Slaughter old cows?

[BRYANT]

a little to the tough side. I am sure that feeding her better would have made the meat better.

Nope, old is old any way you look at it. tenderloins are ok to save and have seen a few ,very few , that were in top shape and not overly old that you could save some cuts and run them through a tenderizer and make chicken fry. If there was some special way to make old cows as good as fats everyone would be doing it. Trust me it wont work and I have butchered thousands of them. We even had a setup that sent high voltage of elec. through the hanging carcass to help tenderize it but we didn't even use it on old cows and bulls cause they are grinding cattle not steak cattle. but that said if you like old cattle steak eat it, its just not for me but there again for me personally I wouldn't walk across the road for a grass fed beef

 

[Dave]

a little to the tough side. I am sure that feeding her better would have made the meat better.

Nope, old is old any way you look at it. tenderloins are ok to save and have seen a few ,very few , that were in top shape and not overly old that you could save some cuts and run them through a tenderizer and make chicken fry. If there was some special way to make old cows as good as fats everyone would be doing it. Trust me it wont work and I have butchered thousands of them. We even had a setup that sent high voltage of elec. through the hanging carcass to help tenderize it but we didn't even use it on old cows and bulls cause they are grinding cattle not steak cattle. but that said if you like old cattle steak eat it, its just not for me but there again for me personally I wouldn't walk across the road for a grass fed beef

I am not saying that it would be melt in your mouth tender. But I know that if you take a grass fed steer in June who has been on good green grass he will be a lot more tender than killing one this time of year when he has been eating questionable hay for 5 months. You can't make an old cow into a grain fed steer but you can improve the quality. I prefer grain finished steer. I don't mind a grass fed as long as it is killed when grass is still in its prime. However, growing up I sure ate lots of old cow. It didn't stunt my growth any.