Lots of good advice on this thread. When we were kids we always had cattle for the milk (my older brothers milked them every day twice a day), and for the beef. Everyone pitched in to help with the butchering and it was a chore even with a bunch of us helping... If you haven't done one before, ask someone to help you figure it out while you do the work so you learn it well or there will be a lot of lost money on the deal. And when you get to figuring out how much your price on the hoof ends up costing you once it is packaged and in the freezer, it may or may not seem like as good a deal as you originally thought...
As important as the butchering is knowing how a cow is finished off before butchering time. How much grain and how long was it finished with? What were the conditions while it was being finished? Was it led up to the slaughter and killed quickly or chased around the field all day to try to corral it? It may seem silly to some who have been around cattle all their lives, but a lot of guys don't realize how much this stuff affects the taste of the meat.... finishing is a skill, butchering is a skill but also just plain hard work if you haven't done it before...
