rainie said:
I was out doing some chores, thinking that we should get off Soap's back about this whole implanting thing. And voila.... you guys started up a lot more interesting conversation. :lol: ..... Anyways, back too cattle, and meat. Soap mentioned taking in a fat dry cow in exchange for a feedlot animal. When bse first hit we had a fat black baldy 4 -5 year old cow about 1500 lbs plus off grass, no grain. I couldn't see selling her for .05 to .10 a pound so we butchered her. Thought about just turning her into hamburger, but then thought why not try steak and roasts to. Figured the dog would be well fed if they didn't turn out. Read in a book that I bought that in Europe meat from a 5 year old or older animal is actually preferred to a younger animal. I have to say it's the best meat we've ever had, bar none.We've had a few barbeques and every cut of meat, no matter where its from, has always been melt in your mouth tender and juicy, with a strong beef flavor. Just wonder if any one has had a similar experience. I was always lead to believe that beef from a younger animal was supposed to taste better, but I was wrong. Starting to think that maybe these 1st or 2nd calf heifers that just aren't quite turning out to be good cows would be good for butchering instead of selling at the auction mart. Especially for the producers selling their own meat, or for your own personal use.
In one of the old "real" cowboy books an old cowboy was bemoaning the fact that the new younger generation of people would never know how good a steak or roast cut off from a 4 or 5 year old grass fat steer was.
A friend of mine in ND told me of having a grass fat cow, 8 or 9 years old that he was going to butcher for hamburger. He told the butcher that he wished he could cut some steaks off from her, but he was afraid they would be to tought to chew. The butcher hung her for 20 days and my friend said it was the tenderest, juiciest, best steak he had ever eaten!
I tell you all this to explain why I went to butchering older beef. As long as they are fat, they are tender enough and they do have a stronger flavor, which we enjoy. If I can get them grass fat, fine, but usually by the time we need to butcher, the grasses are past to fatten one, so I feed them good hay and extruded soybean, as soybean is the one grain you can feed that doesn't change the CLA (the good cholestoral) that they get naturally from grazing grass and any other non-grains.
We ate an 8 year old longhorn cow once, as I thought at the time we butchered her that she was younger. She was by no means finished, but she was on the gain. She wasn't the tenderest beef I had ever eaten, but she sure wasn't the toughest. And she tased great!
Incidently, all the flavor in meat comes from the fat. Marbleing is fat, hence well marbled beef is better tasting than lean beef.
I like to eat fat cattle, not lean ones. :wink:
:twisted: 
:nod: :cowboy:
