Butchering Corrientes

[Pnw Farmer]

Yes, 800-900 would be a reasonable expectation if you got a weaned Corr steer and fed him til he was 2. I don't know where to find % yield for one like that. I think most people who have eaten a Corr is because it was aged out or if younger, was injured. I don't know anyone who takes weanlings and feeds them out for slaughter. I would say probably about the same yeild you get from jersey steers. I will have some born in October, and I am thinking about keeping 2 and trying them out just to see. We'd normally wean these in April, but I'd leave them where they are til about 1st of November (on Kudzu which tests 24-26% protein) then put them up and feed them out til they are 800 lbs.
Each year, we have had 2-4 cows that got missed when we had the black bulls in, and they got bred by our Corr clean=up bull. One year we had 10 out of the 120, and last year we hade zero. We normally keep any Corr heifers and sell the steers at weaning to team ropers for $200. If we weren't 3000 miles apart I'd send you a couple. But, like I was saying, put $50-$100 with that $200, and buy a heavy -bred Corr cow for $250-$300. If it was bred to a Corr bull, then you'd have a Corr calf to wean and feed out. If she was bred to a beef bull, then you'd have an even better one to feed out. Then breed her to your Angus bull every year.

You have been attacked by 6 of the group known as the Hateful Eight on here. That is what they do... browse the threads for comments that they can respond to with smart-ass, sarcastic rhetoric. No one pays them any attention. What little bit of knowledge a couple of them do have, is negated by their hateful comments and personal attacks.
I found some articles about Corriente for beef, but none I have read so far says anything about the yield. I will keep looking.

Thanks for all the input and the links Warren, I'll just keep digging around outside the forum and see what I come up with.

 

[Travlr]

If what you are truly interested in is cheap beef. Go to the sale barn and buy 800-900 pound heifers that are crippled. Not terribly crippled but have one bad leg. The feedlots don't want a cripple and they are too small for the kill buyers to pay too much interest. Depending on condition you can kill them right away or put into a small pen and feed for a short time. Bottom line is that will be the cheapest beef you can get. Breeding any kind of cow and raising her calf up to slaughter will be the most expensive beef you can get if you track all the real costs.

My neighbor here in town had a steer penned up that was pretty obviously deformed from birth. The poor thing had huge joints and crooked legs that wouldn't straighten, and that didn't seem to work normally. But the damn thing jumped around and played in his pen as though he felt good. When he got big enough to slaughter he disappeared. I was never invited over for a barbeque but I think that was one I'd have passed on. But you're right about crippled animals. Cheap and nothing wrong with eating them. Not sure about eating one with active implants.

Any thoughts on that?

 

[Pnw Farmer]

My neighbor here in town had a steer penned up that was pretty obviously deformed from birth. The poor thing had huge joints and crooked legs that wouldn't straighten, and that didn't seem to work normally. But the damn thing jumped around and played in his pen as though he felt good. When he got big enough to slaughter he disappeared. I was never invited over for a barbeque but I think that was one I'd have passed on. But you're right about crippled animals. Cheap and nothing wrong with eating them. Not sure about eating one with active implants.

Any thoughts on that?

What's an active implant.

 

[Pnw Farmer]

I like your goals and admire what you are doing

Thank you Puzzled.

 

[Travlr]

What's an active implant.

I only used implants once when they first started to become popular so don't know much about them. I always assumed they had a time frame where they dissolved (?) and eventually any residues were expelled over time.

 

[Aero]

I am thinking on either of those breeds your cog would be double and less carcass when finished.

Why would a Corriente have a lot less efficient gain? If they arent going to marble, there isnt a lot of energy used for that and their intake is processed into something - it doesnt just evaporate due to inefficiency. I can't imagine they are inherently inefficient if they can stay in shape in barren country while covering a lot of ground. I would guess they would finish pretty quickly but have no direct experience with them.

 

[Son of Butch]

If what you are truly interested in is cheap beef. Go to the sale barn and buy 800-900 pound heifers that are crippled. Not terribly crippled but have one bad leg. The feedlots don't want a cripple and they are too small for the kill buyers to pay too much interest. Depending on condition you can kill them right away or put into a small pen and feed for a short time. Bottom line is that will be the cheapest beef you can get. Breeding any kind of cow and raising her calf up to slaughter will be the most expensive beef you can get if you track all the real costs.

BINGO! We have a winner.
Years ago I met an old man buying young 600-1,000 pound cripples every week at the sale barn.
Turned out he had direct market connections to 'ethnic' community and a non usda inspected processor.
Most all would be butchered within a week and he told me "once they're cut and packaged nobody knows what they looked like."
He wasn't the most ethical fellow, more of a bitter old man, but he had a thriving business.

 

[gcreekrch]

Why would a Corriente have a lot less efficient gain? If they arent going to marble, there isnt a lot of energy used for that and their intake is processed into something - it doesnt just evaporate due to inefficiency. I can't imagine they are inherently inefficient if they can stay in shape in barren country while covering a lot of ground. I would guess they would finish pretty quickly but have no direct experience with them.

I have had "beef" cattle that were poor gaining, my reasoning is why would you start with a breed known for it. If Corrientes and Longhorns were known for excellent feedlot performance they would not be docked so badly at the sale barn.

 

[Dave]

This is the last one I put in the freezer. She had bad hips. Might notice the cork screw tail. Sort of like a pigs tail. She cost me $500 to buy. She spent 60 days in a 50x80 pen eating grass hay and 10 pounds of cracked corn a day. It was real good meat.

 

[Pnw Farmer]

I only used implants once when they first started to become popular so don't know much about them. I always assumed they had a time frame where they dissolved (?) and eventually any residues were expelled over time.

What exactly are they used for. Some kind of slow release vaccination implant or like chipping a pet. You're the first person I've heard mention them.

 

[Warren Allison]

What exactly are they used for. Some kind of slow release vaccination implant or like chipping a pet. You're the first person I've heard mention them.

Ralgro implants. Growth hormones to make them eat. https://www.merck-animal-health-usa.com/species/cattle/products/ralgro

 

[Travlr]

What exactly are they used for. Some kind of slow release vaccination implant or like chipping a pet. You're the first person I've heard mention them.

Growth hormones...

The looked like a little half inch piece of hard spaghetti and were injected under the skin of the ear with a needle. I don't even know if they use them anymore. Probably not the same kind I used.

 

[Pnw Farmer]

This is the last one I put in the freezer. She had bad hips. Might notice the cork screw tail. Sort of like a pigs tail. She cost me $500 to buy. She spent 60 days in a 50x80 pen eating grass hay and 10 pounds of cracked corn a day. It was real good meat.

View attachment 26246

Do the crippled ones still hang at 60%+? I'm wondering if a crippled animal that's not moving around much would still have about the same amount of meat on them. It's definitely a viable route to go for cheap freezer meat. Can marginally crippled animals still go out on pasture and get around ok or is it recommended to get them butchered within 60 days or so of buying them.

 

[kenny thomas]

It is an implant to replace the testosterone lost when a calf is castrated. Yes still widely used and as natural as the beef.

 

[Pnw Farmer]

Growth hormones...

The looked like a little half inch piece of hard spaghetti and were injected under the skin of the ear with a needle. I don't even know if they use them anymore. Probably not the same kind I used.

That makes sense, I didn't think chipping was even done. I think some folks run tracking collars up in the mountains, sounded like a pretty expensive investment.

 

[gcreekrch]

Ralgro implants. Growth hormones to make them eat. https://www.merck-animal-health-usa.com/species/cattle/products/ralgro

No Warren, it doesn't cause them to eat more.

 

[gcreekrch]

That makes sense, I didn't think chipping was even done. I think some folks run tracking collars up in the mountains, sounded like a pretty expensive investment.

A growth implant is not a tracking device either.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

A growth implant is to make them utilize the feed they eat better. Yes, it is a hormone implant, but even an implanted steer has less hormones in their meat than what lots of vegetables have in them - per serving. I don't use implants only because my feedlot buyer specifically does not want them. He has his own butcher shop and advertises "natural". I get top dollar, so not hurting my profit.
But, implants are the biggest bang for your buck.
Purchasing a "slightly" crippled heifer sounds like a great way to get quality meat to cut up. You will be able to tell if she can get around in a pasture. And her lameness may not be permanent.

 

[Warren Allison]

Hey all, thought I'd try to get some information about corriente carcass quality. I know it's about what you feed them but I'm curious as to how much a steer fed out to around 24-30 months old would weigh. Cracked peas and grain hay to finish them, the cracked peas have made our Jerseys taste amazing. Do they hang at 60-65% like a beef carcass or around that 55% mark like the dairy carcasses. Are they heavy boned like the dairy breeds or do they have a more petite bone structure. I know quite a few of you have eaten corriente and said the flavor was good so that part I'm not worried about, mostly just curious how much meat will end up in the freezer. We bone them out like a deer so a rough estimate on usable cuts would be great.

The thought behind this post is this, I'm starting to keep an eye out for some animals to feed out for next winter and want to keep all options for beef open. We sold a couple animals on the hoof to friends and family this winter then helped them butcher their animal. I got great deals on the animals last spring, had them on a neighbor's pasture until October then finished them out with said grain hay and cracked peas. The people that bought them got a great deal by butchering themselves, we gave them a deal on the animal itself while still making the kids a decent amount of money to stash away. With feeder prices where they are I don't know that I'll be presented the same opportunity on a couple more Angus feeders so when I saw some corriente feeders on Craigslist it started the gears turning. I know they're smaller so it may take 2 head to equal a 650-700# beef animal but if everybody still gets a deal then I don't see why it wouldn't work.

Also for those who have fed out their own animals, has anybody used white or red beans in their rations? I have no intentions of going away from the peas but a local seed processing facility has a bunch on hand of clean white and red culls so once again I'm looking to learn something new if those make a tasty steak as well. Still just a farmer who can pitch a bale of hay but I'm trying to gain knowledge where I can. I don't think my wife will be letting the cows go anywhere soon so I better get a little smarter about them. Thanks in advance.

Farmer

I am sure you have already decided on a direction by now.... this thread being a year old. I have been on the lookout for someone I could talk to who had actually fed out some Corr steers for beef. Not every day for the last 13 months, but occassionally when interacting with people who has Corrientes...when I'd think of it... I would ask. Still haven't ran up on anyone who has actually bred Corrs to feed out for freezer beef. Closest I have come, is a stock contractor who ended up with some 1/2 Corriente, 1/4 Jersey, and 1/4 Plummer calves ( A Plummer is 1/2 LH and 1/2 Brahma). No real beef types in the mix except for the Brahma that made up only 1/8th of the composition. He weaned a steer and fed it out to about 900lbs, and said he got about a 600 lb carcass, which would be a 65-66% yield. Only other thing like that he ever fooled with, was a 1/2 LH 1/2 Corr steer he had bought, but at about 2 years old the horns were too wide to rope, and the steer was too fast for dogging, so he fed it out to 1000lbs. He said he got nearly a 600 lb carcass from it. So, almost a 60% yield. I asked, and he said both would have been on bermuda pasture til fall, then on wheat/rye/oats/barley forage from fall til the bermuda took off again...April or May I assume. He said he fed them a 5 gal bucket each, of corn, oats, peanuts, soybeans and cotton seed that he'd mix up and grind himself. Not neccessarily all 5 ingredients in every batch, but 50% or better corn each time. Not a very scientific approach, I know, and he had no idea of the weight of the feed they got every day.. I am sure it varied with what was in that mix at a given time. He said the flavor on both was as good as any Angus beef he had eaten, and as tender as any Jersey "sweet meat" he'd ever had. He said the Heinz57 was probably a little better marbled. But, he just already had both of those, and he said he didn't much think he'd go out and intentionally buy Corriente steers to feed out, unless they were so cheap they were nearly free.