"Steer fry" went on the "range" yesterday

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Nesikep

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We had a break in the hot weather, was down into the 70's and rainy, so I called up a friend and we put "steerfry" and my freemartin heifer in the meat locker
That was a BIG boy.. probably close to 13-14 ft fully stretched out... I'll get the hanging weight from the butcher here soon, I figure he was somewhere around 850, he was still growing and not really in full "fattening" mode yet, but it wasn't lean by any means

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The heifer wasn't that big for also being 2 years old, she really didn't look good through the winter but when grass came along she just packed on the fat, really nice white fat, I think her weight will be around 600 hanging.. should be some good eats for sure!
Look at that lard ass!
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Looks good' How long do you reckon it will take to eat your way through them?
 
I "assume" that was not in pounds. Big carcass.
that is pounds.. we'll see how close my guess is in a bit!

Holy smokes!
The ol boy doing the work there, could hide inside that carcass!
Wow!
That's my neighbor Clint.. was nice of him to come give me a hand, he said it was 5 years since he's done it, I'm not terribly proficient at it either..first one took a little bit til we figured out how the innards were supposed to come out, 2nd one went much faster
I'll say I'm never using a manual saw or a sawzall again to split the carcass... chainsaw (with veggie oil) worked real nice.. a minute, with out breaking a sweat and it was done..
 
How hot was it the day you did that?
No flies?
couple days before it was in the 100's, had a couple days of rain that I'd seen in the forcast for 10 days, was about 70, was the perfect time to do it... that and it's the last minute to get it done before the butcher gets busy with hunting season stuff
 
Does the butcher come to your place to split the carcase? Over here farm slaughtered animals have to be processed on the farm, I think.

Ken
no, I split it and bring it to him.. Last year he did come and help me with the slaughter, then brought the quarters to his shop, but he's been too busy to do that this year so I had to find other help
 
no, I split it and bring it to him.. Last year he did come and help me with the slaughter, then brought the quarters to his shop, but he's been too busy to do that this year so I had to find other help
That is interesting, here that would have his shop shut down. Anything that goes to a butcher shop has to be slaughtered in an abattoir where health inspectors pass and stamp the carcass. My old butcher had a shop for inspected stuff and a set up at home for us to take an animal in quarters that he'd process there. He is retired now so I've been going to a new abattoir down the road the last few years but last week they shut their doors. There is a couple of mobile butchers now that bring a coolroom on a trailer to your place and do the whole process.

With the chainsaw my butcher had an electric one but he didn't use any lubricant as he said the fat was more than enough to do the job.

I love your loader.
 
I will be interested in the actual hanging carcass weight.
Big steer cold hanging weight was 890 lbs, heifer was 560... so I was 40 lbs low on my guess for the steer and 40 lbs high on my guess for the heifer.. I'll see how much in-the-freezer meat each one yields, I was surprised last year, both my steer and my heifer hung at 800 lbs, the heifer was 505 lbs in the freezer and the steer was a bit disappointing at 430, much heavier boned
This was the heifer
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Well, I just got the meat.. Holy smokes, 173 lbs (including 24 lbs of marrow/soup bones) in the freezer per quarter on the big guy! just him alone filled up a 24 cu ft freezer.. works out to 78%, or 72% if you don't include the marrow bones.. pretty respectable!
Heifer yielded really well as well, can't remember the numbers off the top of my head for her though, I think it was still over 100 lbs per quarter of meat.. so around 71% if it's 100/140
 

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