass fed), $4.00/lb. hanging weight for pork and $7.00/lb. hanging weight for lamb. We sell beef in quarters (mixed halves), halves and wholes. We sell pork in halves and wholes and lamb as wholes. The hanging weight difference from animal to animal can be significant. We’ve had beef wholes weigh from 500+ pounds to 900+ pounds. Most are 700-800 pounds. Using an 800 pound hanging weight, a regular beef would cost approximately $3600 for a whole (Wagyu $4400, grass fed closer to $3300 because of a smaller carcass/hanging weight-grass fed animals are on average smaller animals), $1800 for a half, and $900 for a quarter. Pork hanging weight would typically be around 200 lbs. so a whole pork at 200 lbs. would cost $800, $400 for a half. A lamb could hang at 100 lbs. and cost $700. These costs include ALL of the processing costs and delivery to The Butcher Shop in Fairfield, NE. We ask our customers to put down a deposit of approximately ½ when the appointment is made with the other half due once the hanging weight is known. Once your entire balance is paid we let you know when your order is ready for pickup. [If you would prefer your order come from a larger or smaller animal, resulting in a correspondingly larger or smaller hanging weight/take-home weight/total cost, we may be able to accommodate such requests.]

Any animal has at least 3 weights, live weight, hanging weight and processed weight. The live weight is how much an animal weighs, alive, standing on a scale. The hanging weight is the weight after slaughter, hanging on a rail, with the animal split in two and the head, feet and entrails removed, before processing.  For a beef animal this would be considered a half beef.  This hanging weight is the weight we use to determine your cost. Hanging weight is around 60% of live weight. The processed weight is the weight of the packaged products the customer takes home after the hanging side has been processed, the weight you take home to your freezer. These weights all vary with the individual animal. When processing, bones and fat are discarded to get the processed packages. Beef yields about 63% of the hanging weight as processed weight, pork about 75% and lamb 70%. For example, a whole regular beef that hangs at 800 lbs will cost $3,800 (800 x $4.50) and you will take home around 500 lbs (800 x 0.63) of beef. A whole pork that hangs at 200 lbs will cost $700 (200 x $3.50) and you will take home around 150 lbs (200 x 0.75) of pork.  And, a lamb that hangs at 100 lbs will cost $450 (100 x $4.50) and you will take home around 70 lbs (100 x 0.7) of lamb.

Hanging weight is the weight after slaughter but before butchering, and the weight used to calculate cost. A typical beef whole weighs about 600-800 lbs (half 300-400 lbs, quarter 150-200 lbs). A pork whole weighs around 200 lbs and a lamb whole weighs around 100 lbs.

See our order form for detailed information about cuts available.  A beef is processed primarily into (approximately) 25% prime cuts (steaks, prime rib, filets), 35% roasts and 40% ground beef/hamburger. Some customers save the ribs.  We have a variety of hamburger percentage requests (most do 90/10, which means 90% lean meat, 10% fat); some want the round steak tenderized and some want it ground into hamburger. Briskets are available when order halves or wholes (not quarters). A quarter beef would hang at approximately 200 lbs. After processing, 63% would be 126 pounds of take -home weight.  Correspondingly, a half from the same size animal would be approximately 252 lbs and a whole approximately 504 lbs. A whole pork that hangs at 200 lbs would yield around 150 lbs of take-home weight, and a lamb that hangs at 100 lbs would be around 70 lbs of take-home weight.

See "How much does it cost?" above for approximations.  If the final hanging weight of your meat is above average, your total cost, as well as your total amount of processed/take home meat, will be more (and obviously less if less). We will let you know exactly what you owe as soon as the meat has been slaughtered and a hanging weight determined. Full payment will be due once we know the hanging weight of your meat. We will subtract your deposit from the total amount you owe and ask for payment prior to the meat being processed. We will let you know when your order is ready (about 3 weeks after the hanging weight is known for beef, sooner for pork and lamb). Please do not ask us to “carry” you until you can come up with the money for payment, you will not receive meat until you have paid for it. The butcher shop will not release the meat until we have approved it, and they will only hold meat for one week before charging storage fees.

This varies somewhat, but one example: A quarter regular beef would hang at approximately 200 lbs. After processing, 63% would be 126 pounds of take -home weight resulting in an average price of around $7.14/lb. A grocery store could have cheaper prices, especially on special sales, but the quality of meat will not compare. We offer customers the opportunity to get high-end, meat-market, beef, pork and lamb without the high-end meat shop price. For a whole hog you would end up getting about 130 lbs. which would come out to $6.15/lb., a whole lamb about 75 lbs. and around $9.33/lb.