Slaughter house should have a cutting sheet for you to fill out before they cut the meat. Try a few good roasts, you can always shred them and put barbecue sauce on the left overs. We haven't had stew meat or chuck roasts made in years.
grass fed beef...has no marbling in it.....did you grain feed this steer?
we always got out butchering cattle up 3 weeks before slaughter and poured the horse and mule feed to them twice a day.
is this a dairy breed steer?
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i went to the woods because i wished to live deliberately to front only the essential facts of life,.......,and not,when i came to die,discover that i had not lived...Henry David Thoreau
We are close to having had 30 animals butchered. We used to feed corn but for the last 7 years we have done grass feed, they do marble but it takes a little longer to get them old enough/fat enough. I have ask for the tallow back and it is never much maybe a Walmart sack full from each 1000# steer the butcher doesn't have extra from other people as he needs it to "fatten" the game animal burger in the fall, he does give ours back and even grinds it up so I can render it easier. He has no one else get the fat back, we also usually take the bones and even the feet the dogs always have bones around here. He doesn't do "soup bones" he cuts every bit of meat off he can the bones are very clean.
I know they use a 22 most of the time to end out animals I have watched many times. He has only had trouble with the old highland bull he refused to die the 22 would bounce off he has to yous his elk hunting rifle. Normally the animals do not know it's coming.
I have taken hides and skulls home to but I have to get those the day after he kills he will not keep them until I pick up the rest. I have my beef dry hung 14 days more or less it does change the flavor/tenderness to hang it. I do not like "wet" hanging the meat but it doesn't loose as much weight.
one thing for sure too is all 'grass' is not created equal. and the time its harvested by beast or machine varies the quality. i use to but heads with my grandfather on correct time to cut hays.....all he seen was how many bales...he wanted bulk...i wanted the highest quality hay to use and feed less....and i could never get him to look at hay/grass/pasture as a crop.
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i went to the woods because i wished to live deliberately to front only the essential facts of life,.......,and not,when i came to die,discover that i had not lived...Henry David Thoreau
you ever see cattle or horses turned on mature 'grass' and they walk around picking the tops of it? see technically they are not eating grass they eating grain as all they are doing is eating the grain head off....especially on timothy i have seen them do it on ryes too.
plus some people call anything green "grass"but alfalfa,clover etc is a legume not a grass.
you can force feed maturer stuff by cutting with a special head on a chopper and making it easier for them to digest..sorta like us eating highly processed foods..the machine does part of the breaking down of plant matter before hitting the stomach of cattle.
sorry PP for rambling on and hijacking your thread.....thoughts pop in my head and i just roll with it....lol
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i went to the woods because i wished to live deliberately to front only the essential facts of life,.......,and not,when i came to die,discover that i had not lived...Henry David Thoreau
The amount of fat you have for the hamburger and as tallow will depend on how fat he is. Grass or hay fed, not so much.
Because of the general interest in humane treatment of animals, including cattle, there has been a big move towards more humane slaughter. I have no idea if the guy you are hiring, that has been doing it for 30 years, has been keeping up with this trend or not. The air powered bolt used to stun the cattle knocks him out quickly, but still hard to watch.
Big business ( evil big business to you) has adopted an accreditation program to insure humane slaughter. You might find any of Dr. Temple Grandon's books educational. These large slaughterhouses have a long list of standards and video cameras that are viewed by the accreditation organization to insure compliance.
Part of that is moving the cattle slowly, no banging the gates into the cattle. The stun gun must knock the cattle down the first time, every time.
The cutting process is similar to pigs and you said you'd seen that, right?
You may find the flavor of grass fed beef "odd", but in a few weeks, you'll adjust.
Be sure to tell the butcher what cuts you want. He might cut it into different cuts and you'll ask, "Hey where is this?" and he'll tell you it got cut into a different cut.
You want the steer to be hung in a fashion called 'tender stretch'. It matters where the hook is inserted into the leg to hang it. Tender stretch stretches the muscles sufficiently to allow the weight of the animal and the enzymes present in the meat to tenderize it. The larger the animal, the longer the hanging. My lambs would be hung for 4 days, but a beef is typically hung for 28. Ask about this. Be sure and tell him you want the fat, liver, heart, lungs, and pancreas. Pancreas is considered a 'sweet meat' and a delicacy. If you don't want it, cut it into little pieces and feed it raw to the dogs as a special treat. It will help them keep their digestive tract in good form.
There is a butcher in our area than comes to ones place and does the deed. He then guts it and takes it to his butchering shop to finish processing it.
Seems to me that would be a lot less stressful. Am sure its a lot more $$ too
A friend and I did a yearling in December. I took it to her place, her dh dispatched it, we all gutted, and skinned it and then hung it in a tree. She and I the next then processed it in her kitchen. Saved us a lot of $.
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i went to the woods because i wished to live deliberately to front only the essential facts of life,.......,and not,when i came to die,discover that i had not lived...Henry David Thoreau
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i went to the woods because i wished to live deliberately to front only the essential facts of life,.......,and not,when i came to die,discover that i had not lived...Henry David Thoreau
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i went to the woods because i wished to live deliberately to front only the essential facts of life,.......,and not,when i came to die,discover that i had not lived...Henry David Thoreau
__________________
i went to the woods because i wished to live deliberately to front only the essential facts of life,.......,and not,when i came to die,discover that i had not lived...Henry David Thoreau
__________________
i went to the woods because i wished to live deliberately to front only the essential facts of life,.......,and not,when i came to die,discover that i had not lived...Henry David Thoreau
__________________
i went to the woods because i wished to live deliberately to front only the essential facts of life,.......,and not,when i came to die,discover that i had not lived...Henry David Thoreau
__________________
i went to the woods because i wished to live deliberately to front only the essential facts of life,.......,and not,when i came to die,discover that i had not lived...Henry David Thoreau
I see several people mentioning having an on-site kill done and I will tell you that my experience with that has been that the other animals on the farm do NOT like it.
My step dad had a steer done in the side pasture one time
and all the dairy cows (200+) stood at the fenceline and watched.
None of them ate or went off to chew their cud for the duration of the event.
They just stood there in a long row and observed.
That evening and the next morning's milk production suffered for it.
So if you go that route, I recommend finding a spot to do it where the other critters cannot watch.
I see several people mentioning having an on-site kill done and I will tell you that my experience with that has been that the other animals on the farm do NOT like it.
My step dad had a steer done in the side pasture one time
and all the dairy cows (200+) stood at the fenceline and watched.
None of them ate or went off to chew their cud for the duration of the event.
They just stood there in a long row and observed.
That evening and the next morning's milk production suffered for it.
So if you go that route, I recommend finding a spot to do it where the other critters cannot watch.
I've noticed that, too. We kill here and butcher ourselves. One steer in particular took notice. We killed the older cow one year and then used the backhoe to drag it out of the pasture. That particular steer would beller and charge the backhoe each and every time he saw it after that. Til we did him in.
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There are more things in heaven and earth,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Hamlet
PP if you dont mind can you pm me where you are carrying him..... Thanks..
Same one I mentioned in the message earlier. I'll tell you, I know you are a couple of counties over but apparently this is the place to go, regardless of distance. A farmer who used to do his own down in Jefferson SC takes his there - a couple hours away - because this processor does a really good job. It's a haul but it might be worth it.
Slaughter house should have a cutting sheet for you to fill out before they cut the meat. Try a few good roasts, you can always shred them and put barbecue sauce on the left overs. We haven't had stew meat or chuck roasts made in years.
What is a water melon roast?
My mom called it that when we were growing up. It's not soft and stringy like a pot roast but still a roast, it's a little more tough but not too chewy. It holds together well and can be cut into slices.
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Bottom Round is sometimes called “Rump Roast” which is suitable for our purposes. The first cut or “watermelon cut” is by far the best, those toward the tail end will be flatter and wider, the whole thing is shaped roughly like a doorstop, and progressively less desirable.
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