My beef died this morning

[CowboyRam]

Well this bites, my beef up and died. It was supposed to be butchered next month.

 

[coachg]

Sick ? Lightning ️, what happened ?

 

[Allenw]

Sucks, I remember one we had at home just let out an odd bellow and dropped dead.

 

[MurraysMutts]

What in the actual $%#&??

 

[CowboyRam]

Not sure why it died. I fed the same amount of barley this morning, gave it some hay and by 11:30am it was dead. He was coming along nicely. If I didn't think that my cow with the broken leg was bred I would butcher it.

 

[GoWyo]

It really sucks when they die right before the processing date. Had one die in the feedlot July 3 after $700 in feed bills and one month to the day before processing date. Had to buy a steer from the feeder to meet my customer obligations. Pretty much took the profit out of the venture. Should have sold all the steers last fall and avoided the hassle.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Holy cow - that really sucks.

 

[CowboyRam]

It really sucks when they die right before the processing date. Had one die in the feedlot July 3 after $700 in feed bills and one month to the day before processing date. Had to buy a steer from the feeder to meet my customer obligations. Pretty much took the profit out of the venture. Should have sold all the steers last fall and avoided the hassle.

I sure know that feeling. This one was for my own use. I think I am going to wait until I preg test the cows in November; if I have a young cow open I will fatten her up to butcher.

 

[J Hoy]

Not sure why it died. I fed the same amount of barley this morning, gave it some hay and by 11:30am it was dead. He was coming along nicely. If I didn't think that my cow with the broken leg was bred I would butcher it.

A quick death for an animal that appears healthy until it is suddenly dead, is usually caused by a blood vessel bursting in the thoracic cavity. I necropsied a number of animals, both wild and domestic that died like that. Basically they drown in their own blood. One was an injured elk calf with a cut on its leg that I was caring for when I rehabilitated wildlife. I checked on it to see if it needed more grass and it seemed to be fine. It had eaten the grain I had given it a half hour before. It did need more grass so I went out in our hay field and cut an arm full. When I got back to the elk calf ten minutes later, it was dead. A necropsy showed that its thoracic cavity was full of blood, which kills an animal almost instantly. That calf had a normal bite, just so no one will need to ask!

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

If it was healthy and had just died and was still warm could a person still butcher it? Just asking for a friend.

 

[MurraysMutts]

If it was healthy and had just died and was still warm could a person still butcher it? Just asking for a friend.

ONLY if it didn't have an underbite!

To suggest otherwise is just silly.


(Someone had to do it)
Love ya @J Hoy

 

[Travlr]

If it was healthy and had just died and was still warm could a person still butcher it? Just asking for a friend.

Without the heart pumping and normal temp I don't know if it would bleed out properly. That said... I've never knowingly eaten a steak from a cow that wasn't bled out. Maybe it would be fine. I know deer are often completely dead before they are bled out.

 

[wbvs58]

Tell your friend it will be fine even if it is blown up a bit just cut away the bad parts. As long as its not you eating it!!!!!! Makes it a bit more tender.

Ken

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

Not bloated, not sick, just suddenly found dead and still warm. Sure, blood would coagulate. Couldnt a person hang them by a tractor, lift and butcher? Sure the blood has not been bled out but neither are most dear and elk.

 

[puzzled in oregon]

I don't care if the heart is still pumping or if the animal is still warm. I don't care if it is beef, elk, deer,
beaver etc. If I don't know why it is dead or dying I ain't gonna eat it

 

[Travlr]

I don't care if the heart is still pumping or if the animal is still warm. I don't care if it is beef, elk, deer,
beaver etc. If I don't know why it is dead or dying I ain't gonna eat it

I've always wondered about people that eat roadkill...

I mean, how do you know how long it's been laying there?

 

[Lucky_P]

I performed or observed necropsies on cattle almost every day for nearly 40 years. I can count the number of cases of ruptured thoracic vessels with exsanguination into the thoracic cavity on 2 fingers...both associated with umbilical abscesses in weanling Santa Gertrudis heifers on pasture.

Once saw a large number of nearly-finished steers dying of blackleg...feeder said he'd not vaccinated "because it's so hard on them!"...Crazy! A day or so of soreness and a temporary local swelling is not much to endure, compared to dying...

 

[greybeard]

.both associated with umbilical abscesses in weanling Santa Gertrudis heifers on pasture.

Not to get way off track, but was this malady something specifically or gentically associated with SG cattle at the time?

 

[J Hoy]

I performed or observed necropsies on cattle almost every day for nearly 40 years. I can count the number of cases of ruptured thoracic vessels with exsanguination into the thoracic cavity on 2 fingers...both associated with umbilical abscesses in weanling Santa Gertrudis heifers on pasture.

Once saw a large number of nearly-finished steers dying of blackleg...feeder said he'd not vaccinated "because it's so hard on them!"...Crazy! A day or so of soreness and a temporary local swelling is not much to endure, compared to dying...

Interesting, cattle were one animal that I never saw/necropsied that had died from a ruptured thoracic vessel. I necropsied the elk calf, several deer, one donkey, one llama and a domestic goat that died that way, that I remember. And that was over a 15 year period. So maybe no one brought a calf or cow to my attention because it hardly ever happened in cattle.

 

[A.J.]

If it was healthy and had just died and was still warm could a person still butcher it? Just asking for a friend.

I think it would be fine, but I would want to know what it died from before I would consume it. An old guy around here used to come out and buy injured cattle from folks he knew were honest about not having meds in them, shoot them on-site, haul them to his facility, butcher them, and had no issues with the meat. That wasn't something he openly advertised though.