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It's our turn

F

Faster horses

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
30,475
Location
NE WY at the foot of the Big Horn mountains
We had some bad luck this morning. My husband was feeding and he found a bull with a bad broken leg laying down by the creek. He said there was blood all over, so it must be a compound fracture. He doesn't know if they got in a fight or if the bull just slipped on the ice and fell. It is so icy here. We feel pretty bad, hate to see anything in pain.

He just came in and got the gun...
 
Well if it was just a broken leg, there really shouldn't be anything wrong with the meat. It might be a bit gamey if he got really worked up, but if he'd been laying there for a while, he probably had a chance to cool back down, too.
Shoot, when we lived on the buffalo ranch, most of the meat in the freezer came from critters that would die of heart attacks when they got worked. There was nothing really wrong with it, but sometimes you could really taste which animals had been all worked up before they died. :P
 
when our bull broke his leg we didnt find it until a day or so into it. Swollen and fever, processor said he wouldn't process anything that already had fever set in. But said if it was a fresh break he would. But most likely just make hamburger out of it all.
But ours wasn't a real bad break and I was able to pen him and medicate him long enuff for him to get around on it. He's still workin.

Sorry to hear bout yers tho...dang the luck. :mad:
 
He seems real calm and we can't see signs of a fight. So it was probably a fall. Our bulls haven't been fighting and they have been together a long time now. 'Course you never know.

We'll chance the meat and check it real good. Have lots of friends that will really appreciate some hamburger. Don't know where we are gonna put it tho. Have to get a locker someplace and don't even know if there are any in this town. Never needed one before.

Luckily, we don't have many problems like this. He was a nice bull too. Only a coming 2-year old. Darn the luck. I feel sorry for him.
 
FH:

The processor should be able to tell...if not, to be safe, I'd tank the muscles surrounding the break (if it's front leg, won't be much, back leg, would be the round, dependent upon where broke, if up high for example.)

One thought however, because of the new (as of '04) rules regarding the harvest of non ambulatory cattle (commonly called downers) the slaughter of such livestock is now prohibited. Cases like this are tragedies of these new regulations. So, especially if your processor is inspected (in North Dakota they have custom exempt slaughter) they may not take the bull for processing because it's "illegal."

Sorry you're having a rough day...hang in there kid...it'll get better.

Cheers-

TTB :wink:
 
If I were you I'd get on the phone now callin processor to see if he can get to it, I dont know how busy ya'lls is, but ours really appreciates a call in advance so he can be prepared. Last steer we had processed, we had meat in freezers all over town....Aunts uncles, mother n father in law, grand parents......our own.....and still had some to give away to the neighbors cuz we didnt have room.
 
Faster horses said:
I wondered if he might be salvagable. We know he was okay yesterday mornin'. How can you tell if the meat is okay? Will the processer know by looking?
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Might be bloodshot in that quarter- but I'd think the rest would be OK-- The processor should be able to tell... I'm still eating bull burger from an old bull that broke his leg a year ago--Awful lean and you know its bull- but it works good in prepared dish's or Chili-- for burgers I mix it with a little fatty burger or pork sausege........

Usually if they're feverish they have a slime over the meat that shows up as soon as you start skinning them......
 
You have never used a locker before FH? I have never bought beef in a store before. I had a bull break a leg last year but he had been just poured with ivomec a couple of days before. So it was a 100% loss on that one.
 
FH: I am sorry to hear of your loss. With this bull only a comming two year old he may make some good cutts. Have the processer try to get some rib eyes and such before you grind it all into hambuger.
Please let us know how it goes.
 
That reminds me of the old days...Whenever a herd of cows would get hit on the railroad tracks or clobbered by a semi, we'd just put in a call to a couple places on the Rez...No matter if it was 2AM- 1 dead cow or 10--Soon there would be 10-20 carloads there and they'd take everything- altho the big fight was usually over who got the tripe...And I never heard of any of those old Indians dying from ecoli or nothing...

Now with the welfare influences most don't even know how to butcher a cow- and they're all dying of fast food obesity and diabetes......
 
Our freezer's full of broken-legged-bull-beef right now, too. Grandpa had one of his Red Angus bulls go down in a fight. We hung him with the tractor, gutted and skinned him within 3 hours of it breaking. When we got it to the processor the next morning, the whole front quarter where the break was ( up high ), was garbaged. Too much blood and bruising, but that was fighting so it was a bad break I assume.
 
might try to age it a little longer, to get it a bit more tender...and I would grind most.......

Keep in mind that as the length of aging time increases, so does the aged beef flavor, the tenderness, and the weight loss. The processor must use valuable cooler space to age your beef, so you must expect to pay a higher price per pound because of the additional expense involved.
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We butchered a bull a couple of years ago that had a brocken leg. We waited about 24 hours after we found him to do it and he was just fine. Our man here says that bulls handle stress like this real well while cows do not. We ground some white fat from another critter in and it was the best hamburger ever. We have butchered cows like this with less than fantastic hamburger.
 
Getting back to "it's our turn" :???: I was going to watch a bit of a video auction,but went to tag calves and saw a couple of cows starting to calf so went back to check in a hr. and a cow that I wasn't even looking for had the water bag out and two upside down feet--well called husband and son( they were repairing pond dam) and we got her in and all was ok. Thankful for that! Then after that every where I went there was cattle mixed and fence to fix-oh well that is just part of it. So know we have to sort in the morning as some steers got in with some cows-oh heck no wonder when the 7 yr. old neighbor boy was over the other eve-he asked my son"doesn't your mom ever dust?" :lol: :lol:
 
Rowdy Ranch said:
Getting back to "it's our turn" :???: I was going to watch a bit of a video auction,but went to tag calves and saw a couple of cows starting to calf so went back to check in a hr. and a cow that I wasn't even looking for had the water bag out and two upside down feet--well called husband and son( they were repairing pond dam) and we got her in and all was ok. Thankful for that! Then after that every where I went there was cattle mixed and fence to fix-oh well that is just part of it. So know we have to sort in the morning as some steers got in with some cows-oh heck no wonder when the 7 yr. old neighbor boy was over the other eve-he asked my son"doesn't your mom ever dust?" :lol: :lol:
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Tell your neighbor boy that dust never gets over a quarter of an inch thick. After that it self-destructs. Saving a backwards calf is way more important than dusting. :wink:
 
Sounds like a waste of good meat if your processor wont take him,I would process him myself if it was me fasterhorses,if nothing else grind the whole carcass,last time I checked meat was mighty high.........good luck
 
UPDATE: The processor came out right away this morning, didn't take long to get him to town and hung up. The meat looks fine, not fevered or anything. Of course we will cut out where the break is. I told him to not skimp where he trimmed and he said he wouldn't. I did ask about some roasts off the best part and he asked if the bull was ever used and of course he was last summer. The meatman kind of wrinkled his nose and said he might be okay or he might be tough. I think I might try a roast and see. Good idea about leaving him hang longer. We always insist on 2 weeks anyway.

My husband figured out what happened. We have a creek that goes through there and the bull went to cross. He came back on this side, but in the meantime there was some ice hanging on the steep creek bank and it fell. The bull tried to get up where he went down to cross, stepped on the ice and down he went. It was a compound fracture too.

So that's that. Hamburger anyone?

Thanks everyone for your concern, caring and advice. Really do appreciate it.
 

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