Raising a cow to 150# for ground beef?

Here's a blog I read. She recently butchered 9 month old bulls.

http://antiquityoaks.blogspot.com/20...-new-year.html

The only people who would consider this good beef are city transplants. Farm folk know better.

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Libertarindependent

150# of hamburger that calf would have to weigh at the very least 325 pounds. and that is at the low end. you are only getting 40% to 50% of body weight in meat. At best because of not fattening it up. And at that end then 60% is a better chance of getting meat to eat.
400 might be a better weight to reach for to get 150# of burger.
A Jersey certainly won't be gaining 2 pounds a day not even close to that. More like half IF that.
I have been raising Jersey calves for my freezer for the past 40 years.,
At best I have gotten 420 pounds of meat at a steer weighing around 1,000 and at 16 months old.

Arabain Knight ....were is that like button.....I always us feed and never tried the all grass....but 2 pounds a day THAT SMALL would be great on feed

Well, this was interesting. I was wondering if our boys were on track, and apparently they're not doing badly. I have two Holstein bulls that we got as day-olds the beginning of July 2011, and they taped last week at 425 pounds. To begin with we thought we'd butcher them at Christmas, but they just didn't look heavy enough. Now their date is "before it gets warm." They don't have any bones sticking out - no backbone to see or feel, so I figured they were pretty well padded. I was hoping for some marbling, but figured since they were still growing they wouldn't really put on any fat, no matter how much they got fed. We get brewer's grain and they get some daily, but they have to share with the sheep, so it's not a lot.
I can't imagine using them as hamburger, though. We're looking forward to "veal" chops and steaks. In our vocabulary, our "veal" means "young" not milk fed, even though we know better.
Kit

Some of you may recall that I had a 6 month Holstein calf get its leg stuck in our round bale feeder earlier in the month and after consulting with the vet decided to put it down ourselves. We killed, gutted, skinned and split the calf then took it in to be ground into burger. Although it is very lean and does not stay pattied very well the ground beef we recieved back in return tastes great according to my wife. I would suggest that if you do have a younger calf processed to see if the butcher can add a little tallow to help keep the meat moist while cooking. Another thing to consider is that with a younger calf, a vast majority of the live weight will not be meat. You have to take into consideration what the head, hide, guts and skeletal system weighs as well. Based on prior purchases I estimated the live weight of my calf to be in the 350 lb. range, the hanging weight turned out to be 110 lbs. and I brought home 44 lbs. of ground beef. Taking only 3 variables into consideration ($75 for calf, $75 for MR and $70 to process) and not water, feed, hay, fuel, time or anything else those 44 lbs. of ground beef cost $5.00 per pound and made for some expensive ground beef. If were up to me, I would wait until they had more weight and size on them to butcher rather than doing the deed too early. Unfourtunatly for us we had no choice.
Matt

sassafrass manor

posted what I was going to say better then I could.

sassafrass manor ...THANKS for the info...I knew it would be a high price but $5.00 a pound is way out site..sorry you went in the hole so much...350 live weight to 44 pounds beef I would never a guess it that low..I would have thought 100 but never 44....


Using your figures if a person DID your own processing with just the price of calf and MR...it would have cost $3.40 a pound for ground beef

You are not going to get much meat vs throwaway when so young and light weight to begin with. No muscle development, not much tissue either to speak off.
And that that adds to weight ratio vs actual meat you get.
most can figure 50% of body weight to meat. But that is in a freezer ready beefer.
And veal calves just have not gotten the length of time to develop much of anything of substance.
And those have have a fatten program can get upwards of 60% yield but that is the top of the scale for sure.
45 to 50 is more in line with the adverse Fattened Steer.
But sure can't be counted on when you are only speaking of 350 body weight.
Ya 40% is really on the slow side. But trying to raise one just to get 150# of burger meat is just not in the cards of good thinking.
Cause you really are going to have to put some good weight on in a very short order to even thinking of getting that 150 worth.
And Jersey's sure are not the ones to even consider doing it with.

Had a 550 lb calf right off the cow butchered, the hamburger was rubbery after cooking. Discussed that with my packing house and was told that it is very common for hamburger from young milk fat calves to have an off flavor. The steaks and roasts could be cut with a fork, but no flavor. Might as well have been cardboard.

Ya there is much flavor being just milk fed.
The marbling is what makes beef taste good, and with just a liquid milk diet it would be hard to have any flavor in the little fat that they would have.
Many years ago I almost took a job a veal calf operation in Indiana. But I did get to see the operation and how things were fed etc. Just a pure liquid diet, no solid feeds no hay of any kind just a mixture of milk products.
And one thing that is why veal is so expensive in the store. The weight to meat ratio is so small.

I wonder if hanging the carcass for a few days would help?