Meat Statistics/Grass-fed - Information to be compared

Penny · Post by **Penny** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 10:35 am

Following on from the Grass-fed beef topic, I promised to give statistics of a recently butchered steer, which may or may not be of interest!
Type: Non-short Age: 22 months
Weaned by mum at 10 months
Diet: grass and haylage with clover content
Wintered out, with shelter.
Liveweight: 385kg deadweight:209kg (54.3%)
Meat off bone:122.54kg (58.6%) NB hung 3 weeks

Topside 11.62kg
stewsteak 16.64kg
Braising staek 8.08kg
Best mince: 25.96kg
Top Rump: 8.62kg
Sirloin:9.96kg
Fillet: 2.7 kg
Rump: 7.22kg
Silverside: 10.1kg
Thick Rib:6.62kg
Rolled Brisket:6.34kg
Rib of Beef 8.68kg

Meat is beautifully marbled.

One of the reasons I have posted this is because sometimes people are not sure if they have got a decent return from their animal ( or butcher!) and also beacuse I would find it very interesting to compare returns between pure-bred and cross-bred dexters at similar ages. Jo , do you have your stats for your Dexter X Hereford yet?

Kathy Millar · Post by **Kathy Millar** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 4:24 pm

My steer was 28 months old and only yielded 195 kg deadweight and 101 kgs. cut and wrapped and that includes a few bones in some of the roasts. Sure hope my other steer yields more (he does look bigger).

Rob R · Post by **Rob R** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 5:59 pm

When you say 'meat off bone' Penny, do you mean after butchering, or that the whole carcass was boned out?

I can relate to similar figures to both Kathy and to Penny, depending on wether the steer has gone at optimum time or when it had to. I've found, with grass feeding, that steers undergo much more pronounced 'bone' & 'meat' growth stages throughout their lives, meaning that some steers taken to 30 months have actually yielded less than those slaughtered at 24 months.

There was one thing my beef tutor said back at college that I can appreciate now- the difference between a beef unit & a profitable beef unit is that the latter has a weigh crush.

Penny · Post by **Penny** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 10:15 pm

Sorry, Rob. I mean after butchering.

Martin · Post by **Martin** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 8:39 am

Rob,
I can see your point about the weigh crush, but shouldn't finish on the animal be as important as weight. There is, once you have some historic records a patern of what weights you should be achieving but the best way to see if you killed at the right time is to see the carcass before the butcher cuts it up. I'm going today to look at two animals I had killed last week to see if my they are what I thought.
Martin.

Penny · Post by **Penny** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 10:17 am

RE meat after butchering. Just to clarify that of these weights, the only joints still on the bone were the foreribs, and that as I had not included any sausage trim in the stats, there will be little change.
I weigh out of interest, to see how stock are performing and especially to compare offspring from different bulls. However, like Martin, I never send them in because of a weight but because of their condition and finish.

wagra dexters · Post by **wagra dexters** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 1:42 pm

We have electronic scales at the home crush, but at the crush in the other yards we use a weigh-tape. Used firmly, they weigh correctly. Scales or tapes are useful in the event of necessary per kilogram application of any medication or treatment, as well as for measuring weight gain, for fodder conversion, dressing out percentages, or even for just a basic working familiarity, or knowledge, of the stock.
So long as a person has a head bale, a weigh-tape is a cheap but good place to start

Penny · Post by **Penny** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 1:56 pm

All my liveweight measurements are done using a weighband. I have just recently measured most of my 12 month olds to track their progress.

Rob R · Post by **Rob R** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 10:45 pm

Martin wrote:Rob,
I can see your point about the weigh crush, but shouldn't finish on the animal be as important as weight.

Sorry, I meant to state periodic weighing, not just finished weight (which is interesting for KO, but of little relevance to the decision). Handling them in this way also makes them easier to load when the time comes, as most of my steers have never been in a trailer by the time they are finished. I'd like to be able to weigh them as they move between fields, as it also helps you gauge how productive the grazing is & wether you've been feeding them enough, or too much.