900 pound steer is about 3-400 pounds from being finished.

More info plz?

Are these sticks like a Slim Jim?  Or, more like a log of beef bologna that you slice for sandwiches?

What do they use for casing?

My question is ,How do you know you are going to get the same animal back that you bring in? Just have faith?

I don't like your use of slim jim as a comparison, but yes. They are finger thickness, cured sausages that you eat cold. Delicious....

Is there a good reason it wouldn't be?

Yep. Think Slim Jim, made from good quality meat instead of floor scrapings and mechanically separated chicken. I get a shitload made from my deer every year. The locker I use charges $2-$4 per pound depending on exactly what recipe you want(about 20 options there).

There is if the processor isn't honest. I've seen some shady processors, especially among those that just operate during hunting season.

There's no guarantee you'll get your animal back and not one somebody else killed and drove around on their hood all day before dropping it off for processing. I've also seen some crazy 'shrink' rates. 800# of skinned quarters of elk in - 350# of processed elk out. "We cut the bone weight out".

Always get referrals for meat processors.

If I were having a beef buttered I’d ask that the strip loins, ribs, and tenderloins remain whole as I like to trim and cut my own steaks, but want the option for roasts. Top sirloin steaks, briskets, short ribs, skirt and flank steaks, chuck roasts, tri tips all get vac packed. Quite a bit would be packed for making jerky later and the rest ground.

Some guys here have clue, others do not.

You will order your cuts by percentages, and you will not get everything you want.

900 lb cow will fill a 4'x6' truck bed full of coolers.  After it's hung with time, and then processed, a 900 lb cow may get you 375lbs of weighted meat to cook if you're lucky.

That said, I know the cows personally I'm getting, and never had a qualm with the meat after I pick it up.  We could pay less at a grocery store for what they charge, but the meat IMO is worth it by going "home grown" (cow actually had a pretty good life compared to what you buy commercially IMO, not that it matters to most).    

If you don't have a charcoal grill, get one.  Even the burgers will be the best you've ever had.  

We're at the point that all we get cut is "steak" and hamburger.  We take the steak and cut it ourselves to what we want (depending on the butcher, the frozen steak cuts can be HUGE LOL).  Found it easier that way on our end.

And yes, there is a difference between a cow and a steer, but we've never had any complaints about the meat from a cow taken to the butcher.

This, prepare for many lbs of hamburger.  They vacuum packed them in 1lbs packages.  It comes down to steaks or roasts,etc.

900 pound cow is seriously underweight.  Either stunted, starved or sick.  About the same as an 80 pound women.

I don't bring the meat in.  The rancher drops the cow off at the butcher with my name on it. The butcher calls me and asks what I want. A few weeks later I have boxes of beef delivered to my house.

My buddy has 6 steers going in next week.  I'm in for a quarter.  Processing date is Feb 25th, so they will be hanging for about 14 days.
I've already got the cut sheet from the processor, just waiting on the hanging weight.
The processor will do these 6 animals start to finish in 1-2 days before starting on the next customer's animal.
Typical upper midwest beef - pasture raised, supplemented with alfalfa and corn.  

My wife got conned into a group buy on "premium" grass fed organic beef a few years ago.  It wasn't very good quality meat, and the processor butchered the day they killed.  The burger was all water weight.
I donated nearly the whole quarter to the food shelf and my wife got a $500 lesson in meat quality.  

Shady butcher notices those ribeyes he just cut look like this?

The cows we used to get from our neighbors were all grass fed and young. Not very high quality steaks out of them, but can't complain when they're free. Anyway, I'd get the ribeyes and filets cut out of them, and all the rest ground into burger.

1 - Age
2 - Breed
3 - Nitritional history
4 - Indiviual traits

All of the above are factors in the cows weight.  

Most cows we have processed weigh at least a couple hundred lbs more, but depending on the circumstances, could see a healthy cow being in the 900lb range before slaughter.  

Ours just finished it's 2 week hanging time.  Picking up Saturday.  

That will fit in the microwave.


FIFY

PMM. Just go down to the butcher, tell them you’d like to learn so you can make an informed decision and they will walk you through a cut sheet. It’s pretty simple that way and I did that my first time.

Agreed, that is about a 1 year old animal based on our typical weight gain.  We like to sell at around 1400lbs, and usually that is about 16-17 months old.

I know some folks that are fine with smaller animals, but they aren't going to have the same cover on them as a fully fed out beef for sure.

If you are at a reputable shop, they have to track the meat and will typically assign a tag number to your animal, be it a steer, a deer, or a hog.   That stays with it as they process it.   I'm sure at times ground beef gets mixed up depending on how they manage the trimmings and stuff, but even at that I'm sure there are some USDA requirements about how they do it.

A cow is a female that has had a calf.  Generally cows are not butchered unless they are old or for some reason not profitable to continue breeding, and when butchered they are basically a utility grade of meat.  Younger females (unbred) are called heifers.  While their primary purpose is to replace old breeding stock, they can be fed out and produce decent beef - but it is generally less profitable to do so commercially.  Bull calfs are generally held to replace breeding stock, or get castrated (and become steers).  Steers are most efficient at turning feed into beef.  That said, I have eaten many heifers and bull calfs that were butchered right before they would have needed to be weened (about 11 months).  Definitely not prime beef, but edible.  People who have fat phobias, will argue that a 2yr old grass fed steer is the best flavor - I find fat is the best flavor, and that is generally put on at a feed lot.  I have fed out a heifer once, and it was definitely better than one of our 11m calves.  But we put almost $1k of feed into that animal.  It just is not commercially profitable.  We only did it because the feed was banked and it was the last animal on my friends ranch.

I currently have full blood Angus.  They are somewhat smaller than many other breeds (my bull is probably under 1200lbs).  I also have a couple Dexter cows (to make my truck look larger)...  I am going to need to give them their own pasture soon, as I am pretty sure an Angus Bull and a Dexter cow will be one hell of a calving problem.  I am betting the 2 Dexter bull calves I have will need to be butchered under 700lbs - hell their full grown mothers are under that.  I think Dexter bulls top out under 900lbs, maybe under 800.

----
I have not been for years, but Texas has a state park at the LBJ ranch.  They have tried to maintain it as it was when it was LBJ's presidential retreat.  LBJ raised Angus (iirc), and they have tried to retain the same genetics (not what the Angus breed has become since then).  Last time I went (about 20 years ago), they were some damn tiny cattle compared to my father's market crosses.  Our cattle at the time were true heinz 57's.  They started out as Brangus / Beefmasters I think, but then we had several generations of Brahman Bulls bread in (added a bit of mass), then a generation of Limousine (to stretch them out).  Towards the end we were breeding in Simmental - which while a heavy breed, was mostly chosen because the bulls were great herd bulls.  I went with Angus mostly for ease of calving - Brahman were pains in the ass with calving.

I raise pure black angus also but they are much larger, cows go 1200 and up, 6 year old bulls will be pushing a ton.  Maybe that is related to the little whitetail deer you have down there?

Head up my butt.  A 900lb "hanging weight" cow will fill up a 4'X6' truck bed full of coolers.

An actual 900lb cow should yeild substaintially less than 375lbs of cut meat.  

Cow? Or steer or heifer?

Cow, mostly hamburger.  Or roasts to cut up later.

I ordered mostly t-bones, roasts, brisket, ribs and hamburger from my half of the 900 lb heifer I raised.  

You can cut roasts anyway you want to.

HEIFER

There’s a steakhouse in Amarillo that serves that

All ground.

I really like burgers.

900lbs of tartare

I bought 500 lbs of grass-fed beef about 20 years or so ago, I went halves with an acquaintance.  Worst beef ever.  Steaks were tough and tasted like shit.  I couldn't even make good spaghetti with the hamburger.  First and only time in my entire life that I threw leftover spaghetti into the trash.    My then 10 year old son wouldn't eat it and he loves steak and meat.  It ruined every thing it was put in.

I just finally threw it away or gave it to our dog - it was nasty shit.

I have no idea if the beef was shit to begin with or the butcher swapped our beef for someone else or just kept it.  Never went back to either one.

Hogs on the other hand:  Holder Farms in Belividere, TN for the hogs + Weavers Processing in Hartselle, AL = some damn good pork!!!!  

I'm going to need another deep freezer.
Buddy called me last night.  he's got an aging cow that calved really late this year and he's decided she's going with to the locker for burger when he takes the steers in.
Offered me 75 additional pounds of burger on top of my quarter I'm getting.

A 900lb heifer isn't going to have near the fat cover as a fully finished beef.   Heifers that are finished out to 1200+ can still yield some good steaks.

You will probably get some pretty decent filets out of it as well as some other cuts that are less fatty.   But probably won't have that great of NY strips and Ribeyes, nor brisket   The roast will be decent and you can probably get some good burger out of it.

“All hotdogs.”

That was nice of him.

Too much food-talk about a first world problem!

"Shove all the things into this garbage bag sir."

Just tell him you want it cut in half.

Tell him you want all T-Bones, none of the hamburger bullshit.

I'm drooling here

.
I haven't read all the responses, yet.

But...

An old cow = 900 lbs of hamburger.
.

This thread is educational.

How Many in your family?  When it was just the wife and I, 1lb packs would do fine for hamburger.

With two teens now, we only get the hamburger in two lb packs, found it easier to work with.  

...

Picked up my hind 1/4 today.  $2.99 per lb, and got about just over 200#
Porterhouse , T Bones, round, flank, and sirloin steaks, Loin, rump, and sirloin tip roasts, with about 40# ground beef

Attached File

I've got to ask, was that 200lb of hanging weight or actual meat weighed put in your freezer?  

Attached File


Grilled a couple ribeyes from on of the steers we raised and butchered last fall.

Chip was his name, and he was about 1400lbs when we took him in for his final trailer ride.

hot dogs. 900 lbs worth.

I deal with a 5rd generation butcher that works in the same building that the family started in. Really cool actually.

I tell him what I’m after such as rump roasts for smoker and rotisserie

No cubed steaks. Leave them as a roast.

Hamburger in 1.25 lb bricks

1 inch thick steaks

And of course I ask for dog bones


He walks though how he would cut it. I say ok then I goes I file ( not a computer. That’s too fancy it goes on an index
Card ).  Next time I call he pulls up the previous order and asks if I want to make any changes, we buy a 1/4 cow twice a year.

Find a bacon you like (taste test it first) and mix in about 1/3 bacon "ends and pieces", turn it all into summer sausage.