o/t cow with broke leg

i was wanting to know if the meat is still good if we cut the broke leg of its been broke over 24 hours

I had it happen to a 1700lb steer about 5 years ago. Pulled it out of yard and butchered it. Carcass hung in the shop at 35 degrees for a week and we processed it ourselves. It was the best meat anyone had ever tasted. I think my steer was not down more than 24 hours. If you get the animal worked up before you shoot it, it will ruin the meat, wont even make hamburger.
How old is the cow? if its more than 3 years old than I would say it will be tough. Steers are around 20-24 months old when they go to market. I had a neighbor who use to cut up cows, after he bought one of our steers he quit that practice.
Hope this helps.

Are you plannin to eat one piece at a time, or asr you askin about the rest of the cow?

I'd eat it. Perhaps check first that it is not running a temp.

I would say it would be ok, check injured area to make sure not swollen/bruised. I had a 6 week old fresh cow go down (Im now bottle feeding calf) then 2 days later lost my 5 year old angus bull, Im tired of winter. No warning from either they were ill.

I process"d one, Because the locker would not process it becaue it could not walk off the tralor:
It no different than processing a deer unless you take your to the locker
JR.Frye

About a month ago I had a 700 lb steer with a broken leg. It was a couple days before I got around to shooting him. I hung him from the loader, skinned it, and boned it out. I cut the leg off above the point where it looked swollen. Ground the whole thing into hamburger, and man is it tasty.

I probably wouldnt eat it, but it should be ok to eat as long as there's no infection and the cow hasnt had any antibiotics. The last one I had to put down was a heifer who got accross the highway. If they get on the r.r. right of ways over there they can get on the interstate. There was no catching her and getting her back. She was fine, tasted good and all that but I just cant bring myself to eat a cow I know.

It'll be fine, just follow the advice everyone else has given.

Gene

Yea, it should be fine. You're not going to eat the bone anyway. LOL. Now when you get ready for more meat and take another leg, you're going to have to prop that cow up or something or it'll fall over.

Depends on whether or not (and how much) the animal was stressed before slaughter; if she was stressed, the meat will essentially be worthless. Look up the term, 'dark cutter'.

Fever? Recent shots/medication?

Can't you splint it, think they will mend, different to horses, splinted a lamb once when I was young, healed well.

Normal temp on a healthy cow is about 101. Fever of 103 or above, I would not eat it. Typical standard with shops around here. Surprised that was not mentioned on the earlier post. Handfull of aspirin can help to reduce the fever, or get the large cow aspirin. Broken leg is not a disease, no reason to waste good meat. Best to butcher immediately- no hope with a broken leg.

Heck, growin up all we ever ate was cancered eyed cows or somthing else wrong with em.Wernt great but we survied.Didnt know what good beef was till i was on my own.

I had a Hereford cow come up with a broken fore leg.Vet said the break was too high to splint.He said pen her up in a small area and see what happens.She had a bull calf only a few weeks old.The leg swelled up pretty bad.Shed had shade most of the day.I kept her fed and watered.She moved around a little.At the end of the forth week she jumped over the single wire that kept her on the small lot.She produced 6 more calves before old age got her.

Years ago, my Dad had a large, mature cow break both front legs in a feed bunk somehow. I was living in town at the time and he called me to come out to the ranch after midnight. He only found her because he heard the cows screaming after he had gone to bed.

When I got there Dad had dragged the cow out of the barnyard with the old Case tractor. Unfortunately, the Case did not have a loader, so we ended up butchering the cow on the ground. I shot her between the eyes and cut her throat, but she really didn't bleed out as well as she should have, since gravity wasn't helping.

We worked for hours. It was raining and snowing and we didn't have the best light, but we got it done. I found that the quarters were so heavy that I couldn't lift them up from the ground, so we cut the carcass in 6 pieces. We then hung them in a shed and later took them to the meat cutter's place. All in all, it was a heck of a bad night for the 3 of us.

The cow had been horribly stressed after breaking both front legs and thrashing around trying to get up. By the time Dad dragged her out, she was pretty well worn out, but still alive and breathing.

The meat was edible, but I sure wouldn't say it was very good. My folks had lots of it ground into hamburger, which was kind of bloody. The steaks and roasts were fair. Normally we would have sold half of the cow, but in this situation, my folks kept it all. It took a long time to use it all up, but being thrifty, that was what we did. I guess it tasted OK, just not great.

Hopefully you are set up better to butcher than my folks were. Even being able to lift the carcass with a front end loader would have made the job a whole lot easier and the cow would have bled out much better. But you do what you have to do...and you don't expect super meat from an injured animal. Good luck!