: Nikki, Just a bit curious as to your location-U.S. or somewhere else? Reason I ask is that "typically" the best freezer beef from the area I'm from is from animals less than 2 yrs of age. Your 5 yr old steer is probably going to be a bit on the tough side. If you are planning on grinding the majority of the meat for burger-no problem. But making the best of him can be achieved if you consider a few things. First, what condition is he in, is he thin, moderate or is he carring some condition already? I suspect that due to his age and if he has been on decent quality pasture he is probably carring a moderate to fair amount of condition to start. If so then he could be classified as "grass" finished. Grass finished beef has a much stronger flavor than grain finished beef. Most U.S. consumers from palatibility studies prefer meat from grain finished beef vs. grass due to the off "grassy" flavor. However, the meat from the grass finished animal will usually contain less saturated fat and will be much leaner. If you are wanting a fair amount of steaks from this guy, Due to his age, I myself would not reccomend butchering him as grass fed. Typically, it is going to take about 90 days for the body stores of grass fat to be switched completely to a grain fed fat. This fat is much lighter in color and has a milder, smoother flavor. Probably this animal would be completely rolly polly fat if fed a grain type diet for 90 days though. We have butchered cows before that were 5 plus years old and typically will feed them for about 30 days with OK quality of the meat. For these older animals we will typically start them with free choice average quality hay and about 3 pounds corn and cob meal (whole ground ear corn) and one pound whole soybeans. We slowly increase the corn/cob meal and beans (over about two weeks) until they are consuming about 12-14 pounds corn and about two pounds beans and free choice hay. As far as worming goes I would either reccomend a topical product called Ivomec or Eprinex. I believe these products have either no withdrawl or very short withdrawl times for animals intended for slaughter. Hope this helps.<p>Gene, Thank you so much for the quick response and the great information. It is appreciated.<p> Thanks for your time, Nikki
