A cow to eat....

JL Ray

Member
What is the best cow to raise for eating? I'm not ready to do this yet but trying to think ahead. I have a barn with water, I will have pasture but know I'll need to do something about getting through a winter.
 
I've raised Holstein steers and angus steers for beef and taken care of properly both types of animals make excellent beef. Heifers will also make good beef but just not as much. I think Holstein bull caves are easier to find and buy if you're in dairy country but need castrating and milk feeding for a bit. The Holstein will grow a little quicker but usually the beef breed yields a little better. Around here if you want a beef type breed they usually have a summer on pasture so they weigh few hundred pounds and are priced accordingly. It comes down to how much do you want pay for someone else's labor vs your own time. Personally for home use I would buy what's available in your area.
 
Having raised Holstein, Hereford, and Charolais, and bought a half of Angus, I prefer plain old Holstein.
 
if properly fed they are all good I raised Hereford, limousine, brahman but the best beef I ever ate was longhorn bought two bulls to use on hiefers one time sold one fed the other one 90 days butchered him that was the most flavorful beef we ever ate
 
I worked for a butcher when I was in high school. He raised Angus and Holstein steers. The Holsteins had more consistently tender beef, and the best customers always got a Holstein. And the next time they came back for another, and raved about that wonderful Angus beef, they got another Holstein.
 
A few things to think of here. Do you have to buy the cow? Does your pasture already have a fence around or are you going to have to buy fencing supplies. Do you have hay for winter or will you have to buy hay or pay someone to bale hay for you? How about grain? A butcher cow will need grain as well as hay. Is that something you'll have to buy as well? Are you set up to butcher a cow or will you have to pay someone to butcher as well? By the time you're done that could end up being very expensive meat.
 
It wouldn't be a cow if I'm going to eat it. I prefer my beef to come from a less than 15 mos old fat steer or heifer.
 
In the feedlot, Angus or Simitol mixed breed fed with corn and good alalafa hay, no commercial feed at all. Commercial feed makes the meat stink. If you want super tender meat, get your self a milk cow and feed your steer the milk on top of the pure alalafa hay and corn. Feed your steer to 1300 lbs. This is from experience. We fed everything from dairy calves to beef calves. Fed and finished properly there is no better eating. Grass fed beef is tough and stringy, again speaking from experience.
 
Years ago we raised angus and hereford beef cattle and latter went to milking dairy cows and found that a Brown Swiss heifer that had her first calf and was not a good milk producer we would fatten her up and used her for meat. We found the Brown Swiss to have more meat and tender meat.
 

Depends what your taste is. The basic standard for tasty beef has always been the degree of "marbleling" which us the little veins of fat which are all through the red meat. In order for beef to be rated choice it has to have a high degree of marbeling. The fat is what gives it flavor. If you want lean then you want less marbleling. Marbeling is accomplished by finishing the animal on a high energy "corn" diet, while it gets little exercise. So basically it is not so much the breed as how it is finished prior to slaughter, and it depends on what you want to eat. Another consideration is feed efficiency. From what I see every breed gains the most on the least feed according to the breeders.
 
(quoted from post at 11:37:26 11/09/18) Buffalo are to be good ,low cholesterol and can eat poor grass.

Here in NH the state has laws requiring very strong fence for buffalo.
 
(quoted from post at 11:37:26 11/09/18) Buffalo are to be good ,low cholesterol and can eat poor grass.

I second that.
Next best is a double muscle limousine
 
Hi, when I was growing up on a dairy farm we usually kept a Holstein bull calf for meat. Dad would neuter it and raise it about a year and a half. Sometimes we'd butcher a cow that wouldn't catch with a calf. They would be finished with barley chop.
Ed Will Oliver BC
 
Holstein is some amazing meat but...they are on full corn for 16 months to do it. Last 4 I've fed out cost around $1500 in corn per animal. Next 2 we will eat next year are some kind of Angus/Simmental cross i think.
AaronSEIA
 
A cow is not really a good thing to butcher. Unless you want hamburger and intend on grinding the whole thing into hamburger. If you want good steaks and roasts, you need to buy a good beef steer or heifer calf and raise it to adult size, 1200 to 1300lbs. Approximately 2 years old. Jersey's can be buthchered about 900 to 1000 lbs. They don't get much bigger than that. Holstiens probly need to be butchered around 1300 to 1400lbs. Holstiens have a bigger frame and bigger bone structure. So they need to be raised bigger to end up with the meat you should get.

When raising a calf for butcher, a new born calf should be fed milk to start with for a couple three months. I like to put at least 2 bags of milk replacer into each calf. Then wean. They should be eating at least one pound of grain per day when you wean. A calf will do better if you at least have 2. Cattle are a herd animal, and just don't do as good when raised as a single. After weaning they should have full feed grass or hay. And grain is important. The should be getting fed 1 lb of grain per 100 lds. A 400 pounder should get 4lbs. A 700 pounder should get fed 7 lbs. Etc. It's important they get fed grain every day and all the way through. Then for the last 90 days, they should be taken off of hay and grass and be full fed corn. Don't feed them nothing at all for the last 24 hours before butcher. Once they are hung, they should hang for at least 2 weeks before meat is cut up.
 
Waygu is the best you can get. But we have some limmousin in the freezer right now, and it is very good.
 
I have never understood why they should be hung like that. Here butchered and cut same day and ate same day. And put up in quart jars, no freezir
 

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