[Patt]

Hello! We have a 2 1/2 year old semi-cryptorchid dwarf bull. One testicle was removed via elastrator band the other was retained. We're taking him to the butcher this weekend and I'm wondering how to have the meat cut. He probably has minimal hormones, he has shown zero interest in our cow who is currnetly in heat. He acts like a steer but he developed into a bull so we know he had at least some hormones at one time.
Has anyone eaten meat form a bull? what does it taste like?
Patt

 

[kaley3dex]

I just butchered 4 yr. old Irish Dexter bull right out of the pasture field and put 610# of the tenderest and best tasting beef I`ve ever had in the freezer.
Kaley

 

[Don Armstrong]

Bulls taste OK. The meat is darker and dryer (but can take up more moisture) than a steer or cow. Smallgoods manufacturers (e.g. salami) favour bull meat for those reasons.

We are less sensitive to the taste of the chemical that comes with cattle (particularly males) than we are to some other animals. Butter taste (butyric acid) is OK in moderation for us, whereas we don't like capric (goat) taste; or androsteroid (boar) taste.

 

[Ken Scharabok]

When I was in Croatia a couple of years ago I arrange to visit a feedlot. About 90% were intact bulls. Their opinion is if the bulls are killed before about 18 months there is no difference in taste to cows.

Ken S. in WC TN

 

[Patt]

Thanks for the answers. I have heard other people say the same about young bulls up to 18 months. Ours is 2 1/2 so it will be interesting to see. We dropped him off yesterday so in about 2 weeks I should be able to answer my own question.
Patt

 

[Guest]

I have eaten beef from a 6 year old Dexter bull that was slaughtered after accidently breaking his leg, it tasted fine just a little "chewy".

There have been tests done that show bulls gain better than steers. The principal reason for castrating bulls is to cut down on the aggression and fighting in crowded feedlots that result in bruised carcasses.

 

[Ken Scharabok]

How the bull aggressiveness was addressed in the Croatian feedlot is the bulls were kept indoors in pens. I think maybe 25 to a pen. Each pen was filled at once, so once the bulls settled their order, there wasn't any further fighting. Two sources for fresh water in each pen and no crowding at the feed trough. If a bull had to be pulled out for any treatment, it didn't go back into that pen, but into a newly formed pen.

Ken S. in WC TN

 

[Patt]

Just wanted to tell you it's just perfect no strange taste at all. The steaks are tiny though, our last steer was full size and so we had these huge t-bones and ranch steaks. This one being a dwarf we have the cutest little t-bones, he was only 250 lbs hanging weight. I guess our Dexters will be somewhere in between on beef.
Patt

 

[Guest]

Many years ago ,my father had a meat pie busines- and would special order bully beef[ as it was called] to make his meat pies- for the simple reason it had good flavour- retained after pressure cooking to tenderize it, then baked in the oven in the meat pies.Regular beef wasn't nearly as tasty in meat pies.