would you butcher this cow?

[a1cowmilker]

I hate to admit my stupidity but here goes.

We have a raucus heifer about 15 months old. She is with bull and there was some sign of action in the bull pen about 45 days ago.
Now things have changed, we don't want to raise her to have calves, we want to put her in the freezer.
Can we do that? What if she is pregnant? Does this make a difference?

Thanks for you advice, it has been so helpful in the past.

About my name, I have not been able to log on as Artransplant and I have requested my pass word and not received it yet. I changed from a1cowmilker because I am not.

[RosewoodfarmVA]

At 45 days that's not enough to worry about. If she's meaty enough to suit you, go ahead and butcher. Depending on the breed though, if she's a dairy breed you could sell her and buy two or three same weight beef bulls for the same price....dairy heifers are bringing alot these days.

[Up North]

Thousands and thousands of slaughter cows go "into the freezer" every year.
Some are pregnant, some are not. They all still go into the freezer.

[susieM]

If you wait a while...the skin from unborn calves makes very soft and supple leather products. And we used to dissect unborn pigs in biology class.

[jerzeygurl]

the sooner the better, it actually bothers the butcher in some cases

[Donna from Mo]

Back when my husband worked for a country butcher shop, they often cut almost full-term calves from cows they butchered. I have raised some such calves. Husband and his boss would cut the cow's udder off, let the calf suck what it could from that, and bring them to me to raise. About half of them lived.

[a1cowmilker]

WOW! That is just amazing.


Thanks for the advice, she is a beef cow and a pretty mean one at that.
We will put her in a pen and feed her some sweet feed for a few weeks and then take her to the butcher.

Thank you so much, this thread was an eye opener.