Slaughtering Holstein Steers

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abrowder

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I have two holstein steers that I will be taking to get slaughtered/processed in late October, making them about 18 months old. They are grass fed and likely weigh around 1,000-1,200 lbs. Last time we got steaks and other cuts from holsteins they were very lean and not as highly requested as the much better ground beef. Does anyone know how much ground beef I am likely to get out of these cows and if it is possible to just grind everything for hamburger instead of getting steaks/cuts? Would you recommend doing this for flavor etc.? Also I am getting ready to finish them on grain for the last 6ish weeks to produce better flavor/marbling, is this a good idea or would you finish them on grass? Thanks! :D
 
Id recommend not sending them right now and feeding them for 2-3 more months with a lot of grain and hay. I don't think its necessary for you to ground beef the entire thing unless you wanted to. If you held off here and fed them a bunch of grain I think youd get some decent meat.
 
6 weeks of feed will most likely not produce the results desired to make good steaks.
Save the feed and make burger.
Itll be great burger.
Need 3 or 4 months of grain for steak makers.
Everyones mileage varies, but that's it in a nutshell.
 
Check out this thread: Holstein % yield?
We butchered a stine str in May. There is A LOT of bone in a Holstein.
As others have said they probably need fed longer and harder.
 
MurraysMutts said:
6 weeks of feed will most likely not produce the results desired to make good steaks.
Save the feed and make burger.
Itll be great burger.
Need 3 or 4 months of grain for steak makers.
Everyones mileage varies, but that's it in a nutshell.

So should I just tell the butcher/processor to grind everything possible into hamburger? Do you know about how much ground beef I could get out of a steer this size?
 
cowgal604 said:
Id recommend not sending them right now and feeding them for 2-3 more months with a lot of grain and hay. I don't think its necessary for you to ground beef the entire thing unless you wanted to. If you held off here and fed them a bunch of grain I think youd get some decent meat.

I was trying to avoid feeding them through the winter for another year so I don't have those extra expenses. The majority of my prospective customers are only looking to buy hamburger as it was much better than the steaks last time. If I held off on the grain and took them in October as planned, do you have an idea of how much ground beef I could get out of them? thanks
 
abrowder said:
cowgal604 said:
Id recommend not sending them right now and feeding them for 2-3 more months with a lot of grain and hay. I don't think its necessary for you to ground beef the entire thing unless you wanted to. If you held off here and fed them a bunch of grain I think youd get some decent meat.

I was trying to avoid feeding them through the winter for another year so I don't have those extra expenses. The majority of my prospective customers are only looking to buy hamburger as it was much better than the steaks last time. If I held off on the grain and took them in October as planned, do you have an idea of how much ground beef I could get out of them? thanks

No idea. But that's a good question to just ask your butcher. They will for sure be able to give you a rough idea. I have raised many Holsteins but I don't find they do well on just grass. If I were you id start hammering them with grain now. The thing is that in my opinion the meat you do get will taste very gamey and I don't have much a market for that. Purely grass fed beef is a weird taste for a lot of people. Many like it don't get me wrong and maybe that's what your customers are after but when we did do beef the purely grass fed beef was heavily complained about.
 
cowgal604 said:
abrowder said:
cowgal604 said:
Id recommend not sending them right now and feeding them for 2-3 more months with a lot of grain and hay. I don't think its necessary for you to ground beef the entire thing unless you wanted to. If you held off here and fed them a bunch of grain I think youd get some decent meat.

I was trying to avoid feeding them through the winter for another year so I don't have those extra expenses. The majority of my prospective customers are only looking to buy hamburger as it was much better than the steaks last time. If I held off on the grain and took them in October as planned, do you have an idea of how much ground beef I could get out of them? thanks

No idea. But that's a good question to just ask your butcher. They will for sure be able to give you a rough idea. I have raised many Holsteins but I don't find they do well on just grass. If I were you id start hammering them with grain now. The thing is that in my opinion the meat you do get will taste very gamey and I don't have much a market for that. Purely grass fed beef is a weird taste for a lot of people. Many like it don't get me wrong and maybe that's what your customers are after but when we did do beef the purely grass fed beef was heavily complained about.

Thanks so much for your input!! I have been feeding them grain a few times a week for the last couple months but am planning to start daily this week, so hopefully that will make the flavor a little bit better.
 
abrowder said:
cowgal604 said:
abrowder said:
I was trying to avoid feeding them through the winter for another year so I don't have those extra expenses. The majority of my prospective customers are only looking to buy hamburger as it was much better than the steaks last time. If I held off on the grain and took them in October as planned, do you have an idea of how much ground beef I could get out of them? thanks

No idea. But that's a good question to just ask your butcher. They will for sure be able to give you a rough idea. I have raised many Holsteins but I don't find they do well on just grass. If I were you id start hammering them with grain now. The thing is that in my opinion the meat you do get will taste very gamey and I don't have much a market for that. Purely grass fed beef is a weird taste for a lot of people. Many like it don't get me wrong and maybe that's what your customers are after but when we did do beef the purely grass fed beef was heavily complained about.

Thanks so much for your input!! I have been feeding them grain a few times a week for the last couple months but am planning to start daily this week, so hopefully that will make the flavor a little bit better.

This year because of covid and the lack of bookings the processors we had to send our steer early. He went at 18 months and I only had 5 weeks to hit him with a bunch of grain. He turned out great actually. He was about the same a size as your steers are. I fed him 1/4 a 20kg bag of beef text for those 5 weeks. Let us know how you make out when its all said and done
 
cowgal604 said:
abrowder said:
cowgal604 said:
No idea. But that's a good question to just ask your butcher. They will for sure be able to give you a rough idea. I have raised many Holsteins but I don't find they do well on just grass. If I were you id start hammering them with grain now. The thing is that in my opinion the meat you do get will taste very gamey and I don't have much a market for that. Purely grass fed beef is a weird taste for a lot of people. Many like it don't get me wrong and maybe that's what your customers are after but when we did do beef the purely grass fed beef was heavily complained about.

Thanks so much for your input!! I have been feeding them grain a few times a week for the last couple months but am planning to start daily this week, so hopefully that will make the flavor a little bit better.

This year because of covid and the lack of bookings the processors we had to send our steer early. He went at 18 months and I only had 5 weeks to hit him with a bunch of grain. He turned out great actually. He was about the same a size as your steers are. I fed him 1/4 a 20kg bag of beef text for those 5 weeks. Let us know how you make out when its all said and done

Will do! I had the same issue with scheduling and late October was the latest they would take them before 2021 so I went ahead and had them scheduled. Thanks again for the help!
 
It WILL be less than 50 percent of live weight.

Bet itll be good burgers tho.
Check out the above link...
Hanging weight vs final product - CattleToday.com
https://cattletoday.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=117577
 
Figure that you will get in the neighborhood of 1/4 the live weight... plus a little. 1200 lbs live so about 650-700 lbs hanging and about half that since their is more bone in holsteins at that size. Say 300-400 lbs hamburger. If they prefer that then by all means do it.
 
SBMF 2015 said:
Check out this thread: Holstein % yield?
We butchered a stine str in May. There is A LOT of bone in a Holstein.
As others have said they probably need fed longer and harder.

I echo what everone else said. Here is the link to the thread SBMF talks about. My rough guess is that if you take them early you will get somewere between 300-340lbs of meat depending on their gain from here forward.

https://cattletoday.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=117577
 

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