beef club n Also beef ring (club) scattered, but chiefly Sth Cf meat club n, quartering n
An organization of farmers who take turns in furnishing a beef for slaughter, the meat of which is divided among the members; a communal butchering held by such an organization.
1850 S. Cultivator 8.42 nwSC, Table For Beef Clubs. . . All that is necessary . . is to take the index figure over the name of the man who killed the beef, and look for that figure in the Table . . then cast the eye to the left, and thus you can assign the piece to each individual. 1875 Lippincott’s Mag. Pop. Lit. & Sci. 16.444 SC, There is no market, and none is needed. Beef and “small-meat” clubs are organized, and each member kills as his turn comes. 1876 Inter Ocean (Chicago IL) 17 June 12/1, Some time in the fall of 1874 there appeared . . a description of a beef club, adapted to the wants of a country neighborhood. Will you confer a favor on many readers by republishing the same? 1904 Homestead 49.1133 IA, This is the season of the year when the beef ring ought to be organized and put to practical use. A beef ring is not a trust to control the price of beef, but is a combination of farmers who take turns in killing a beef to be distributed among members of the ring. 1921 Star (Kansas City MO) 19 Jan 3/1, At least $3 a hundred weight and sometimes more has been saved in the twenty years of its existence by a farmers’ beef club in the Silver Creek district. 1932 Landmark (Statesville NC) 9 Sept 2/3, Annual Slaughter is Commenced by “Beef Ring” Group. . . The Claremont “beef ring club” . . has started its annual slaughter of beeves for home consumption. . . Each week for eight consecutive weeks a different member furnished a fatted animal to be slaughtered. 1941 Writers’ Program Guide Louisiana 641, Hog butcherings and “beef clubs” are events in the community life. 1978 Mayer Beef Club 2 SC,The beef club continued with very little modification until approximately 1940. . . With a ready means of preservation available, it was no longer necessary to divide beef up for quick consumption. 2009 Rangelands 31.52 TX, When I was a child, we didn’t have refrigeration in our home. We belonged to a beef club. Once each month a family butchered a beef and divided it into twelve portions.