What Beef Shortage?

[redlevel]

Twenty-one head of brood cows. Three late born calves, and a bull. I sold down to nine head of brood cows last year, and sold the old bull. I put a new bull with them in mid April, with a dozen new heifers for breeding. Should start dropping calves by mid-late February. I intend to work the cows, worm, vaccinate, preg-check, late this month. If there are 2-3 of the heifers that haven’t bred, I intend to feed them out on a corn-based ration for slaughter. Would like to slaughter one for family use, maybe sell one, and maybe split another with someone. My family is addicted to beef! Nothing good as marbled, corn-fed beef. Black Angus, Red Angus, SimAngus, Hereford blood. I have never slaughtered one of my own before, but with beef prices in the supermarket like they are, I’m going to try it this spring. A 1200 pound animal should yield close to 450-500 pounds of boned, wrapped freezer meat.

 

[Chukar60]

I don’t raise beef, but like your family I am addicted.
We buy a whole beef at a time. We buy grain finished beef. I do not care for grass fed beef.
The biggest reason we buy the way we do is the burger. It is twice as good as store bought burger and we eat a lot of burger..

 

[Skeet 028]

For the most part if is an All Natural Organic Grass Fed Montana/Wyoming Beef critter it equates out to mean a usually good flavored But TOUGH piece of meat.. Beef and hogs are supposed to be finished out on good corn. Yellow in the front till it comes out yellow in the back. Since beef critters are going for less out here right now I am considering getting one I can graze for 3 months and then finish up on corn. Only problem here is when it is slaughtered getting your own meat back. The butchers know good meat when they see it

 

[arjay]

There’s nothing like a nice fatty ribeye

 

[Ole Joe Clark]

I'm like Rusty, I'm thinking about putting 10# of burger on lay away at WalMart.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

 

[oneoff]

My family and neighbors all shared in the butcherin’ when I was young. Many still do!
We “never” butchered a hog or bovine alone, not even chickens (although we did 50+ At a time.)
Usually a family would come over, we’d usually have it hanging, and a picnic table or two set up nearby if it was nice. The whole family worked, even little‘ s can (and should!) learn to wrap. (Calling them Christmas presents was the motivation!)
It eased the pain of the project, allowed for “real” social interaction, and often made a new friend or two (if friends aren’t welcome the first time, they will be the second!).
We’d always do ribs most of the day on the grill next to us. No reason to pack them, too much fiddlin’ and freezer space.
And anything from horseshoes to shootin’ in the evenin’.
I had a wonderful childhood, and I’m “very” thankful for my parents.

 

[Ole Joe Clark]

My family and neighbors all shared in the butcherin’ when I was young. Many still do!
We “never” butchered a hog or bovine alone, not even chickens (although we did 50+ At a time.)
Usually a family would come over, we’d usually have it hanging, and a picnic table or two set up nearby if it was nice. The whole family worked, even little‘ s can (and should!) learn to wrap. (Calling them Christmas presents was the motivation!)
It eased the pain of the project, allowed for “real” social interaction, and often made a new friend or two (if friends aren’t welcome the first time, they will be the second!).
We’d always do ribs most of the day on the grill next to us. No reason to pack them, too much fiddlin’ and freezer space.
And anything from horseshoes to shootin’ in the evenin’.
I had a wonderful childhood, and I’m “very” thankful for my parents.

Sounds like "hog killing" down South.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

 

[Old Arkansawyer]

Like stated above make sure your custom butcher is honest.
Those are some good looking cattle except the one with long ears. My
nephew has semi x red angus and I usually buy 1/2. Grass fed until the
last 30-40 days then grained.
My folks always butchered in the fall, cattle and hogs. One Thanksgiving
week we had kinfolk coming from Arizona and California and my dad had
2 fat hogs to butcher. Killed with a 22lr and hung in a tree. A neighbor
brought his copper vat to scald, most people scraped the hair off and did
not skin hogs in those days. The majority of the people did not know the
other use the neighbor had for the big copper vat, alcohol related.
Anyway most of the meat was gone by the weekend after Thanksgiving
when our kin went home.
My grandma rendered part of the fat and made lye soap, she claimed her
friends in Calif. were wild about lye soap, I'm not sure about that. My mom
used the rest of the fat to render lard, her favorite shortening. Almost
no waste involved.

One other thing Red, custom butchers around here are booked up for
months so get your name in soon.

 

[redlevel]

My family and neighbors all shared in the butcherin’ when I was young. Many still do!
We “never” butchered a hog or bovine alone.

Nothing quite as exciting to a boy on the farm as a good old fashion hawg killin’! I can remember two or three 200 lb pigs hanging from a limb, with a couple of black wash pots of water heating for “scalding and scraping.” A half dozen men whetting knives on stones, and a few ladies getting set up for sausage making. Plenty of salt ready for salting down hams, shoulders, and sides for curing. Was a way of life, and as you say, a social event.

Smokehouse for curing and smoking hawg meat.

 

[tt66]

We have black angus, 13 momma's and our big boy, Tour of Duty 647, TOD for short. We really enjoy watching the little ones play in the pasture.

 

[waffles]

Jealous, probably going to be some good eating.

I got priced out of the nicer cuts awhile back, but I've found some level of happiness in hitting the sprouts early a couple times a week and buying the deeply discounted trashy cuts. Years of Vietnamese and Mexican cookouts showed me that any beef can be made good with the proper marinade or dry rub, or so I've fooled myself into believing.

e: though when I find a discounted good cut, I try to do it right.

(I've also apprently been priced out of apartments with good kitchen ventilation )

 

[peterGun]

I buy my meat (beef,pork) from local farmers, I may pay a bit more but I believe I get better quality and make connections so supply chains are of no concern to me.


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[Tubbsy]

I'll second the need to get booked... I work for a rather large custom processor, and we're booked until late next year....

 

[mtgianni]

Current wait on meat kill and processing is about 9-12 months in our area. Feed is high as we had a poor hay crop due to low water and hot temps. I believe beef should be hung in controlled temps for 3 weeks, none of which can happen in most residences. I find the taste of that far preferable to "freezer aging" meat.

 

[llowry61]

I buy my meat (beef,pork) from local farmers, I may pay a bit more but I believe I get better quality and make connections so supply chains are of no concern to me.


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I am from Ohio as well, and that is how we did it when I was a kid. My dad knew the farmer and we would go pick the cow, then the farmer would haul it to the butcher. A couple of weeks later we were loading the freezer rotating anything left from the prior year to the top. He always split the cow with a buddy or two. We went through half a cow a year. Add that with everything grown in the garden and we sure ate good.

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

Every year on my birthday I try to sneak a steak into my diet at Longhorn Steakhouse.

 

[Rustyt1953]

The spirit of Clara compels me:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pnG_D_VDJk[/ame]

 

[Rustyt1953]

Every year on my birthday I try to sneak a steak into my diet at Longhorn Steakhouse.

Ask for Flo the 'Big Haired Lady'.