do you eat boy and girl cows?

[UUmom2many]

ok this sounds completely idiotic but no one can say i dont' ask what i dont' know!

I never really thought about it but does it matter if you have boy or girl cows as meat cows? is it more dependent on the brand/raising method if it makes good meat or do boys have more edible meat and girls more fat or vice versa? Are girls more likely to be non-meat more for breeding boys for meat?

Sounds dumb but i'm confused.

[francismilker]

You can eat them both, however, the steers usually have a better rate of gain and a better ability to convert feed to meat. Heifers do put on weight well. But, some of that excess feed goes to building excess fat around there female organs and none of that is renderable at the butcher shop. I've got a blind small heifer right now that will be on the table this time next year. I would lose considerably to take her to the sale barn but she'll taste good!

[LibertyWool]

Don't forget that a lot of older cows (female) are ground into hamburger when they reach the end of their usefulness.... In feedlots you will see both steers and heifers. Like Francis said, they don't gain as well as steers....

[ksfarmer]

Heiffers usually sell for a little less, because of , as mentioned, they don't gain as efficiently as steers. However, feedlots will have pens of heiffers fattening as they do steers. Because you can buy them cheaper. When we sold our calf crop to a feeder, we always kept a heiffer to fatten for our own use. Economics. And a heiffer was every bit as good of beef as a steer.

[Ed Norman]

I saw a show on hot dogs and the company only used bull meat from old burned out bulls. It was 6% fat and they used 60,000 lbs a day. So everybody gets eaten.

[Ken Scharabok]

Standing local joke about a bull no longer on farm: "He went to work for Oscar Meyers." For cows, "She went to work for McDonalds."

[2horses]

The first cow we butchered was a heifer deemed less suitable for the owner's herd. Not really a cull, as she was pretty nice, just not one he wanted. So, we fed her up, slaughtered at about 13 months of age, and she was, by all accounts, very tasty!

[UUmom2many]

thanks, just for clarification culled is when they were milkers but dried up or the like? bull is a boy (castrated??) heifer= girl, steer is a boy (non-castrated?)
So boy cows would be more for like chops of meat and girls for ground?

i'm learning (or at least trying not to sound like an idoit!)

[Country Bumpkin]

beef is beef, it eats the same whether its a heifer or a steer LOL steers are just preferred over the heifers as explained in the posts above

[kmorisett]

girls who have never had a calf = heifer
girls who have already had a calf = cow
castrated male = steer
non-castrated male = bull

hamburger is for any animal that is old and possibly tough, I believe, and you take the better cuts from a young animal that's still in it's prime

[Ken Scharabok]

To try to concise it in general terms:

Newborn calves are either a bull or a heifer.

A bull remains a bull unless they are casterated, in which case they become steers.

A hiefer is generally called a heifer until their first calf, typically at around two-years of age. Sometimes they are called bred heifer or springer (if near calving).

As noted, a heifer which has calved immediately becomes a cow.

Calves under some weight criteria are called veal when slaughtered young. Typically before their meat turns from pink to red. A bit over, typically called baby beef.

Something like over 90% of bulls never live long enough, or have the opportunity, to service a cow. They are either castrated or sold as intact feeders.

A feeder is a young bovine between weaning and slaughter placed in a feedlot.

Some like to keep bull calves intact until they reach weaning age as there is some documentation they grow out quicker until weaned.

Typically a young bull will sell for less than the price of a steer since the buyer doesn't have to castrate them themselves. Sometimes bulls sell for more than steers. Depends on order buyer's supply and demand that particular day.

Typically a heifer sells for less than males if going into a feedlot. If destined as a brood (herd) cow, they can sell quite high.

Most breeding bulls don't live to see eight years of age. They often become 'testy' when they age and there are always lots of young replacements with equal or greater potential.

A cow might live to be 25 or so years of age, but few make it to that point. They generally fall out of a program due to some problem, such as becoming barren, losing two calves for whatever reason, raising poor doer calves, tits become too large for a calf to suckle or disposition.

Typically a culled cow can become low-cost supermarket cuts or hamburger.

Typically older bulls become processed meats of some nature.

The above are only generalities.

[Karin L]

Crystal, the term culled means taking an animal, be it a cow, heifer or bull out of a breeding herd to be sold as meat because of whatever reasons like Ken mentioned: poor disposition, poor udder conformation, poor feet/leg conformation, past record of having pink eye, cancer eye, prolapse, etc. or other more serious cases like Johnes disease; calving problems, won't accept calf, too protective over calf, teeth wore down too much, didn't breed back in the breeding schedule, the list goes on.

Steers are far more common to be used for the beef market ("chops" of meat like you mentioned) because of their genetic ability to convert feed into muscle...simply because they are male. It's the same with bulls; however, bulls are much leaner than steers simply because of the testosterone in their system. Heifers and cows are more inclined to lay down fat than muscle, thus need to be in the feedlot shorter and on a less energy-intense ration so that the feedlot owner can get a good enough profit off of them without having to be docked from the fat needing to be trimmed off. Heifers can be used for "chopped up" beef like steers. Cows, on the other hand (mature female bovines) as well as mature bulls (intact [not castrated] male bovines) have meat too tough to be used in steaks and roasts, thus are turned into hamburger, bologna, sausage, etc.

Ken, what in the heck do you mean by "becoming barren?" That's the first time I've ever heard that term used in terms of cattle.

[tyusclan]

Originally Posted by Karin L

Ken, what in the heck do you mean by "becoming barren?" That's the first time I've ever heard that term used in terms of cattle.

I'm not Ken, but a cow that "becomes barren" is a cow that has previously been productive, but for whatever reason does not breed back and remains open. It could be age, illness, injury, or whatever. If she becomes barren after previously calving she is culled. A cow has to produce a calf every single year or she's a goner.

[copperhead46]

One of our best eating beefs was an8 yo cow that wouldn't raise her calf, so we put her calf on another cow,and her on good grass untill July, and had her butchered.
P.J.

[SpaceCadet12364]

We did in an older cow, she was either 7 or 8, I forget. She carcassed out at 726 without the backbone (they removed that because she was over 3 years old).

Had the cuts done like any other one we have had done......boy, you couldnt tell that the steaks were from an older animal....nice and tender. Well, I suppose the fact that the sirloin steaks were about the size of large dinner plates or platters may have pointed towards being an older one....but, by tenderness & taste no one could tell the difference between her and a 2 yo steer.

[UUmom2many]

wow. thanks for all the information! This is really interesting.

[Karin L]

Tyusclan, thanks for that. I wondered if it had anything to do with a cow coming up open because of something like you mentioned.

Crystal, on behalf of everyone who replied to your questions here, your very welcome.