Beef Butchering Forum

[mayesfarm]

I think that we are all here to learn, I know that I am. You have a great idea!

 

[farmerjan]

Great Idea. I am not physically able to do it, but when we sell some halves, would like to be able to suggest things and I am willing to try different cuts if I knew what/where they came from and how to use them. I haven't found that I like flat iron steaks suggested by the butcher here....but maybe I don't know how to correctly use them.

 

[MurraysMutts]

I think it would be a very good addition

 

[Son of Butch]

I haven't found that I like flat iron steaks suggested by the butcher here....but maybe I don't know how to correctly use them.

My butcher told me he doesn't have the laser saw or whatever equipment he needed to cut flat iron steaks correctly, so he doesn't offer it as an option.

 

[Peace]

I'd read...and maybe participate a bit

 

[acefire]

I just wanted to ask if there could be an addition to this Forum to have a section specific to butchering beef? I am a cow/calf, backgrounder, cattle finisher, butcher at the local meat locker, and meat cutter for a restaurant here in Carthage, Illinois.

I would absolutely love to have a butchering section devoted to beef butchering/meat cutting to help educate folks on the process of completing the final product of their labor. I often find that producers are not aware of many facets of the industry when they sell their beef custom through a locker to a customer. That being said, there are many issues I see where the receiving customer of the product is really ignorant to no fault of their own, what they order through a butcher shop. This sometimes gives the customer a bad experience when they just did not know the right things to request or ask.

Very interested

 

[M.Magis]

My butcher told me he doesn't have the laser saw or whatever equipment he needed to cut flat iron steaks correctly, so he doesn't offer it as an option.

That seems odd, I cut mine out by hand. I assumed it was always done that way. It's a bit tedious, so I can see not wanting to do it.
Flat irons are different than other more common steaks, they have a much different flavor for whatever reason. As much as I like a fatty steak, once in a while I feel like something with less fat and I enjoy the flat iron. But it has the be cut out correctly or the membrane separating the muscles is unchewable. It's also important that it's not cooked too much, even more so than other steaks since it's much leaner.

 

[Dsth]

I also think it would be a great addition to the forum. my local butcher shop answers my questions but the problem is that I don't know what the right questions are.

 

[shaz]

I certainly need to learn more about this subject. +1

 

[rlrobinhood]

How many more would like and use a forum about Butchering?

Absolutely. I think its a great idea. Thanks for the consideration.

 

[DLD]

I'm definitely interested. We did a couple of injured ones ourselves last summer, with much help and guidance from some good friends and neighbors. I'm sure we will want to do that again - we were able to make good use of stock that we had basically no chance to get into a custom processor at that point, and probably couldn't today either.

 

[ClinchValley86]

I would use it a lot.

 

[JHALL]

Great idea!

 

[C-Ranch]

Great idea, started selling meat last year, before that we just sold the cow, lots of hoops, so always interested in learning more.

 

[PRCattleCo]

Well, doesn't appear that it will happen.

 

[Double R Ranch]

Well, doesn't appear that it will happen.

It doesn't seem like there's any real admin/moderation here these days.

 

[Lannie]

I had been looking for some sort of butchering forum so I could brag on my giant steer that we just got to the butcher (1,600+ pounds hanging weight). It didn't seem appropriate for the feeding subforum, and I haven't got him back yet, so I couldn't post in the recipes section, either. All my brag, and nowhere to brag it!

Not that we have that many animals butchered, but I had absolutely NO idea what to ask for on our first steer, so we basically got a lot of burger and stew meat, but luckily I got a good butcher for this current one, and she asked a lot of questions, so I was able to get some cuts I didn't get the last time. I did however lose out on the heart and liver because I didn't know I had to ask for it before slaughter day. I'm sick about that, but now I know. A butchering forum would be a great idea, not just for the butchers in our group, but anyone that might need to have an animal processed, so they know what to ask, and how things are generally done. Even though I would never attempt butchering a large bovine myself (I have done deer and annoying roosters), I would be very interested to read and learn. You never know when that knowledge might come in handy.

I hope someone can set up a butchering subforum for us. Thanks for suggesting it.

 

[SBMF 2015]

(1,600+ pounds hanging weight).

I have all kinda of questions.
Your saying the two sides of beef weighed 1,600lbs?
Even if he yielded 64%. That would make him 2,500lbs live. What breed was he? How old was he? I've seen 2,700lb Holstein strs, but their older. 4-5years maybe.

 

[Lannie]

I have all kinda of questions.
Your saying the two sides of beef weighed 1,600lbs?
Even if he yielded 64%. That would make him 2,500lbs live. What breed was he? How old was he? I've seen 2,700lb Holstein strs, but their older. 4-5years maybe.

That's what the butcher told me. Each side weighed 800 pounds, which is as high as their scales go, and they said he actually weighed a little more than that, but they're charging the fees based on 1,600 pounds. I don't know how much he weighed live weight, but it was a lot. He was a tank. I'm 5'10" and I could barely see over the top of his back without standing on my tippy-toes.

He was 5 years old, because of a lot of things happening, not least of which was our big chest freezer going belly up on us, and we had to keep putting off his date for freezer camp. Then the coronavirus happened and everyone spazzed out and last year was a bust, then when I started calling around a couple weeks ago, I was hearing one to two MORE years before we could have him done, but fortunately for us, we have a very nice butcher, and they took him in right away because the steer had crossed toes on one hind foot and was in some pain because of that. We don't have the facilities here to restrain anything that big and the one guy in the area that trims hooves has a chute with tilt table that was way too small to fit him, so we had to do something. The only thing I could think of was to get him butchered, and right now. Luckily, my stars aligned.

As far as breed, he's 3/4 Angus (and 1/8 Jersey and 1/8 Hereford), the son of one of my Angus cross milk cows. He was dam-raised on milk until he was about 9 months old, and since then he's been on hay and/or pasture, depending on the season.

Oh, and the 1,600 pounds didn't include the slabs of fat they had to cut off and throw away to allow the carcass to cool properly. I was a little upset when I heard that, because I want to keep a stock of fat for the LGD dog for winter calories, but the butcher laughed and said not to worry, there was plenty more where THAT came from! I can tell you, this was one pampered steer (he was very gentle, too). He didn't do much more than eat, poop, and sleep. But now he's going to fulfill his purpose and feed us, so I am a very happy camper right now!

 

[Lannie]

Oh, I meant to say, if we ever get to the end of all this meat and decide to keep another steer for the freezer, come hell or high water, he'll be going in at 2 years old. Period. Little John (that was his name) ate a lot of hay in his 5 years on the planet, and the bigger he got, the more hay he ate. It was like trying to feed Godzilla! LOL! It'll all be worth it, though.