Best age to butcher

[504RP]

What is the best age to butcher for top quality beef .

 

[SBMF 2015]

18-22mos. Started on corn around 550-600lbs. Work them up slow. They don't need a lot of corn, just need it for a long time. That's how you make them go prime.

 

[farmerjan]

Have to be under 30 months at most USDA places due to the prions in the spinal cord for Mad cow Disease.... some places will take them and you cannot get T-bones or any cut with the backbone.... but the USDA ones around here will not even take them...
I like 24-28 months.. little more flavor and little more marbling in the jerseys & crosses

 

[pdubdo]

Have to be under 30 months at most USDA places due to the prions in the spinal cord for Mad cow Disease.... some places will take them and you cannot get T-bones or any cut with the backbone.... but the USDA ones around here will not even take them...
I like 24-28 months.. little more flavor and little more marbling in the jerseys & crosses

Didn't know this. Good info!

 

[Stocker Steve]

Depends if your top priority is tenderness, or flavor.
I like flavor.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

I like both - tenderness & flavor. I butcher at 12-13 months of age with 750# average hot carcass weights. They will go high Choice - butcher thinks some would go Prime. But, I feed whole shell corn - all they will eat + free choice grass in the beginning, then hay (fall born calves). Start them at weaning at about 1% of their body weight and keep increasing as they keep cleaning up. I add protein pellets at first until they are about 900#.
I am not saying feeding slow and long isn't good - I just don't have the time to take up a lot that long. If you can get it done faster, works great for me.

 

[ksmit454]

I have butchered mine anywhere from 18-20 months. I think it depends on breed, choice of finishing, etc. I have angus so they don't mature as large as some breeds. They have access to pasture and loose salt and then get a sweet cob mix for the last approximate 90 days. So far so good. Hanging weight has averaged 850. I have 3 that are being processed in a week and I'm curious to see what they are hanging weight.

 

[Rancher]

I do mine 17 to 18 months old right off the grass

 

[504RP]

I do mine 17 to 18 months old right off the grass

What will they weigh at that age ?

 

[Rancher]

Steers ave bit over 1,100lb heifers tad less

 

[Son of Butch]

Animal rights group in Colorado is seeking a ballot initiative to make it illegal to butcher bunny rabbits before they are 18 months old, chickens 2 years old,
hogs and sheep 3 years 9 months of age and cattle 5 years old.
IF passed by voters, it automatically becomes law in Colorado.

 

[bigbluegrass]

Animal rights group in Colorado is seeking a ballot initiative to make it illegal to butcher bunny rabbits before they are 18 months old, chickens 2 years old,
hogs and sheep 3 years 9 months of age and cattle 5 years old.
IF passed by voters, it automatically becomes law in Colorado.

Would T bone steak be illegal in Colorado then?

 

[bigbluegrass]

Oregon may be leading the way...

"An Oregon ballot initiative proposed for 2022 would effectively criminalize the farming of food animals in the state by classifying their slaughter as aggravated abuse and redefining artificial insemination and castration as sexual assault."

Oregon initiative would ban animal slaughter, breeding

IP13 would classify slaughter as aggravated abuse, redefine AI and castration as sexual assault.

www.farmprogress.com

 

[Bignick50]

Oregon may be leading the way...

"An Oregon ballot initiative proposed for 2022 would effectively criminalize the farming of food animals in the state by classifying their slaughter as aggravated abuse and redefining artificial insemination and castration as sexual assault."

Oregon initiative would ban animal slaughter, breeding

IP13 would classify slaughter as aggravated abuse, redefine AI and castration as sexual assault.

www.farmprogress.com

How about castrating all the loonies so that this idiocy becomes extinct in future generations!! JMHO

 

[tex452]

How about castrating all the loonies so that this idiocy becomes extinct in future generations!! JMHO

This.
It's unbelievable what is running our country now. When people start starving maybe this can end with your suggestion