"Windswept" Calf

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Bestoutwest

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I'm kind of torn on what to do with a calf I have. She's "windswept," I guess that's what they call it. I say she looks deformed. Her eyes aren't level, and there's other issues. My wife is a googler and found that they have incomplete, or messed up, muscle structures? That explains a lot since she always pees in a way that is different from everything else (weak stream, smaller amounts) and doesn't run or move as gracefully. Seems stupid, and has barely realized we removed her dam yesterday. Anyway, my wife wants to take her to the sale barn, but I'm not convinced. She has horns and looks all of her 3/4 longhorn (and last one on our place at all). I won't breed her, but I'm thinking about hanging on to her until she's 16 months and then slaughtering her for freezer beef. I know she won't yield much, but I'll probably do better than the barn. So, my question, what would you do? Is it worth growing her out or will she continue to under perform more than she should (so ignore the LH part)?
 
Sell her or shoot her but don't waste your time feeding her to butcher, there's a good chance the meat won't be any good when butchered.
 
Experience, Dad got it in his head to butcher a calf once that wasn't right, worse then the one being asked about here, it wasn't fit to eat. The butcher said that is usually the outcome butchering one that isn't right.
 
Allenw":2sq60x9s said:
Sell her or shoot her but don't waste your time feeding her to butcher, there's a good chance the meat won't be any good when butchered.

I'm just curious by what you mean isn't any good? Was it stringy, not much of it? We do sell freezer beef, and I don't want to sell anyone anything that's going to be subpar. I prefer happy customers.
 
Allenw":2edznvow said:
Smelled bad when cooked, don't think we went any further with it.
Might from the bad feed or bad temperatures in the cooler (that's what happened to our steer, he's normal but every meat smells bad when cooked). A neighbor butchered a heifer that wasn't act right last year but all meat were pretty good.
 
To be honest, I'd rather feed her out and butcher her than take her to the sale barn and get little money out of it....you'll definitely making more money (or beef) out of her.
 

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