Will a old cow be worth eatting?

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If you have any packer market at all where you are, and the cow is in good flesh (hopefully she is if you're considering eating her), she should sell well at market as a packer. Age doesn't matter as much as condition, and a limp won't affect her value on the rail, as long as she doesn't look like she might go down and doesn't show any sign of infection.

Can't speak to eating her - we always eat younger stuff, but it's bound to be as good as some of the meat you get in stores these days...
 
We sold an 1100# 18 year old this past summer expecting a huge hit due to an ulcerated udder...she brought 1.08/lb.
 
She might be worth eating but why? She will bring better than a $1.00 a pound if she can walk through the ring. 400 lbs of hamburger would last us 10+ years.
 
I should buy a burger cow every year -- sometimes Mother Nature "grants" us one, but that's not my preference. We can sell every pound of burger we can get ground; never have enough for the requests we get.
 
If she has a bad hip I would be a little Leary of the sale barn. One slip coming out of the trailer or in the alleyway to the pens and you will have a very cheap cow going thru the ring! An old cow that is uneven on her feet will get bumped a lot in the pens.
 
Kathie in Thorp":125l41n7 said:
I should buy a burger cow every year -- sometimes Mother Nature "grants" us one, but that's not my preference. We can sell every pound of burger we can get ground; never have enough for the requests we get.


This is a good time to buy opens. Lots of folks are preg checking right now and selling some real nice fleshy cows.
 
What you might also do, for marketing her, is contact a local packer and sell directly to him on the rail if she is in good shape. I had a cow a little while back that I felt like I had a hand in the shape she wound up in and didn't want her to be whipped and knocked around at the sale barn. I took her to a local guy and she brought 1.90 ish ( I dont recall exactly) on the rail. He buys most all of that kind at the sale barn anyway, and Dad had sold some to him in the past and was satisfied with the transactions he had. She brought 1350 with a rail wt of 750 ish. She had a huge bag and was not fleshy. Bcs of 5 or so , I'm not proficient in assigning a body score yet, but she was in decent shape.
 
Thank for all the info. Not sure what I will end up doing I already have a freezer full of beef so I will probably just sell her and buy another one back.
 

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