I've heard optimal is 21-28 days Jim. Our butcher shop always hangs a critter 2-3 weeks before cutting it up. We've never butchered a cow or steer in my lifetime, but we had a guy who worked for us who also ran a butcher shop for years. He ALWAYS wanted the critter to hang at least two weeks. His reasoning was, that an animals muscles quiver for several days after being butchered, and if you cut it up and froze it right away, you would have nothing but tough meat. The problem is though, being able to provide the right temperature. We try to let our deer hang in the barn as long as we can in the fall, but one year it's too warm, and the it's froze.....hard to do without a cooler. This whole hanging and aging thing doesn't have much if any effect on the hamburger at all. What you gain there comes in the roasts and steaks.

We've got 280 head of steers weighing right at 1350-1400. Would you like to come pick one out? :) Stop through home or Brkngs any time you want to.