Got beef?

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

I had a double wide commercial fridge / freezer that I tried aging an emergency put down in as an experiment. It was a bust. There wasn't enough air flow and things went south fast.

They make controllers for window air conditioners that are for making cold rooms. I am still trying to get my hands on one.

 

[Double R]

The double wide is what I was wondering about. Very helpful information. Thank you

 

[Terri9630]

Do you raise the Dexters yourself or buy from someone else???

Ever since I learned of this breed......being multi-purpose and smaller sized (less feed, less space and less damage to pasture)....I've been curious about them in a real life situation.
The old standby, is that it takes 1 acre for 1 cow per year, but with Dexters that could be less acreage or more cows per acre....yes???

Then I'd be curious to know just how much meat you get back on that and how many meals can be made from one animal. Sorry, kinda thinking out loud here, but would welcome an answer if you have one.........or maybe I'll start a thread on that topic

We bought these steers but have a 8yr old cow that we milk. We bought her last year, bred. She's due Feb 1st. We also have a 8 month old heifer and a 6 month bull calf that we recently bought.

That old "stand by" greatly depends on where you live. Out here it averages 45 acres per standard breed cow/calf pair.

 

[Terri9630]

Last year there was a long waiting list for butcher dates....and that could become a real problem in the future too and may force some people to do their own.

There is still a long wait.

 

[Amish Heart]

Here, too, only one place. Unless you know someone that does it. That's how we got our half today

 

[Spikedriver]

My cousin uses a friend of his, unlicensed. There's been stories of licensed places giving you someone else's meat. Or them keeping the grass fed and giving you inferior meat.

Out here you can't give away grass fed beef. Yuck. If I wanted to eat string I would eat string. Pile that corn high and bring on the juicy tender corn fed succulent gorgeous steaks!!!

 

[Spikedriver]

I like Tbone better, too. My favorite cut

T bones are great. Flat iron steaks are good when not overdone. But my favorite are New York strips.

 

[JustMe]

Out here you can't give away grass fed beef. Yuck. If I wanted to eat string I would eat string. Pile that corn high and bring on the juicy tender corn fed succulent gorgeous steaks!!!

And here I can't find real grass fed beef......though I haven't tried buying the organic stuff that's atleast triple in price. I have bought a few cuts from butcher shops, but it was still grain finished and didn't have the right flavor.

Many years ago, we drove over to Yellowstone and back for a vacation trip of 2 weeks and took our time. And I wanted to know if the beef tasted any different than it did here on the west side of WA. Cause I can still remember when stores would label the beef cuts as grass or grain fed....that eventually everything was grain fed and no longer labeled. That was in like the 60's, maybe early 70's. Anyway, during this trip to Yellowstone, I ate steak all the way over there, just to see if there was a taste difference......and there was. The closer we got to Montana, the more it tasted like what I remembered grass fed was like. Not as 'sweet' and had a tanginess flavor to it. And yes there was just a bit more chew to it, but the flavor was good. I thought anyway.

Much later, hubs had been out hitting the garage sales and called me to ask if $75 was a good buy for a bunch of beef.....he found an old man that was selling off everything and moving out of state.....including the contents of his freezer. That beef had been raised on his property. I was so excited with that first bite to discover it was that grass fed taste I remembered. I was in heaven......hubs on the other hand thought the meat was tainted or rotten and no matter how much I tried to explain why it tasted different, he wouldn't listen.

Don't get me wrong, grain fed beef is good, but there's just something special about real grass fed. Maybe it's because I can't get it for whatever reason that I like it so well..........and you can't get rid of it and why you don't.

 

[Mountain trapper]

I sell mostly grass-fed red and black angus beef. I've never had a complaint. I also finish some on corn, oats, barley and molasses for 90 days before butchering. I really can't tell the difference. It pays to start with quality breeding stock.