Horned Cattle

[circlebllc]

I didn't want to high jack the other horned cattle post. This happened to me a couple of years ago. This was a butcher that I had used prior.
Now out of business.

They had crude unloading and holding pens. One side held 6-8 animals and the other about the same. One side was beef and one side for hogs. After I backed up I heard a horrible bellow then another grunt bellow, from inside the beef holding area. A Jersey cross, very well fed is looking at me. He has decided he does not like being here. He is ramming the other steers that where holding with him. Blood running down their sides. Mine ended up with the hogs. The butcher said they were pretty bruised up and wasn't for sure what the other customers were going to say.

 

[farmerjan]

Our closeby butcher has several small pens for people that bring in their stuff the day before... but he never puts strange animals together... yeah, they can take a notion to get rough with the horns sometimes... Had that cow that figured out she could hook others after she was 4 or so... took her horns off shortly thereafter... if they all have horns not usually a problem. My longhorn does not seem to be aggressive... have seen her shake her head at some others if they get close, but she never goes after them and they don't act skittish around her... she doesn't like dogs or coyotes so that's fine with me.

 

[Brute 23]

I remember when I was younger and we would load cows they would come off the trailers all cut up and stuff. They would go to fighting and it was a mess.

If you listen to some of the stories about catching these big maveric bulls, they will haul them in with the heads chained down the of a trailer.

My F1 Victoria bull had stubs from where they had tipped him young. A friend of mine picked him up for me and took his pretty aluminum trailer. That bull was sticking the stuns in the gaps and peeling the side panels off. I though it was funny until years later we went to load him and he went to the corner of a pipe pen and started peeling the cattle panel apart to make a hole with his horns. I was telling an old friend of mine and he said ya, panels done work with them bulls with horns. He said he had a big Brahman bull do the same thing. He squared up with a side and just started ripping it apart until he made a big enough hole to dive through.

So basically... if they have them they know how to use them.

 

[Rmc]

Any butcher that pens strange animals together is asking for trouble. horns or not.
I prefer to keep a cow or two with horns around. Keeps the stray dogs and coyotes at bay.

 

[M.Magis]

Of the half dozen or so custom butchers around, none have individual pens. I would assume very few do, these are very small family owned shops with limited space and money.

 

[circlebllc]

My current butcher has all new facilities. I believe they are perfect. Maybe 12 15x15 pens. All under cover. All unloading and holding pens are 7 bar, 6 feet tall pipe. Easy slam latch/chained on concrete. No way to get animals together. Nice loading dock to pick up. They just started selling retail. Not real excited about that. But, a family has to make a living. I have had steaks come up short at other retail butchers. When you sell butcher beef, I cannot let that happen. The facilities are perfect, IMO.

 

[CowboyRam]

Dad had a friend that wanted him to rope a couple of his Scottish Highlander bulls and put them in his horse trailer. He told dad he would give him a case of beer, but it had to be a clean horn catch. Well dad did it and got his beer. The trailer did not fair so well. It had nice windows and padding on the inside; before they got the bulls out all the windows were poked out, and the padding was all torn up. It was a good thing dad was riding a good horse because those bulls come right up that rope.

 

[ClinchValley86]

I took a highland to processor for a neighbor. Our guy didn't have facilities to handle the horns and elected to dispatch her in my trailer. Was a clean shot, down she went.

On the OP subject. I'd be weary of leaving my animals in a communal pen. I can think of a couple things that could go wrong.

The guy I use has 6 or 8 pens. Some big enough for 1 or 2, some big enough for 3 or 4. When I leave, the gate holding mine won't be opened again til the next morning when it's time to kill.

How does bruising effect the meat? Tenderized or tough?

 

[circlebllc]

Not just bruised but obviously worked up and stressed. None would be good for the end product.

 

[Warren Allison]

I took a highland to processor for a neighbor. Our guy didn't have facilities to handle the horns and elected to dispatch her in my trailer. Was a clean shot, down she went.

On the OP subject. I'd be weary of leaving my animals in a communal pen. I can think of a couple things that could go wrong.

The guy I use has 6 or 8 pens. Some big enough for 1 or 2, some big enough for 3 or 4. When I leave, the gate holding mine won't be opened again til the next morning when it's time to kill.

How does bruising effect the meat? Tenderized or tough?

Don't they call them "dark cutters"?

 

[SBMF 2015]

Before BQA I was loading a semi of market cows at the sale barn. One cow had Ayrshire style horns. The trucker told me not to waste time sorting her into the group that went in the belly. Just let her come when ever and he would dehorn her with the baseball bat he carried in the truck
Needless to say I sorted her out and she went in the belly.
Apparently horns that point up can really do a number on the fiberglass roof of a semi pot.

 

[Warren Allison]

Before BQA I was loading a semi of market cows at the sale barn. One cow had Ayrshire style horns. The trucker told me not to waste time sorting her into the group that went in the belly. Just let her come when ever and he would dehorn her with the baseball bat he carried in the truck
Needless to say I sorted her out and she went in the belly.
Apparently horns that point up can really do a number on the fiberglass roof of a semi pot.

You did the right thing. I would not let anybody do that to their own cows! What is BQA?

 

[farmerjan]

BQA is Beef Quality Assurance... standards set for proper handling and administering vacs and other protocol for the handling of cattle.

 

[Travlr]

A cow can be dangerous without horns. I bought a couple of long bred cows from different places at the sale barn one day, one a big, heavy Angus and the other a smaller red, brindle Brahman cross that had been dehorned. Loading them I saw the Brahman cross head butt the Angus and heard a POP and didn't realize what had happened. The Angus seemed fine when we unloaded her but about three days later she was down and gurgling as she breathed, a broken rib and a punctured lung. Expensive lesson...

 

[CowboyRam]

Before BQA I was loading a semi of market cows at the sale barn. One cow had Ayrshire style horns. The trucker told me not to waste time sorting her into the group that went in the belly. Just let her come when ever and he would dehorn her with the baseball bat he carried in the truck
Needless to say I sorted her out and she went in the belly.
Apparently horns that point up can really do a number on the fiberglass roof of a semi pot.

Dad worked with an old guy that loaded longhorns on the railroad cars. They just chopped them off with a double-bitted ax as the went in, that is if the got hung up.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Of the half dozen or so custom butchers around, none have individual pens. I would assume very few do, these are very small family owned shops with limited space and money.

Individual pens? Well, I guess that's what my guy has. He has a couple cattle trailers (far from being road worthy) that we can unload in. Or, if just hauling 1, he generally just drops it in back of my trailer and hauls it our with bucket loader.

 

[SBMF 2015]

Individual pens? Well, I guess that's what my guy has. He has a couple cattle trailers (far from being road worthy) that we can unload in. Or, if just hauling 1, he generally just drops it in back of my trailer and hauls it our with bucket loader.

Class A USDA inspected? I designed the holding area for the "new" 3 year old butcher. They have 8 pens that can hold 2 or 3 strs each. It all flows in a circle to a crowd tub that leads to the knock box. Nothing goes in the cooler that didn't walk into the box.

They learned the hard way and now have it posted on their website NO LONG HORNS

 

[Little Joe]

We had a cow last year that we were trying to load on the trailer with some steers that we were taking to butcher, I thought she was going to kill them she was ramming them so hard, at one point she picked one up off the ground. We ended up making 2 trips at 100 miles round trip so she wouldn't have to be on the trailer with them. She had no horns but was always a real b***h which is why she was going to butcher.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Class A USDA inspected? I designed the holding area for the "new" 3 year old butcher. They have 8 pens that can hold 2 or 3 strs each. It all flows in a circle to a crowd tub that leads to the knock box. Nothing goes in the cooler that didn't walk into the box.

They learned the hard way and now have it posted on their website NO LONG HORNS

No - just NY State inspected. Been doing my butchering for over 30 years.

 

[ClinchValley86]

Don't they call them "dark cutters"?

Dark cutter to my understanding is an animal that was raging prior to slaughter... yeah?

I've told the store of the sexually excited bull that caught me with my hair down. You saw that one right? If ever I've had one that should have been a dark cutter... that was him. Meat was awesome. Not sure how to explain that to be honest with ya.