Beefing 28 month steers vs 16 month bull

[PorcPrunus NL]

We were asking ourselfes why in the UK bulls are castrated and slaughtered at 28 months in stead of leaving them bulls and slaughter them a year earlier????

IMO
steer 28 month: about 140 kg sellable meat.
bull 16 months: about 100 kg sellable meat.
You have to castrate and feed the animal 1 year for 40 kg more meat.

[Rob R]

For most people the inconvenience of keeping bulls and heifers/cows separate is not worth keeping bulls entire, however leaving bulls entire is probably more common than you think among UK Dexter breeders - there was certainly no shortage of bulls at the last York sale.

That said, I have a DCS bulletin somewhere in the archive, late nineties I think, with comments from the then president that bull beef was dangerous and risked ruining the reputation of Dexter beef, or something like that.

[Jac]

I have had some very good feedback from customers who have had bull beef - slaughtered before 20 months. I certainly cannot detect any difference in taste or texture but then our animals only travel six miles and bulls are killed on arrival.