I live in a very rural area so I literally have to drive by pastures of cows at points to even get to a grocery store, folks with beef critters often have a cooler on the front porch or a shed with a cash box. I've got about 5 sources within 7-8 minutes of me.

Local facebook groups tend to be where folks trade anything, that's actually how I got into the half-steer as that's a little more coordination required than raiding a cooler. Small farmers tend to need people to make a deposit for the butcher, get a cut sheet etc.

Funny thing though is its hard to get tallow from folks, it goes fast, our last few tallow buys were from calling the grocery store butcher and having them set it aside from trim and my wife renders it.