Starve before slaughter?

[JohnnyP]

In about a month's time I'll be taking our first steer to slaughter, and called up the abattoir in Dingwall to check the procedure. They recommended that I starve the animal for the day before slaughter. I can see the benefit for the slaughterhouse, but not for the animal! Do members do this, or not? I'm inclined towards not.

Thanks, John.

[strawberriesclint]

Hi John

I dont know what other people do but i never starve them for a day, they are usually got in from the field the morning they are due to go and are loaded up and go.

cyndy

[wagra dexters]

John, we run our few steers into the yards the evening before they are to leave, with only dry hay and water. I have been told by the "big boys", local graziers who run thousands of beef cattle, that even though they will have to stay another night at the abs yards before slaughter, if they have a belly full before travelling any distance they can get upset stomachs and cramps. Also an empty gut runs less risk of contaminating the meat.

[Saffy]

We have taken several to two different places over the years and never been asked to starve them yet.

Stephanie

[Broomcroft]

One abattoir we use insists on 24-36 hours water only. Although they always eat some bedding! Another abattoir just gives me a dirty look if I take animal that is straight off grass, which can be really messy, so I never do it any more.

In a way, it's just politeness, but not from the animals point of view! Difficult one, but if that's what they've asked for, IMO that's what you should do, it's their abattoir, you can chose another.

[Rob R]

Our cattle go into overnight lairage with plenty of fresh straw & water so we have never starved them. I do starve poultry if I'm planning to kill them the next day which makes killing and plucking a lot more hygienic so I can definitely appreciate why they do it. I'd be upset if my meat came back covered in excrement so fair's fair. I know they have straw & water to fill their bellies but as they've got a rumen full of grass when I take them in I'm confident that they don't suffer. If I was taking them in to kill immediately I'd house them overnight in a similar way. 'Starve' is really too emotive of a word for it though, as they don't get chance to actually starve or they'd start to lose weight.

[JohnnyP]

Really helpful replies - thanks. I shall bring him in from the fields the evening before travelling with hay and water, then off in the morning, slaughter in the afternoon. Not looking forward to my first visit...but has to be done. Cheers, John.

[Tim Watson]

This is an interesting post.

I'll qualify what I am going to say by letting you all know that I have only taken one to slaughter so far so arguably don't know what I I'm talking about! The abbatoir we used didn't ask us to do this reduce feed etc at all.

Before we did the first one we read around stress levels affecting meat etc and all the advice was to keep the cattle as calm and stress free as possible, so we quietly walked her out of the field still with a mouthful of grass, straight up the ramp and she was dead less than 45minutes later.

I wonder about separating the 'slaugteree' the day before, having them in on their own away from the rest of the herd they are used to being with. That must increase stress levels. If you are taking more than one then I suppose it wouldn't be so bad.

With regard to having 'meat covered in excrement' that surely must be more of an operational problem on the abbatoirs part. From seeing what happens, the carcase is opened from anus to throat (as the animal is usually hung by its back legs once dead) and two cuts are made at each end and the whole digestive system comes out and away - just as you would with a deer. As they are hung head down, gravity tends to keep whatever is in the back end where one would want it to stay.

I don't think I would starve before slaughter.

[Rob R]

We used to home slaughter some animals so I can see where they're coming from. The easiest way to explain it is the difference between dropping an inflated balloon half-filled with slurry and a deflated balloon a quarter filled with slurry. The flanks, offal and parts of the thoracic cavity can be condemned if it spills at all on the way down. It is possible to do it full but it's a lot quicker and easier (and therefore keeps the cost of slaughter down) if they haven't come straight from the field. It also means less excrement in the killing hall, which helps with cleaning & means there is less potential for contamination.

[wagra dexters]

Tim, I agree seperation and isolation could easily cause stress in cattle. Ours never go on their own to slaughter, and have always previously had several overnighters in yards, and trailer trips between farms before their final trip. I believe the trip & yarding don't bother them too much or else we would have seen some fevering in our meat if they did.

Whether our cattle go north for export slaughter or south for private buyers, or for the domestic market, they have 2hours travel no matter which. Going south they have 732 tight bends for 2 hours down a narrow goat track to contend with. That would definitely stress them out if they had a belly full of lush tucker. We do leave some plain hay with them but that is more to keep us happy than to keep them happy. I think the word would be "fasting", not "starving", especially when you see what they still have left in their gut. So long as they have water they are fine.

Long ago I worked on a "vis table" (viscera) at an abs for 3 months and I have seen that it can easily happen for matter to be accidentally excreted from the pipe when the men were gutting.
Margaret

[JohnnyP]

Just to finish off the story - thanks to your combined wisdom, I brought the steer and three heifers into the cattle pen overnight, fed them hay and water, and shipped him off the following morning (yesterday). No problems, and probably the best I could have done for him.