14 year old

[ClinchValley86]

Had a 12 and 14 year old processed in early October. Gave the butcher a normal cut sheet with the option to grind it all if need be. I got them back in cuts.

Gave a chef friend a pack of ribeyes, ribs, and a couple roasts knowing he'd be honest with me. They came from the 14 year old.

He and his fiance cooked the ribeyes last night. Got excellent feedback. He said they really did cut like butter. The flavor was excellent according to him. He claimed it's some of the best he's eaten.

These girls were all forage, no grain. Always fat and happy. Fine boned 100% Simmental. Both were chocolate colored. The 14 year old was beginning to lose muscle mass, but that was minimal. Both lost their calves in June. Udder related issues.

Just wanted to share. Seems everyone always grinds their older animals.

We will tey some this weekend.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Well, my experience was not very favorable. Guess I just don't like grass fed beef or OLD cow beef! It was TENDER - just hate the taste. If we cut all the fat off before cooking, it's edible. Your steaks don't have any fat. Mine had LOTS!!! Even after butcher trimmed them.

 

[Ky hills]

We had 7 yrold Braford type cow processed a few years ago. She was a big cow in good shape, lost her calf and we decided that since she was in good shape to do her up in hamburger.
I got her in and fed her out just like I would young steer.
She ended up being just under 1000 lb hanging weight. I wasn't interested in getting any cuts cause I didn't figure it would be worth it.
When the processor saw her they said she was in the best shape of any they had seen in a long time, and thought we should get sone steaks and roasts.
We filets and some roasts everything else was ground. When we picked up the beef the processor said that cow should be a case study on how they should be finished.
It tasted great, I attributed that to being grain finished.
The steaks were a little chewy for my experience with filets even when cooked fairly rare, but tasted great. The roasts were absolutely great, my wife cooks roasts for hours in a crockpot so she has them down pretty good. She thinks those were as good as any roasts we've had.

 

[MurraysMutts]

I won't be doing any steaks from an old cow again. The burger we have is excellent!
9 yr old off grass.

Steaks are absolutely the worst I've had. Like rubber jerky. All we had was ribeyes and filets.
The filets are edible! Strong beef flavor but not a bad eating experience.

Funny thing is for me on this particular animal. I much prefer the burger from the older cow than the fat heifer I cut up last November


I'll be anxiously awaiting your review next weekend @ClinchValley86

 

[circlebllc]

We just butchered a 6 year old cow. Open 15 months. Daughters cow. Grain last 30 days. Marbled very well and very tender. Some of the best ribeyes that have come off of this farm. Stronger flavor but still still good. Last cow was 8 and she wasn't quit as good but still had good steaks.

 

[Little Joe]

I see mixed reviews about steaks from older cows, what do y'all think is the contributing factor as to why one would be good and tender and the other tough or don't taste good? I'm talking straight off of grass, fat and healthy.
I've ground up a few cows over the years straight off of grass but were fat and healthy and everyone who has bought meat loved it as well as us but I've heard other people say that they ground up a cow and the meat was so bad you could hardly stand the smell while you were cooking it, how could that be? I mean I've seen the condition of some of those cows going to slaughter and end up in the grocery store or McDonald's and no one complains about them so how can a few people get such a bad experience grinding their own cows.
I had one customer that has bought quarters from us and wanted a quarter of one of our grind cows until she found out it was a grass fed cow and she said she had bought some like that from someone before and it was awful. My mother-in-law is the tickiest person I know when it comes to meat and she always loves our ground up cows, she raves about how much better it is than store bought and that is what everyone else always tells us. So what's the difference?

 

[Rancher]

It's in the eye of the beholder LJ.

 

[Ky hills]

I see mixed reviews about steaks from older cows, what do y'all think is the contributing factor as to why one would be good and tender and the other tough or don't taste good? I'm talking straight off of grass, fat and healthy.
I've ground up a few cows over the years straight off of grass but were fat and healthy and everyone who has bought meat loved it as well as us but I've heard other people say that they ground up a cow and the meat was so bad you could hardly stand the smell while you were cooking it, how could that be? I mean I've seen the condition of some of those cows going to slaughter and end up in the grocery store or McDonald's and no one complains about them so how can a few people get such a bad experience grinding their own cows.
I had one customer that has bought quarters from us and wanted a quarter of one of our grind cows until she found out it was a grass fed cow and she said she had bought some like that from someone before and it was awful. My mother-in-law is the tickiest person I know when it comes to meat and she always loves our ground up cows, she raves about how much better it is than store bought and that is what everyone else always tells us. So what's the difference?

Your cattle may be truly fattened on grass, and maybe some other peoples are not properly fattened, and just pulled out of a random field in pasture condition there would be a lot of difference right there.
We had a 2 year old heifer that didn't claim a calf. She was in decent shape but not ready to be processed. The only available processor that we were aware of at the time was closing down in month to process hogs. I fed her as best I could for that month but I knew it wasn't going to be good enough for steaks. My wife insisted because she didn't understand at the time. Steaks were tough as whet leather. The taste was good however, I don't understand the bad taste and smell unless somebody got a hold of a dark cutter.
If they are grazing wild onions in the fields then that would give an off flavor.
Corn Gluten in the ration is said to be an issue with off taste too.
I've had properly finished grass fed roast from somebody else before and it was good, but generally I prefer grain finished and I would never attempt to grass finish everything as our pastures aren't up to that.

 

[Travlr]

I see mixed reviews about steaks from older cows, what do y'all think is the contributing factor as to why one would be good and tender and the other tough or don't taste good? I'm talking straight off of grass, fat and healthy.
I've ground up a few cows over the years straight off of grass but were fat and healthy and everyone who has bought meat loved it as well as us but I've heard other people say that they ground up a cow and the meat was so bad you could hardly stand the smell while you were cooking it, how could that be? I mean I've seen the condition of some of those cows going to slaughter and end up in the grocery store or McDonald's and no one complains about them so how can a few people get such a bad experience grinding their own cows.
I had one customer that has bought quarters from us and wanted a quarter of one of our grind cows until she found out it was a grass fed cow and she said she had bought some like that from someone before and it was awful. My mother-in-law is the tickiest person I know when it comes to meat and she always loves our ground up cows, she raves about how much better it is than store bought and that is what everyone else always tells us. So what's the difference?

I wonder if it's the time of year. Maybe fresh, new grass makes a difference compared to fall, dried up grass? Or hay? Just a theory, I've never processed an old cow.

 

[MurraysMutts]

I also wonder about hang time. Hang time on my cow was NOT as long as a traditional FED FAT calf. She only hung about a week and a day or two.

I seriously wonder if they had hung her longer, if she would've been better.

 

[farmerjan]

Older cow should be hung for no less than 3 weeks... the intra conecting fibers have to break down ("decompose") more to get more tender.
If the cow was upset, run through the chute with a hot shot or anything... and their adrenaline was up... it can cause some pretty rank tasting meat too...