Finishing our first grass fed steer

bruce2288 · #21 09/03/10, 06:16 PM

I can assure you with a steer that size and condition, which tells me your pasture is very good, he will be gaining more than one pound per day.

ErinP · #22 09/03/10, 07:03 PM

That's kind of what I was thinking.
In this part of the world, you can get that kind of gain, but you usually need irrigated grass.

But in northern California, they get a bit more rain than we do, so I could see it as a definite possibility...

Off topic, CCCJerseys, I see you're in NW Kansas, too. Can I be so nosy as to ask where at?
I'm in Cheyenne county.

lonelyfarmgirl · #23 09/03/10, 09:29 PM

how do you post a photo on here? I could drop a couple pics of what our steers look like this year.

ErinP · #24 09/03/10, 10:25 PM

In the reply window, that little picture of the mountain? Click that and you'll get a window where you paste the URL for your picture.

katy · #25 09/03/10, 11:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shades of Gray

Just wondering if an all grass fed animal tastes "grassy" at all? I know it's the natural taste of beef, but is it a green taste? We will be doing grass fed when our pastures are in proper working order, but would like to know what i'm getting into, and if we'll even like it.

Shades, You can google for grass fed beef in your area, or look for local harvest for same. I have seen several suppliers that offer a sample variety package, NOT free sample. lol

http://www.localharvest.org/beef.jsp I really enjoyed the steaks and ground beef. I did not master the art of cooking a roast, chuck being my favorite. They say lower cooking temperature and shorter time, are the correct answer.

nathan104 · #26 09/04/10, 01:49 PM

We took our first grass fed beef to slaughter last year. Had never tried it before and was very worried we wouldnt like it. Our was an angus cross heifer. She was a very short but very thick heifer and weighed right at 900lbs at the processors and she was 20 months old. I have to say that that beef was the best I have ever tasted. The fat was a yellowish color on the steaks which worried me, but it was just awesome. Didnt need any seasoning or sauce, it was just that good. We only have a couple of roasts left now and are really missing that beef. Cant wait to put another in the freezer.

**Terri** · #27 09/04/10, 02:02 PM

Parts of California are blessed with some of the richest soil in the world: that is why they export vegetables to the rest of the country. In addition, I see that the steer is on irrigated pasture with clover in it.

I have lived in both California and Kansas: in my opinion California had richer soil.

DenMacII · #28 09/06/10, 10:47 AM

Thanks for all your thoughts and insight. We are going to give him until Sept 22.

We bought him back in Mid March. He is a pure bred Angus, although not registered since they were looking for a heifer. We bought a registered Angus cow at the same time. The person we bought him from is someone I trust, and he has been adamant that the steer has been on grass since birth and weening. Since coming to our property six months ago I know he has had nothing but fresh pasture with some bales of orchard grass and alfalfa. Of course he has not had hormone supplements (or antibiotics).

We do have irrigated pasture, and our three head are rotated about every 5-7 days. The pasture gets about a month between grazings.

I will definitely post his hook weight in a couple more weeks.

Love the other photos too!

haypoint · #29 09/06/10, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronney

At a calculated guess that steer would weigh all of 1,000lbs and I have no doubt that he has been grass fed. I see grass fed cattle looking like this every day of my life and I know it can be done - and why shouldn't it.

I sent a 100% grass fed bull to the works and got penalised for his size - they had to stop the killing chain to deal with him - he weighed 1,325kgms - and it was all done on grass.

Cheers,
Ronnie

2915 pounds is a big bull. I guess I've seen some old holstein bulls get up there, but a ton and a half is a lot of bull. How old was this grass fed monster?

Allen W · #30 09/06/10, 08:57 PM

I've seen one weigh right at 3000 lbs in using condition go through the ring. Big bull is an understatement at that size.

lonelyfarmgirl · #31 09/06/10, 09:51 PM

we sent in a 4 year old grass-fed cross breed bull a few years ago. he weighed right at 2000. we are still eating him. his name was goliath for a reason.
actually, his mother was a purebred highland. have no idea what his father was.

Ronney · #32 09/07/10, 05:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by haypoint

2915 pounds is a big bull. I guess I've seen some old holstein bulls get up there, but a ton and a half is a lot of bull. How old was this grass fed monster?

I mislead you all Haypoint and is what happens when one doesn't check posts before whizzing them off - that weight should have read 1,225kgs so 100kgs lighter.

He was a R4 Angus named The Ambler because that's what he did - ambled through life getting bigger and bigger until in the end he couldn't be bothered and/or was too big to do the job he was there for. I leased him as a 15 monther and his nature was so laid back that I bought him. To the best of my knowledge he was straight Angus and threw some beautiful calves in the time I had him.

Here's a photo - I hope

Finishing our first grass fed steer - Cattle

Cheers,
Ronnie

ErinP · #33 09/07/10, 08:38 AM

The ranch we lived on about 10 years ago was still owned by a sweet lady of 85. Her nephew actually ran the place.

But Evie had had a bucket calf that was loved too much to allow him to go to the sale barn. So Bud lived in a specially built pen that surrounded her house on three sides. His days were spent eat, walking to water, drinking and sleeping. He lived on grass with prairie hay supplemented in the winter.

Purebred Hereford, Bud was pushing 4000 pounds the day the rendering truck came to get him when he died of old age.
When we first moved there, DH went out with a camera and took several pictures.

When he was in college, they would talk about the body condition scale, but the prof never had a picture of anything above a 7. Bud was a 10!

He had rolls on his rolls.

ErinP · #34 09/07/10, 09:11 AM

PS: Speaking of body condition scores, I can see why that bull wasn't breeding anymore, Ronney. lol If they're supposed to be about 5.5-6.5, he's maybe a smidge above that, eh?

DenMacII · #35 09/15/10, 11:02 PM

Hey All,

Today our steer headed off on his journey to freezer camp. After weeks of guesses - our AI guy visited on 9/2 thought he was 1200lbs, our slaughter guy today hoisted him up on his pulley and guessed 1300lbs. Our steer arrived at our butcher dressed out at a hanging weight of 639lbs. He's getting a two week time out, in the butcher's fridge, and we should have him home about the first of October.

So I checked out a whole bunch of ratio and yield charts to figure out what he weighed on the hoof, and what we should expect cut and wrapped - and those numbers are all over the map. One wiki type site had a very generic formula that would have had his live weight at 980lbs, and others over 1200. One I found on this site calculated his live weight at 1140lbs - which is about where I thought he was, so I'm going with that weight.

The cut and wrap yields are pretty diverse too, but all have the finished meat at a minimum of 400lbs with some over 500lbs. We were looking to get 400lbs of finished meat out of him (we sold three 1/4's to neighbors) so anything north of 400 reduced our 1/4 costs to darn near $0.00 - especially if we come in closer to 500lbs.

In your experience, what would you expect for a cut and wrapped weight on a 639lb hanging weight grass fed steer? FWIW, Our butcher (who we've used several times before with our pigs) commented on his nice conditioning.

lonelyfarmgirl · #36 09/16/10, 08:08 AM

you are fairly close there. our steers usually hang around 800 something, and we estimate live weight at 1400.
yield should be around 60 percent for a grass-fed animal, depending on the breed. 60% yield for your animal would put him at 1065.

when we butcher a steer for the school, first we pull off the tenderloins for our retail freezer, and then have the entirety of the rest ground into burger at an 80/20 ratio. there is usually around 500 pounds of product. this is based on an 800+ hook weight.

MayLOC · #37 09/16/10, 09:06 AM

http://edmundsonranchgrassfedbeef.we...eightscuts.htm

we figure pretty much like lonelyfarmgirl for our grass-fed.
We estimate live weight of 1000 to 1100, but have had them at 1200 also. We butcher at an average of 20 months old.
We estimate on the conservative side at hanging weight at 60% of live weight and packaged weight at 66.66% of hanging weight (or 40% of live)

These estimations usually come really close for us when we add up the packaged weights.

based on that, we would also have put your steer's live weight at 1,065 and would put his packaged weight at 426 lbs. beef.

We do have 2 sets of certified scales, so these calculations were based upon using the scales before hand, factoring in the hanging from the processor and calculating the packaged product. Of course they will vary per breed and ranch, but for us, they work well.
happy eating to you.

DenMacII · #38 10/01/10, 12:25 AM

So we are getting close to bringing our beef home from the butcher, and I am getting word from friends who purchased three quarters of our steer that the butcher is telling them to expect about 80lbs of cut and wrapped beef. Using the last two posts from MayLOC and Lonleyfarmgirl, our 638lb hanging weight should finish into about 396 to 427 pounds of cut and wrap. Our steer was a lean, grass fed steer about 18 months old.

Can it be realistic that his finished beef for the freezer is only 320lbs? That's almost 80lbs less than the lower of the two ratios listed above.

Our butcher has been taking care of our pigs for the past couple of years without a concern, but 80-120lbs is a huge hit to what we are expecting from out steer.

Another issue I just discovered, is I was originally quoted $0.65 per pound hanging weight for cut and wrap, and he is charging us $0.78 per pound - about $21 per quarter more.

I HATE to think ill of anyone, but this is quickly starting to not feel right.

Is there a polite way to inquire about this loss with our butcher?

Ronney · #39 10/01/10, 05:17 AM

Den, quite possibly one of the things you are not factoring in is that the beast has been hanging for two weeks so there will have been a considerable amount of fluid loss/dehydration over that period and quite likely makes up the 80lb loss.

When you were originally quoted $0.65 per pound for cut and wrap, was the butcher aware at that stage that the beast was to be quartered? To correctly quarter a beast, the whole should be butchered then all cuts divided into four. This is extra work and mucking around and could be incurr an extra charge. If you have always been happy with this butcher and your pigs, it's unlikely he would be ripping you off now so by all means ask him. You don't have to be confrontational about it, just put a smile on your dial and say Hey mate, you quoted me .65 and now it's .78, is there a reason for it?

Cheers,
Ronnie

lonelyfarmgirl · #40 10/01/10, 09:31 AM

I disagree. A cut, wrap, freeze price is exactly that. one price for cut, wrap, freeze based on hook weight. this should cover all cuts of steak and roasts, regardless of how you split it. there will be an additional cost for grinding meat into burger, for patties or dogs, and for fine cutting, such as stew meat or fahita/jerky slices. some places charge a flat fee for spliting, but that would be charged to the other person, not you.
also, dont forget the slaughter fee. usually 25-35 dollars an animal. I usually tell people that buy from us that the total cost of beef butchering is 75 cents to 1$ per pound.

your take home beef amount, is also affected by how many bone-in items you have, such as roast, and T-bones, also it is based on the fat ratio in the hamburger. the butcher may be discounting any fat, or bone-in weight.

I wouldnt take his word for it, I would just wait and see what it ends up being. does he print the weights on the labels? add them all up when you get home, and have your buyers do the same.

we sent in an old cow who was half holstein, and had the body type of a dairy animal, as in, more bone than meat.
she hung at 622. we pulled the tenderloins, and had all the rest put into 80/20 burger. there was 334# of burger.

so, in short, your 600 some pound steer should yield more than 400 pounds of useable product, even factoring in loss from hanging. you dont lose that much. certainly not 80 pounds worth.

as far as the quoted price, ask him. you will never know if you dont. chances are he will simply explain it away, and it will either be a reasonable explanation or it wont. if he made a mistake, he will fix it, if he didnt, he wont. you still have to pay for the meat, and if he doesn't care whether you arent happy and choose to use someone else next time, then he wasn't worth doing business with to begin with.