eating real young steer

[greenacres1]

Does anyone here have experience eating a real young steer? I'm wanting to butcher an 7 month old, 600-700 lb. black angus steer. I realize the steaks and roasts will be real small.
My question is will it taste good?

Let me explain why I ask this question. I want to buy a calf at the sale barn and put it in a pasture and next fall when the grass stops growing feed it hay and some corn until December when winter sets in. Then I will butcher it. I can't keep it over the winter.

[lasergrl]

We only buy bulls in the 600-800 pound range because its all that fits in our freezer. They have tasted great so far. Even on an animal that young the steaks are typical grocery store size, and the round steaks are too big to fit on a plate!
We buy them at auction and have the auctioneer send them right to the packer.

[susieM]

In France that's almost still called veal. In Italy it's called baby beef.

[BlackWillowFarm]

I just spoke with someone who made a business out of selling his beef that way. He left them with the cow for 3 to 4 months, then sent them off to be processed. Called it "baby beef" and had a good market for it.

[Ronney]

True veal, which I have never eaten, is milk fed calf that has not grown old enough to be eating grass so very young. Not my cup of tea. Today we consider anything that is still being milk fed as veal even if it is also eating grass.

Greenacres, your steer will be prime eating but without the fuller flavour of a more mature animal. I've only eaten one that young once when it quite literally fell off the back of a truck along with 10 others and broke it's leg. It produced T-bone steaks to die for.

Cheers,
Ronnie

[travlnusa]

It will be just fine. With a lack of age, it will not have the amount of fat you find on older cattle, but unless you really try to detect a difference, you wont.

We had a steer slip and crack his pelvis. Had him butchered at 400 lbs, and enjoyed him.

I would defer to your butcher as to how to cut it up. You really wont have any huge t-bones for example. They will know how and what to cut for you.

[bigmudder77]

alot of veal places closed down cause it costs too much to feed them out i guess it takes at least 10weeks for a veal calf to be ready and there in tight places and no stray so they dont eat it

kinda mean but lots of people buy it i had it once and it was alright but didnt really care for it

but it will be fine at that age smaller but still there will be alot of meat there

i got 2 that will be heading in this sept maybe sooner if they bulk up with all the grass they will be eatting this summer

but i should have one sold so i wont need to store it but my dad has our newer huge freezer from our farm i think we can fit 3 cows and 2 pigs in there its huge

our old freezer was a huge walk in and it broke but we could put like 10 cows in there it was like a 7ft wide 8ft tall and 10ft long it was HUGE but when it broke it was about $6000 to get a new cooling system cause it was the old style and we needed to change every thing over to the new style

[greenacres1]

I appreciate everyones input.

[francismilker]

You should be really happy with the results. There just won't be as much outer fat and inner marbling. When a steer is getting close to the point of "finishing" (generally 12-1400lbs) you start to see fat deposits collecting in the scrotum and should be able to feel the fat along it's 13th rib area of the back. This animal in question should be good and tender but I'd doubt it will have much fat for flavoring.

[samm]

we butcher ours at about 8-9 months old..and they are yummy, our butcher wont take anything over 1100 pounds, its just to hard for him to handle

[Ernie]

The meat is a lot more tender but doesn't have that strong beef flavor that most Americans tend to enjoy. It's not going to taste exactly like those grocery store steaks you're used to.

Like francismilker states, there won't be much fat but that's not a huge problem. You can add a little flavoring in other ways, such as with onions or peppers sprinkled over the meat, or barding, or with any number of seasoning salts.

I like baby beef steafs that have been barded with bacon and cooked on the grill with onions and spicy peppers. To die for!