What they should look like.

[SBMF 2015]

We butchered a fat str yesterday. Sorry didn't get pics. Our butcher does on the farm processing then takes the quarters to their shop.

To avoid getting in with some protective mommas and new babies the butcher had to walk down an alley and shoot around a corner of the confinement. WHOA! he's big, was what I heard when he first saw the str. The str weighed around that 1,425 mark, not huge just nice. As we were walking back to the truck to start butchering,I was kidding him "What they don't ALL look that good?" I got a strange look and a firm NO.
He said they did some the day before that weighed 500lbs hanging.
The whole idea of butchering is to have something better than the selects at the grocery store.
we butchered 2, spent couple hours talking while they worked. The whole time they had stories about what some people think is Prime beef.

 

[Dsth]

1425 lbs sounds about ideal weight to me. 500 lbs. hanging would only be around 833 lbs. if using the 60% average live - hanging average. hope you get some really awesome cuts off of him. pics of a nice juicy steak fresh off the grill are always nice to see if you can post a few.

 

[Ky hills]

We had a similar story last year when we took an around 2000 lb Braford cow to the butcher. They saw her on the trailer and were talking about how they hadn't seen one that size in a long time. She was in good shape to start with and we had fed her out just like we do our steers. Had intended to get it all in ground beef but the butcher said with the shape she was in we should get some steaks and roasts. Turned out to be 980 lbs after process. While we were loading the meat the butcher commented that that cow should be a case study on how they should be finished out. Of all my years of raising cattle, I think I am more pleased with that comment than any other.

 

[Shoestring]

I had to schedule a butcher a full year in advance. The issue is if I take in that 2 year old, that is a lot of beef for me and the Misses. But I have a 9 month that is looking just like steaks and hamburgers! Black Angus for what it is worth.

 

[annmariemz23]

Having to schedule so far in advance is ridiculous! It is so frustrating for us!!! How can we lobby to get this changed? We need more USDA inspectors and more small facilities. Our local Farm Bureau president said, "We have a government of the government, for the government, and by the government." That means they do whatever nets government workers the most money. The veritable monopoly by the packers squeezes out the little guy.

 

[Ky hills]

Having to schedule so far in advance is ridiculous! It is so frustrating for us!!! How can we lobby to get this changed? We need more USDA inspectors and more small facilities. Our local Farm Bureau president said, "We have a government of the government, for the government, and by the government." That means they do whatever nets government workers the most money. The veritable monopoly by the packers squeezes out the little guy.

I like the idea of allowing for state inspectors, and truthfully there should not have to be government inspectors. We have eaten our beef from non USDA inspected processors and have not had any problems. To me logically it is much safer to eat beef processed in a small facility, than the large corporate one that does an enormously high volume and then ships those products all over the country. When something goes wrong there, the hundreds of thousands of pounds of meat is potentially at risk, and consumers from many areas are put at risk. The big packers have pretty much bought off the politicians and approved of the crippling legislation that has and continues to squeeze out competition from smaller outfits and hurt individual cattle producers anyway they can so they can import a cheaper product from South America.
I would say that the saying is more like we have a government of the money, for the money, and by the money.

 

[bigbluegrass]

I have three that will be going into the freezer in a month. Of course, I had to book their freezer date last year. Are they ready? I would like more time. This is 100% grass fed. Not sure if they are grass finished or not.

 

[Lee VanRoss]

BBG> Do you have access to any legumes? If not you may want your steaks a little thinner than corn fed.
Not to worry. They will be good. I know of five bairn that were raised on calves that looked a lot like those,
and a fried chicken or three! LVR

 

[bigbluegrass]

BBG> Do you have access to any legumes? If not you may want your steaks a little thinner than corn fed.
Not to worry. They will be good. I know of five bairn that were raised on calves that looked a lot like those,
and a fried chicken or three! LVR

All of my pasture has some legumes, but none of my pasture is all legumes. The paddock they are headed to has quite a bit more clover, it won't be enough to keep them going for more than a week or two. It won't be enough to really fatten them. They won't be 1400 lb hanging weight, that I am sure!

I have a few "baird" myself that eat whatever we can raise here. My wife does a great job cooking up whatever we raise. It is seldom we have anything to complain about.

 

[Grayme]

We butchered a fat str yesterday. Sorry didn't get pics. Our butcher does on the farm processing then takes the quarters to their shop.

To avoid getting in with some protective mommas and new babies the butcher had to walk down an alley and shoot around a corner of the confinement. WHOA! he's big, was what I heard when he first saw the str. The str weighed around that 1,425 mark, not huge just nice. As we were walking back to the truck to start butchering,I was kidding him "What they don't ALL look that good?" I got a strange look and a firm NO.
He said they did some the day before that weighed 500lbs hanging.
The whole idea of butchering is to have something better than the selects at the grocery store.
we butchered 2, spent couple hours talking while they worked. The whole time they had stories about what some people think is Prime beef.

We tool a steer to a place inSt. Joe, MO. years ago when prices were really good(think $3/# plus). Live weight was 1640 #,butcher remarked carcass scored really well. Butcher also scored really well as we went home with 425# of meat. Never again!

 

[SBMF 2015]

We tool a steer to a place inSt. Joe, MO. years ago when prices were really good(think $3/# plus). Live weight was 1640 #,butcher remarked carcass scored really well. Butcher also scored really well as we went home with 425# of meat. Never again!

That's one of the reasons why I like our butcher. They don't sell retail meat.

 

[greybeard]

To me logically it is much safer to eat beef processed in a small facility, than the large corporate one that does an enormously high volume and then ships those products all over the country.

You mean to all over the world, and it works both ways. Lots of that 'corporate one' is processing beef FROM 'all over the world' too and marketing it as US beef.

Nothing is as safe as local or regional beef.

 

[farmerjan]

I have three that will be going into the freezer in a month. Of course, I had to book their freezer date last year. Are they ready? I would like more time. This is 100% grass fed. Not sure if they are grass finished or not.View attachment 4285View attachment 4286View attachment 4287

First 2 look good, third one (brindle) might need more time but then my jerseys always do good and don't look as "finished as these".

 

[bigbluegrass]

First 2 look good, third one (brindle) might need more time but then my jerseys always do good and don't look as "finished as these".

Thanks @farmerjan. I agree on the Jersey; they always eat good, but don't look beefy. These all have Jersey in them. First one is 1/8 Jersey. Second is 3/8. Third is 1/4. Third one really shows his Jersey influence more than the others right now. He is the smallest of the three. I wouldn't be surprised if he is actually the best eating. If I remember I will post hanging weights and maybe a picture of a rib steak.

 

[504RP]

I have three that will be going into the freezer in a month. Of course, I had to book their freezer date last year. Are they ready? I would like more time. This is 100% grass fed. Not sure if they are grass finished or not.View attachment 4285View attachment 4286View attachment 4287

Thoes look real good to big blue ! I feel kind of stupid in one of the question i ask about what the difference is in finishing between a grass fed verse grain fed beef.

A grass finished beef is just that. The animal was feed nothing but grass. Really nothing outside of it being fed a good quality grass and maybe keeping it from eating certain plants like someone mentioned wild onions that might off set the taste a little. Grass finishing should be alot easier with less work and risk ?

Don't mean to offend anyone as to which finish they decided to go with.

I guess most if not all beef you buy from most stores are grain finished ?

 

[SBMF 2015]

I guess most if not all beef you buy from most stores are grain finished ?

A lot of the cheaper hamburger in the stores comes from cull cows. Most of those would be grass finished or lack of grain finished.

 

[504RP]

A lot of the cheaper hamburger in the stores comes from cull cows. Most of those would be grass finished or lack of grain finished.

I wouldn't have never known that if you hadn't of told me. I can't tell any difference in taste of a hamburger patty verses say a roast all that much ?

 

[kenny thomas]

I wouldn't have never known that if you hadn't of told me. I can't tell any difference in taste of a hamburger patty verses say a roast all that much ?

Most of your cheaper roasts are from cull cows or bulls also

 

[504RP]

Most of your cheaper roasts are from cull cows or bulls also

All of this is good to know. As cheap as my wife is when it comes to grocery shopping exspecially in the meat department. I have probably been eating gopher instead of beef.

 

[kenny thomas]

Think of this, if you have been to a stockyard probably 10-15% of the animals sold any week are cull cows and bulls. That amounts to thousands each week. Almost all are slaughtered within a few days and back on the retail market within a week.
An example is Memorial day is 10 days away. Check the market reports and you will see cull cows and bulls are higher already. The reason is they want lots of meat to sell for Memorial day weekend grilling. By next weekend the price may be softer because they don't want extra on hand after the holiday.