OT- tough beef???

OK, been rasing and feeding out our own steers and selling sides of beef to friends and family for about 4 years now. We have ALWAYS had awesome , well marbled tender meat. Ussually bring in at a live weight of 1050-1100 pounds, less that 13 months old. Had 2 simmental/shorthorn cross steers we brought in about 2 weeks ago. We ended up keeping an 1/8 from one. Had the ribeyes tonight and right out of the package they seemed awfully lean, not well marbled like they always have been, and tough! What the heck? These have been on full grain since about 1 month after weaning. I have all ready emailed my customers asking how the quality is of the steaks, hoping they all are happy, but then this was 1/8 of a whole. We butchered a couple about a month ago, same feed program, same sire, and they were super tender. I wonder if the locker mixed mine up with some one else's forage fed dairy steers, maybe they diudnt bleed out well? Have no clue whaty to think. I just do not want unhappy customers.

It depends from animal to animal. Weve had some that have produced some amazing meat as well but then some that we also woundered if they mixed up the meat. They could mix up the meat but you always hope they don't. Just gotta cross your fingers and hope they keep track

Semmental is the problem they will need to weight 1300# to 1400# to marble and then may still be tough.

One time when I was a kid, my Dad sold a half of beef to one of the guys he worked with, and we kept the other half. Almost immediately he got complaints about the meat being tough, yet our half was just fine. So he traded a few packages with the customer, and sure enough, their meat was really tough and cruddy. I think my Dad made a considerable adjustment on what the customer paid for his beef. What they got was probably from an old cow, not the 2 year old it was supposed to be.

What had to have happened was that the half of beef the customer got was not the matching half to the beef we put in our freezer. My Dad went round and round with the packing house owner about it, but never really got anywhere with him. That guy had been in business for many years, but went broke a few years later. My guess is that he shafted other customers and word got around. We never did any business with them again.

Unless you do the work yourself, or are lucky enough to do business with an honest butcher outfit, you never really know if the beef you get is the beef you raised. I would talk to them, to see what might have happened. Mistakes can be made, and maybe they made one. Good luck!

Well, no surprise to me, I am having 'issues' with every 'professonal' I been running into. got to try to do it yourself. Not necessarily alone, if you are splitting it with other people, they help thru the whole thing, kill gut and hang, then they can all come back next week and cut it up as a team, or just take their share home and hang and pack it themselves. That way, if their share is tough or bad, then they didn't age, cut, freeze.... or cook it right. An electric chain saw, old band saw, yeah, someone good with blades, I got a friend that can sharpen an axe like a shaving razor, and miles and miles of celophane and freezer bags. What did the butcher keep/ charge? half?

Was it the same butcher you usually use? Soungs like the ole butcher switch game. This is where they can make easy money. Ever wonder whey the butcher shop has all those choice steak cuts for sale all the time, and has very little ground sutff, lower quality roasts, etc? Because they are taking the very best cuts out of folks orders and selling it in their counter for amazing profits, whey they went in the business in the first place.
Tom

They kept your steer for sale over the counter and gave you the hamburger cow they were butchering for resale. Maybe accident maybe not.

I have had meat coming back from the butcher cut(bone out) wrapped and frozen that weighed just a few pounds less than the animal was on the hoof.
turned out 1/2 the steaks and roasts where twice the size of the other half and twice as tough.
I must've gotten a half from a big old cow,and hopefully the other half off my own steer.

I would be very wary of butchers that have a meat counter as a side business.

just saying...

Years ago someone told me they had taken a homegrown prime steer to butcher. He told owner of butcher plant that he wanted to see the hanging carcass just before it was cut. No problem says butcher. Butcher calls customer to come see it, it will be cut today. Customer takes one look at poor quality carcass and says "that is not my steer". Butcher says it is. Customer points into butcher's pasture next to building and says "there is my steer" and it was !!! Customer comes back and gets his steer and takes it elsewhere.

My advise, change abattoirs to someone who doesn't have a butcher shop. I suspect your abattoir paid you the ultimate compliment by "stealing" your steer. However, after gorwing/finishing grass fed beef for over 30 years and have experienced just about every crime inaginable regarding my meat, my advise is as follows. Find an abattoir that can/will work with you, become friends not just a customer. Compliment the abatior, in front of his customers, as appropriate, and don't complain about the little things that invariably will go wrong. Select an abattoir that knows and understands the type of beef you grow. In my case I would never take my animals to an abattoir that knows nothing about aging and processing grass fed beef. Sometimes you may have to search for and cultivate a cabable and honest abattior, but remember in the end it's your business you are protecting... and it's worth it.

If you want ALL your meat and actually get your meat back not something else you'll have to kill it yourself and the better quality your animal is the more likely a few cuts will disappear.

I remember about 20 years or so ago Semmital was going to be the 'next big thing' - I was a 4H kid back then, and we vistited a big farm one Saturday that was having an 'open house' to promote Semmitals. Had me a Semi-burger - eh, I didn't think it was anything to write home about.

> Just gotta cross your fingers and hope they keep track

That's why I always take in my cull cows. One of these years they've got to mess up and give me some good meat.

Some shops are a little shady- others are pitch black. The shop we work with is about 1 mile from the farm and we've never had issue with them. They cost more but they can back it up as well. Lots of awards on their walls and tables too.

They're also friends of the family and we've always gotten along with them very well. A while back, for my brother's senior year on the wrestling team they did a photo shoot for the poster in their meat loacker, and the theme of the season was "Meat you on the mat"

Caused lots of rucuss and complaints from parents of opposing teams kids, and more than one editorial, but coach took no bull and said if they didn't like it, prove us wrong. They went to state that year and took second. Second year in a row there and the beginning of a very long streak going to state. They have yet to actually beat Wisconsin Rapids for the win though....

Donovan from Wisconsin

I would not assume that it was the wrong animal. 13 mo is a very young finished animal. While it may had good outside fat it may not have started to marble yet. How big was it's momma. Most finished steers will outweigh their mother by 100 lbs.