Half cows, entire pigs: Families are buying meat in bulk to save money

This spring, the St. Louis attorney bought half a cow and an entire pig — plus a freezer that now holds 320 pounds of bacon, sausages, rib-eye steaks, ground beef and soup bones in his basement.

“My kids eat a lot of hot dogs, and the prices just got to be too much,” said Wagoner, 36. “Finally we said, ‘This is wild. What else can we do?’”

He and his wife spent about $2,000 — including $700 on the freezer — and now have enough meat to last a year. Their weekly grocery bill has fallen to about $125…

More than 70 percent of Americans have adjusted how they buy meat because of inflation, according to Glynn Tonsor, an agricultural economics professor at Kansas State University who oversees the school’s Meat Demand Monitor, which surveys 2,000 people nationwide about their meat consumption and purchasing habits.

Many are buying less meat or trading down to cheaper cuts — ham instead of pork chops, for example, said Tonsor.