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Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 1:41 pm
by ann
I was at my butchers yesterday checking on the new rules for slaughtering and butchering cattle up to 30mths.
The current rules now are that the spine must be removed at the point of butchering, the carcase can still be hung for the requested amount of time i.e. 2weeks.
So for the moment we can all breath a sigh of relief, No one knows with this government how long this rule will be in place and I am considering trying to get my steers finished before 24 month is possible, but with 5 on the place over 24mths, this is one relieved Dexter owner, however I do know how hard this will be for hill people or cattle on conservation grazing to finish their stock.
Praphs the answer is to try and find someone with lots of spare grass to finish your animals if you are in this postition. :p :p
Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 7:09 pm
by Duncan MacIntyre
Everyone should check with their butcher, not all will be taking out the licence to bone out over 24months. Ours is not and the only to have him do it is to get it boned out at slaughterhouse, sent here in vacuum packs to be butchered, costing £140 for the boning out.
An alternative I will be looking at is an itinerant butcher who does stuff on farm for home consumtion only, no use if you want to sell the meat an I am not sure if they will be able to handle the over 24 months.
Duncan
Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 10:08 pm
by moomin
Have been authorised today to remove VC from 24 to 30 month carcases. I am number 01/06!!!!
Apparently I am the only butcher in the area that has applied! I have had to register or the slaughterhouse would not be allowed to deliver my meat back.
It is not that onerous, just have to keep carcases separate, by time or distance, from under 24 months until VC is taken out. Must use dedicated tools [colour coded] and die VC with blue die and store in sealed labelled container until collected by authorised collector or take to a collection centre. This is the tricky bit as it can be very costly. I am planning to pickle mine in formalin with the die in it and have a collection when I have enough! The form just says regular collection!
I do hear rumours that the rule may be scrapped soon or that the bone collectors may have a separate compartment on the lorry to take this category one waste.
Slaughterhouses that do cutting come under different regulations and have to apply to the meat hygiene service, not the local authority, for a licence. They can remove other category one waste i.e. heads and spinal cord, but the vertebral column is apparently a separate entity and comes under separate regulations for them!!!!
Incidentally my local authority food safety officer [who does the authorisation and just happens to be one of our customers] only heard about the regulations last Wednesday, 4 working days before implementation, Defra had not informed local authorities about it at all!
Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 10:15 pm
by moomin
Post script for Duncan. does your butcher know how easy it is to register and that it doesn't cost anything to do so? I assume he is a Scot, tell him it is something for nothing!
Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 11:15 pm
by Duncan MacIntyre
Hello Mrs Moomin,
it is not the cost of registering that bothers him, it is the additional regulations inspections and paperwork, with the complications of separate bins for SRM green stained etc which he just can't face. I suspect the other butcher in town will be of the same opinion. In the good old days when we had our own slaughterhouse on island the throughput would be under 12 beasts a week, and most of that will be intensively finished so well under the 24 months. The extra hastle is just not worth it for the odd older one.
How far is it from Rothesay to that good butcher in Dover?
Duncan
Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 11:01 am
by moomin
Hello Duncan,
About 500 miles maybe!!
£140.00 for taking out the vertebral column, that's outrageous! They don't have to bone out the whole carcase you know. You could earn more boning out VC than being a vet!
As you know Duncan it is quite legal to get animals killed at home. The law states that the animal must be killed by a licenced slaughterman or in a humane manner by the owner. The slaughterman is not supposed to dress it, he can only kill it!!! You are supposed to dress it and only you or other members of your household may eat it.
The best way to dispose of the head, brains and spinal cord, as you are not allowed to bury them, is to eat it yourself. If you don't fancy it after cooking then you can dispose of it as you would any other household waste. [The law is an ass at times]
Brains are actually quite delicious.
The party's not over etc........
Regards from THE FAT LADY
Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 12:22 pm
by Penny
My butcher was informed of the regulations on the Friday, to be implemented the following Tuesday, after the Bank Holiday Monday! Luckily, he was able to get a license in place in time because he had previously various things in place due to taking special license over 30month olds.
He said that the abattoir is now not allowed to deliver any of the "blue stripe" carcasses to anywhere that does not have a license to receive them. The extra work involved means that my butcher bills will go up, and also the abattoir have increased their fees due to the tallow ban ( which was thankfully overturned but as yet I have not had it confirmed that the abattoir have removed their surcharge!)
Just as it seems that the Dexter beef business is going well, there is always something from Defra to make you think that they are still determined for most of us not to make a living!
Does anyone know how Mrs Beckett got promoted after all that has happened re the SFP? They are obviously rewarding her for doing her job just as they wanted her to : bringing the farming industry closer to the brink.
Penny in a miserable mood on a miserable wet sunday.
Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 4:06 pm
by moomin
Cheer up Penny. At least we can kill up to 30 months still. The blue stripe carcases are the ones under 24 months, the older ones will have NOTHING on them. They were going to have a red stripe on them but that has been dropped. Wouldn't you think they would have labelled the 24-30 month ones not the under 24 months?
I think Blair has had to move Becket before the farmers got her. He hasn't got many supporters left now. It was either move her or lose her altogether. What a mess. I wonder who we will have next?
Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 7:51 pm
by Jo Kemp
Becket is Blair's stooge and perhaps Jack Straw wasn't ... quite!
Jack was anti following the US re. Iran and dear beckett, who has been a disaster in every job, including her first (Trade & Industry) may be worse in her present position even than in DEFRA.
Hope they manage to remove Blair as the next chap is unlikely to use her.
I am still confused re 24 and 30 months but none to kill at the moment.
Regards to all, Jo
Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 3:54 pm
by hazel clarke
Me too, Jo
Can anyone find a simple way of letting us poor farmers know just what we are supposed to be doing? No doubt some of us will be caught "between the rules" with beasts at the wrong age or finish! And i am thinking of other so called traditional breeds as well. Think I will give up being a "farmer", seem to have to spend soooooooo much time trying to keep up with regulations!
Wish the grass would make a start growing but that is another moan!
Regards to all
Hazel:???
Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 1:29 pm
by ann
Re Beckett and Blair, maybe all will be revealed if she ever writes her memoies like Edwina Curry not sure the new one is going to be any better.
:p :p
Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 2:37 pm
by Sylvia
I've just found out that the abbatoir/butcher I use will still take animals up to 30 months as before. They will also take over 30 month cattle but.... it will cost twice as much and they can't be hung. So for over 30 months £340 for an animal that has not been hung. So I won't be doing that, then.
Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 11:28 am
by The Whitfield Herd
I have an over 30 months steer (I missed the 30 months as had movement restriction due to TB tests) and I haven't the foggiest what to do with him. I am in Kent and the nearest abbatoir is in Surrey, but they will only take farm assured.
Does anyone want a free lunch? :p
Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 1:26 pm
by ann
I do not understand why we are getting so many different interpertations of this new rule, either my butcher has got it all wrong or different regions are setting different rules.
Now it may have something to do with the fact that he only slaughters a small number of cattle, but according to what the state vet who is present each week while they slaughter, these cattle can be hung for 2 weeks still, as long as the spinal cord is removed at point of butchering, and this was then fax to them so that they have it in writing, now I will double check this next time I am down there as you are all making me query this.
Re the over thirty month animal, if he is a good size and would cope with a market enviroment, these animals are actually making as good prices as the under 30mth ones at our local market, here I am talking commercial, but a good long legged one might be able to hold it own.
Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 2:00 pm
by moomin
Ann, your abattoir is quite right. The animals can be hung with under 24 months as long as VC is removed separately -time or space. Rules are quite specific.
Whitfield herd - will check with Chitty's [friend of mine knows them]. I think they will kill for your own consumption but not if they have to sell it on - must be farm assured then. Otherwise people are now keeping animals just for conservation grazing. Have you tried this route of disposal?