Holstein % yield?

[SBMF 2015]

I was lucky enough to book a spot with our local butcher before every thing for crazy. I was going to butcher a a 4yr old cow that had lost her calf last year. Well she came up bred and my mom had some moral dilemma with eating a bred cow. ( Mom&Dad are getting half)
So I bought a Holstein steer from a close friend.They keep a couple hundred steins on feed and like all of us haven't been able to sell any for six weeks. These strs have been on the Purina Acuration program since they weighed around 200lbs.
Weighed this str tonight when I picked him up. He tipped the livestock scale at 1,870!
So what can I expect him to yield? I know that dairy strs don't yield what beef strs do, but he has definitely been hard fed. Is 60% an unrealistic expectation?

 

[kenny thomas]

I'm not sure what it would yield but I bet it eats good

 

[farmerjan]

No, you are not crazy to hope for close to 60% hanging weight on a steer that well fed. There will be more lost in the boning process as they just have bigger bones even at that weight. He ought to hang somewhere around 1050-1150 if he is not "gutty", and you ought to expect somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-600 lbs actual edible meat; all cuts included. There will be over 100 lbs hamburger most likely... but you can ask for the butcher to do more stew meat if you like it and tell them you don't care if the pieces are small or uneven. I like stew meat for both "stew" and for stir fry type stuff and the pieces don't have to be uniform.
I figure that I am going to get 1/4 of the live weight in actual meat back from a jersey steer that weighs 1,000 live weight. I usually always get a bit more. And I don't "feed" him out, it is 90% grass/pasture with a little grain the last 2 months to put a little finish on them. That's grain every other day to the tune of 5-10 lbs... not much. Teaches them to come into the catch pen so easy catching when the time comes....
A well fed holstein like that ought to produce more. I have never had one that big.

 

[Buck Randall]

60% is about right. He won't do much worse than that if he's been fed well. You'll have a pile of hamburger to eat.

 

[cfpinz]

I figure that I am going to get 1/4 of the live weight in actual meat back from a jersey steer that weighs 1,000 live weight. I usually always get a bit more. And I don't "feed" him out, it is 90% grass/pasture with a little grain the last 2 months to put a little finish on them. That's grain every other day to the tune of 5-10 lbs... not much. Teaches them to come into the catch pen so easy catching when the time comes....
A well fed holstein like that ought to produce more. I have never had one that big.

Out of curiosity, at what age do you typically butcher your jersey steers? My wife and I have talked about whacking a Jersey sometime just to try the meat, we've always heard folks speak highly of it.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Have to feed Holsteins early and hard to avoid getting too much frame when finished. They have a way of just continuing to grow.
Biggest stein steers I have ever seen were ahead of me at the locker plant. Their heads touched the trailer roof. A local guy had two steers for family beef but he passed, and the widow just keep feeding them. A neighbor finally hauled them in but the pets would not unload...

 

[sim.-ang.king]

For a stine it's going to be more like 55%-58% hanging. A big dude like that maybe lower yet.

 

[Stocker Steve]

For a stine it's going to be more like 55%-58% hanging. A big dude like that maybe lower yet.

Got to eat the head to make 60%. Taco time?

 

[SBMF 2015]

Our butcher is strictly on the farm butchering, then haul them in a refrigerated truck to their locker plant in town. They pulled in the driveway at 8am, at 8:56am they were all done washing their hands.
The beef goes in the truck in quarters. The butcher said that this was only the fifth str they've done that the quarters touch the floor of the truck. I'll get a hanging wt. Monday.
These guys try and butcher 5-10 beef a day, 3 days a week and hogs 3 days a week. Said they are booked through January.
Did two bulls last week that weighed over 2,200lbs live, so they aren't afraid to tackle big beef.

 

[SBMF 2015]

Biggest Stine I've seen weighed 2,750lbs. No idea how old he was. He was at the sale barn for a short time and I would use him to move mrkt bulls that had a bad attitude. He had horns, and no 1,800lb mrkt bull wanted to tangle with him. Worked pretty slick.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Used to save the heads for a Mexican "head cook" . We would transfer them in the parking lot, then he would invite us in and his underlings would jump to cook off menu for the honored guests.

 

[SBMF 2015]

I got in on butchering lambs with a bunch of Mexicans at a land lord once. My land lord doesn't like butchering,but needed some one in the barn yard to over see. When they got done with 4 lambs all they left was the legs, hides, and lungs. They said everything else was going to be cooked some way, and were joking about who ever bit into the bullet got the prize.

 

[TexasBred]

I got in on butchering lambs with a bunch of Mexicans at a land lord once. My land lord doesn't like butchering,but needed some one in the barn yard to over see. When they got done with 4 lambs all they left was the legs, hides, and lungs. They said everything else was going to be cooked some way, and were joking about who ever bit into the bullet got the prize.

These Bohemians down here would have eaten those lungs too and probably boiled the legs for a soup of something

 

[farmerjan]

My jerseys get butchered between 26 and 30 months. Like to make it under the 30 month rule so I can get the backbones back as they make for good BBQ along with the ribs.
The best I ever got was 72% hanging on a jersey steer. I asked the butcher 3 times if he was sure and he said yes. We had weighed the steer just before dropping him off. It's been about 10 years, but he weighed right at 1100 I think and hung at 775 I think. Got about 325-350 lbs of actual meat back. He was right about 28-29 months old.
The one thing about jerseys is they have smaller bones so they seem to have more meat on them vs bone weight.

Would really like to know how the holstein dresses out for you as that will give me a better idea of what to tell some people when they ask. It has been several years since one of my dairy farmers fed out about 10 holstein steers for beef.

The buyers here were saying that one of the reasons the packers don't kill holstein steers at many places is the size. That by the time they get "finished" that they drag the floor when hung due to the size. Plus the carcasses weigh so much it puts strain on or even breaks the conveyors. So what I have been told is most times big holstein steers are killed at "cow plants" where they can handle bigger ones. And those are fewer and fewer.

Sure wish there were some traveling mobile slaughter trailers around here. Just aren't any.... I have done alot of asking, digging, sleuthing, to find any. Have a couple of places that will take quarters or even halves to work up but don't have the facilities and "permits" to do the butchering. So they suggest a couple of places that will kill and then get them to deliver to them. They also will take in beef that is frozen.... like I had a bunch leftover in the freezer when I was going to do another animal.... and had it made into hot dogs, bologna, chipped beef, snack sticks and other stuff. Great way to use cuts that you haven't gotten around to eating for whatever reason, and are needing space to put another in the freezer. In my case, had a heifer get injured, being jersey x, wouldn't have brought diddly at the stockyards, so option was killing. So I cleaned out some roasts and other still uncooked stuff, and he took it all and made some FINE stuff that I really enjoyed eating. Does alot of deer up into summer sausage and snack sticks too.

 

[SBMF 2015]

There is only two mobile butchers in the state that I know of. They have a different classification of permit. They can kill without an inspector present, but the meat is not eligible for retail sales.

 

[Stocker Steve]

We have one a mile away, and a second one about 20 miles away. They work really well with the ones that will not go into a corral. Kind of a low cost safari. :hat:

 

[76 Bar]

Sure wish there were some traveling mobile slaughter trailers around here.

Lucky to have two nearby but but pardon the expression its a dying breed as is mom & pop cutting & locker facilities. Wondering if the corvid 19 issue might revitalize that aspect of the beef industry.

 

[sstterry]

We have one a mile away, and a second one about 20 miles away. They work really well with the ones that will not go into a corral. Kind of a low cost safari. :hat:

Just curious, how do you put them down in the field? I assume just shoot them. If so, what caliber?

 

[Dave]

All the farm slaughter guys I know use a 22 mag. They also have something with a little more zap on stand by (223?) but I have never witnessed one having to go to the bigger gun. Over the years I bet I have seen 40 -50 killed with the 22 mag. One shot drop like a rock.

 

[Stocker Steve]

One uses a .22 mag bolt action. One uses a .223 crack open. I use a .280 Rem auto loader. :nod:

Bottom feeding for stockers may result in owning animals with the jumping gene, and that kind can quit the herd and fly over a four strand fence once you get within about 100 yards. Also they usually offer a profile shot, rather than the typical head on perfect shot. So not 22 mag material.

It is a very special feeling when the .280 stones them. Revenge is sweet.