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roujesky
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Reged: 04/24/03
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Posts: 76
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Loc: Fort Bend county, Texas
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Freezer beef questions
06/26/06 02:38 PM
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What is the optimal weight to butcher a calf? Also, how long do you supplement feed in the diet of the calf before butchering? I am interested in the strategies used by some folks here to get the best beef for their freezer.
I was talking to a farmer a while back and he said most folks do not castrate bull calves anymore. Is that true?
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Bird
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Reged: 09/12/02
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Posts: 1694
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Loc: Corinth, TX, USA
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Re: Freezer beef questions
[re: roujesky]
06/26/06 02:59 PM
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When I was a youngster, most folks did castrate the bull calves, with a knife. However, we raised a calf from our milk cow each year, butchered them at a younger age (smaller) than most beef cattle are slaughtered now, and we usually did not castrate them. In more recent times, my farmer/rancher neighbors seemed to all use the rubber bands, which they apply as soon after birth as they can get the calf away from its mother temporarily.
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egon
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Loc: Nova Scotia,Canada
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Re: Freezer beef questions
[re: Bird]
06/26/06 08:23 PM
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If I remember correctely Cowboy doc stated that tests
indicated a better weight gain was possible if neutering was done at six weeks???? or some such number.
Egon 
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Pat
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Loc: SouthCentral Oklahoma
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Re: Freezer beef questions
[re: egon]
06/27/06 11:17 AM
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If your aim is quality tender beef and not any economic considerations... the concensus of opinion among the locals with whom I have discussed this is that you want to slaughter way earlier than commercial operations/packing plants. The numbers seem to run about 400-500 lbs, certainly before 800 lbs.
I have never had more tender steaks than young beef like this although I'm not sure in all instances the age of the beef as it was not mine. Sometimes, depending on cut etc., I have literally had meat I could cut with a fork without a lot of effort. Prime rib is good but young prime rib is a terrific delicacy.
I suppose you might consider the variables related to feed. You talking all natural, no implants, grass fed or with supplemental feed or what?
Folks I swap labor with working calves and such are in two basic camps: 1. They buy beef at the market like everyone else (GO FIGURE!!!) and 2. They have their own beef slaughtered and packaged for them. The beef they eat is not the beef they sell. Group 2 folks don't do implants, or anti-biotics in the feed. They give black leg shots (tetanus shots to castrated calves when banding) and any needed medicine but keep chemicals to a minimum in their own food.
Reminds me of the Quaker tobacco growers in Ontario years ago. They may not use the tobacco themselves but they sure grow and sell al lot of it.
I know some folks who are lax about castrating but I know NO decently managed operations that don't put all the calves through the chute/head gate and band the bulls while administering shots and appraising general health and putting in the ear tag. I typically end up estimating weights and administering pour on wormer and giving the sub cutaneous injections (neck). So far I have just barely innoculated myself for black leg with a small needle scrape, but now am blood brother to a black angus steer. Others have been accidently self injected with stuff that gave them real problems.
 Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
Edited by Pat (06/27/06 11:24 AM)
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3mr
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New Member
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Reged: 07/05/06
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Posts: 6
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Loc: Oklahoma
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Re: Freezer beef questions
[re: roujesky]
07/05/06 06:08 AM
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If your putting beef in your freezer there is no optimal weight to butcher a calf. Butcher him when you are ready to eat him. The longer you give him that first year the more marbling he will have which greatly improves the taste. Grain will give you more marbling and Rib diameter than grass, grass fed will be more lean. Either way make sure your processor dry ages the carcass and you wont believe what a great steak you raised. Other than these basics there are a million things (Ok, maybe not a million, but alot) that go into the tatse of an animal.
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