First Grass Fed Calves Gone

[Trinity man]

Well I just haul off our first grass fed calves to the processor I was aiming for 640 lb and they ended up at 725, 685, and 680. I wish I would have had my cam. to show you all. They are true angus with number 1 muscle. The processor is thinking they may yield closer to 70% than 60% I hope he is right.

 

[Faster horses]

AWESOME. Way to go, Trinity man!

 

[bverellen]

How old were they?

Thanks.

bart.

<><

 

[Trinity man]

How old were they?

Thanks.

bart.

<><

9 months

 

[Ben H]

I'm confused, are those hanging weights or live weights, those are the hanging weights I'm getting at around 18-20 months. I'm curious to hear what the retail yield is, I haven't been all that happy with what I get back from my processor.

 

[Trinity man]

I'm confused, are those hanging weights or live weights, those are the hanging weights I'm getting at around 18-20 months. I'm curious to hear what the retail yield is, I haven't been all that happy with what I get back from my processor.

Those are live weights. The processor and some of the guys at the sale barn where I had them weight are thinking they may yield closer to 65-70 percent than 60. I told the processor to make for sure this meat off of these calves are kept together. This guy is know to be pretty good.

 

[Ben H]

Interesting, what is your market for calves that size?

 

[Trinity man]

Interesting, what is your market for calves that size?

It seems pretty good. A lot of people don't have a lot of room for all that meat and 640-700 lb at 60% will yield about 400-420 lb of meat. A small 5 or 8 cube ft freezer is all they need for that amount of beef. Plus its a little cheaper for them than a larger calf, it dosen't have the gamey taste
and with the way things are today it's cheaper than Whole Foods.

 

[leanin' H]

What will they grade at that age? And how are they finish wise? Just curious as i feed out a bunch of calves as custom beef every year. Most are grain finished and a few are grass fat. My hanging weights are at the 625 to 650 range depending on the calf. When folks want less meat they buy a quarter or a half. Most of my calves grade high choice. Thanks for letting me ask a billion questions. Hope it works well for ya!

 

[Trinity man]

What will they grade at that age? And how are they finish wise? Just curious as i feed out a bunch of calves as custom beef every year. Most are grain finished and a few are grass fat. My hanging weights are at the 625 to 650 range depending on the calf. When folks want less meat they buy a quarter or a half. Most of my calves grade high choice. Thanks for letting me ask a billion questions. Hope it works well for ya!

I am not sure on the grade because these calves was straight grass fed with no grain. A lot of people that I have talked to said the bigger calves have a strong gamey favor when they are fed on grass to higher weights. So I am hope with lighter wt and still on the cow they will not have the gamey favor. My USDA boss is also very curious on how this is going to work. He was asking some of the meat graders that work in our office in Amarillo if they have ever graded any striaght grass fed calves. But none of them have never have, they always finish them on grain.

 

[Grassfarmer]

Interesting, what is your market for calves that size?

It seems pretty good. A lot of people don't have a lot of room for all that meat and 640-700 lb at 60% will yield about 400-420 lb of meat. A small 5 or 8 cube ft freezer is all they need for that amount of beef. Plus its a little cheaper for them than a larger calf, it dosen't have the gamey taste
and with the way things are today it's cheaper than Whole Foods.

Whoa Trinity - there are a few things I would mention to you before you get into troubles with customers. You are talking about getting a kill out % of 60-70%. That's not the weight of beef customers take home though that is only your hanging weight before final cutting. You will lose another 30-35% bones, fat etc when they cut and wrap.
Our cattle will likely yield less than yours because they are older and will have more bone, gut etc. We pull them straight from the field weighing 1050-1100lbs and get hanging weights of 600lb on average - the usual take home weight is 400-440lbs of cuts. We don't count the short ribs, soup or dog bones or organs in this weight we give them out as extras.

Also your projection of getting 400+ lbs of frozen beef into a 5 cubic freezer would take some creative packing - 8 cubic would likely work though.

My guess, not knowing your cattle, is that the 700lb liveweight average will result in your customers taking home a maximum of 320-340lbs of beef.

 

[Trinity man]

Interesting, what is your market for calves that size?

It seems pretty good. A lot of people don't have a lot of room for all that meat and 640-700 lb at 60% will yield about 400-420 lb of meat. A small 5 or 8 cube ft freezer is all they need for that amount of beef. Plus its a little cheaper for them than a larger calf, it dosen't have the gamey taste
and with the way things are today it's cheaper than Whole Foods.

Whoa Trinity - there are a few things I would mention to you before you get into troubles with customers. You are talking about getting a kill out % of 60-70%. That's not the weight of beef customers take home though that is only your hanging weight before final cutting. You will lose another 30-35% bones, fat etc when they cut and wrap.
Our cattle will likely yield less than yours because they are older and will have more bone, gut etc. We pull them straight from the field weighing 1050-1100lbs and get hanging weights of 600lb on average - the usual take home weight is 400-440lbs of cuts. We don't count the short ribs, soup or dog bones or organs in this weight we give them out as extras.

Also your projection of getting 400+ lbs of frozen beef into a 5 cubic freezer would take some creative packing - 8 cubic would likely work though.

Thanks for the heads up. I thought they would yield out better being a smaller bone tho. We have a heifer process that was for us a few month ago that weight 770 and still took home around 440 lb of meat tho. I am new to these things and my boss is helpping me some, but he most deals with grain fed beef. Dose grain fed beef yield out more or less than grass fed beef? The heifer that we process was grass fed only to. The people are paying for hanging wt.

O and the 440 lbs of beef fit into our 5 cubic ft freezer. You just have to stack it just right.

 

[Grassfarmer]

Trinity, I have no idea what kind of heifer would yield 440lbs of meat from a 770lb liveweight - that is unimaginable to me but again I have never killed anything that light.
Here is a cut-out specification I found on line that I believe to be fairly accurate although we have never quite done as well with ours on yield as this would indicate.

Typical cut out specifications of a very good 1150lb liveweight heifer - hanging weight of 660lbs (half carcase 330lbs)

Front quarter of the animal weighing approximately 170lbs

Cut
Rib roasts, steaks 15 lbs
Boneless stew meat 7 lbs
Short Ribs 5 lbs
Hamburger 46 lbs
Chuck roasts, steak 44 lbs

Meat total 117 lbs
Bone fat and trimmings 53 lbs
(to discard)

Back quarter of the animal weighing approximately 160lbs

Cut
T-bones, club steaks 22 lbs
Sirloin steaks, roasts 19 lbs
Round steak or roasts 35 lbs
Rump roasts (boneless) 10 lbs
Flank steak 3 lbs
Ground Beef 20 lbs

Meat total 119 lbs
Bone fat and trimmings 51 lbs
(to discard)

By these figures the yield of beef would be around 470lbs off an 1150lb liveweight and as I say that is better than I have ever achieved. Hope that helps.

 

[Trinity man]

Trinity, I have no idea what kind of heifer would yield 440lbs of meat from a 770lb liveweight - that is unimaginable to me but again I have never killed anything that light.
Here is a cut-out specification I found on line that I believe to be fairly accurate although we have never quite done as well with ours on yield as this would indicate.

Typical cut out specifications of a very good 1150lb liveweight heifer - hanging weight of 660lbs (half carcase 330lbs)

Front quarter of the animal weighing approximately 170lbs

Cut
Rib roasts, steaks 15 lbs
Boneless stew meat 7 lbs
Short Ribs 5 lbs
Hamburger 46 lbs
Chuck roasts, steak 44 lbs

Meat total 117 lbs
Bone fat and trimmings 53 lbs
(to discard)

Back quarter of the animal weighing approximately 160lbs

Cut
T-bones, club steaks 22 lbs
Sirloin steaks, roasts 19 lbs
Round steak or roasts 35 lbs
Rump roasts (boneless) 10 lbs
Flank steak 3 lbs
Ground Beef 20 lbs

Meat total 119 lbs
Bone fat and trimmings 51 lbs
(to discard)

By these figures the yield of beef would be around 470lbs off an 1150lb liveweight and as I say that is better than I have ever achieved. Hope that helps.

The heifer was an angus. The process and I was surprise she did that well to. She had a good number 1 muscle for an heifer with a rib-eye of 6 to 7 inches.

Your calves only yield 57%-58% up there. Calves from this area yield at least 60%. This is from live wt to hanging wt. Maybe thats where we are off.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

Trinity, I have no idea what kind of heifer would yield 440lbs of meat from a 770lb liveweight - that is unimaginable to me but again I have never killed anything that light.
Here is a cut-out specification I found on line that I believe to be fairly accurate although we have never quite done as well with ours on yield as this would indicate.

Typical cut out specifications of a very good 1150lb liveweight heifer - hanging weight of 660lbs (half carcase 330lbs)

Front quarter of the animal weighing approximately 170lbs

Cut
Rib roasts, steaks 15 lbs
Boneless stew meat 7 lbs
Short Ribs 5 lbs
Hamburger 46 lbs
Chuck roasts, steak 44 lbs

Meat total 117 lbs
Bone fat and trimmings 53 lbs
(to discard)

Back quarter of the animal weighing approximately 160lbs

Cut
T-bones, club steaks 22 lbs
Sirloin steaks, roasts 19 lbs
Round steak or roasts 35 lbs
Rump roasts (boneless) 10 lbs
Flank steak 3 lbs
Ground Beef 20 lbs

Meat total 119 lbs
Bone fat and trimmings 51 lbs
(to discard)

By these figures the yield of beef would be around 470lbs off an 1150lb liveweight and as I say that is better than I have ever achieved. Hope that helps.

The heifer was an angus. The process and I was surprise she did that well to. She had a good number 1 muscle for an heifer with a rib-eye of 6 to 7 inches.

Your calves only yield 57%-58% up there. Calves from this area yield at least 60%. This is from live wt to hanging wt. Maybe thats where we are off.

I was always told that the difference between Canada and the US is that in Canada the fat inside the carcass is pulled out before weighing thus making a lower yield. Not sure if that's the way in small plants but it was in the big packers.

 

[the_jersey_lilly_2000]

The steer we took to the packer a few weeks ago, weighed 850 lbs. Came out to 510 lbs packaged meat. Customer wanted rib eyes, t bones, sirloins, round steaks, rump roasts, cutlets, and the rest in hamburger.

 

[Ben H]

I would be surprised if the meat has really started to marble at that age, it's more just grassfed then grass-finished. One thing to keep in mind is that all the health benefits of grassfed beef are in the fat, not in the lean tissue. That's the real challenge in producing it, getting that fat on there. Most of todays cattle are bred to not fatten too early.

Yes, you do get more flavor with age. I don't consider it "gamey" though. The forage they finish on will influence the flavor. You never want to finish on fescue, that will create off-flavors.

Part of the game is adding value to forage. Converting grass to beef, as long as they are growing you should be making that money. I may argue that by killing them at that age with a lot of growth left in them, you are loosing a chance to make some more money.

 

[katrina]

I would be surprised if the meat has really started to marble at that age, it's more just grassfed then grass-finished. One thing to keep in mind is that all the health benefits of grassfed beef are in the fat, not in the lean tissue. That's the real challenge in producing it, getting that fat on there. Most of todays cattle are bred to not fatten too early.

Yes, you do get more flavor with age. I don't consider it "gamey" though. The forage they finish on will influence the flavor. You never want to finish on fescue, that will create off-flavors.

Part of the game is adding value to forage. Converting grass to beef, as long as they are growing you should be making that money. I may argue that by killing them at that age with a lot of growth left in them, you are loosing a chance to make some more money.

I agree..... Where is PPRM? He feeds grassfeds

 

[Grassfarmer]

Your calves only yield 57%-58% up there. Calves from this area yield at least 60%. This is from live wt to hanging wt. Maybe thats where we are off.

Depends what you call the liveweight - my cattle were weighed live having just stepped out of the pasture unstressed and full of grass. If I were to truck them to a big plant and weigh them there I suspect I would get at least a 5% shrink so instead of an 1100lb steer leaving my field a 1045lb steer would arrive at the plant. So my steer would have a 57% yield based on an "ex field" weight but a 60% yield on a "packing plant" weight

 

[Silver]

Your calves only yield 57%-58% up there. Calves from this area yield at least 60%. This is from live wt to hanging wt. Maybe thats where we are off.

There is also the difference of breed. :wink: Fed Angus typically do well to yield over 60%. Other breeds up here may yield 65%