have you or your grandparents done this?

[myheaven]

Way back in the day I remember when my great-grandmother had her milk cow. I was 4 by the way. She died when I was 6. Her cow would calve around the end of march and by Christmas he was hanging in her garage and they would cut him up and put him in the freezers.
Has anyone raised a calf just 9-10 months before butcher? I believe hers was a beef cow she milked or a cross of beef. I don't believe she ever castrated. I didn't get to spent much time with her. She was a little fire cracker of a Hungarian. My grandmother was too crabby to be bothered by us grandkids so I'm only stuck with memories.
I have a great beef cross well a couple beef cross girls. The one I have been thinking on trying to just butcher her calf come December, January. No castration or dehorning. But he will be in freezer camp before there should be many hormones flowing.
Tell me where you see flaws.

[billinwv]

I have done this many times. Straight off the cow to slaughter. Mine usually weighed around 800lbs. I did supplement the cows to keep production up. Great marbleing and supper tender. Jersey cows bred to angus bull. I did milk them for the first several months as the calves couldn't take it all. Bred 6 cows like this for several years. I always had a waiting list for beef.

[Maura]

Intact males will put on more muscle. Butchering that young, they are not adults yet but if the calf gets bully you can always butcher early or turn him into a steer. I suspect Granny was killing before the calves became full of themselves.

[myheaven]

My girls are bred to angus. I'm thinking on putting my jersey/angus in the freezer. He's almost the size of my milk cow. He has to be a good 800-900 lbs. I have a pig to butcher too. So plenty of meat not much hay left.

[WildRoots]

Baby beef is delicious! we've done one because she escape and we couldn't catch her. we tried for a month, then she was getting near the road, so we took her out. amazing meat though.

[animalfarmer]

I kill spring calves in the fall here all the time. Right off the cow and pasture, as time and need allows. I have always had excellent results and meat.
I also keep several kid goats on their dams and pasture and slaughter them at or before weaning. I always get excellent meat from them.
Best of luck.

[cooper101]

We butchered and sold 9 Holstein steers around 500-600 pounds last summer. The meat was very good and we got a lot of excellent feedback from buyers. It's lean, but tender and juicy. I like the texture better than beef. You could almost cut the steaks with a fork and the burger is excellent. I highly recommend trying it.

[cooper101]

Originally Posted by Maura

Intact males will put on more muscle. Butchering that young, they are not adults yet but if the calf gets bully you can always butcher early or turn him into a steer. I suspect Granny was killing before the calves became full of themselves.

We steered ours even knowing we would slaughter at about 6-7 months. If I leave them intact, will the meat be affected at that age? Do bulls have issues with taint like boar pigs? What's the downside of leaving them intact if I know we're going to slaughter at 7 months.

[myheaven]

I have eaten bull fresh out of the breeding pasture. It's a little tougher but still good. Each person has their own taste. I have had some people(pastor and his wife) bad mouth my meat even though it was great as I ate the other half I even payed their kill fee and half their processing and sold the meat for less to them. That made me get out of selling beef. I do it only for my family now.

[jwal10]

When I was a kid we raised 4 calves to each nurse cow, her own and 3 other calves. The dairyman we got the calves from bred his holstein heifers to a Hereford bull. The cows were turned out to pasture and ate grass, calves in separate pasture. Nights the calves stayed in a pen in the barn. Cows came in, put in calf pens to nurse, and fed a little grain, then cow was put back out. We didn't have to feed calves through the winter. The meat was "baby beef" between veal and prime beef. Usually Jan calves, butchered in November, 7-800 lbs.

Before this, Dad had a dairy, milked the cows, separated the cream, sold to the creamery and fed the calves separated milk, in buckets....James