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Friday, March 2, 2012

Freezer Beef

Maybe I should title this post Sad Day Number Two.  Minnie, aka The Yak, went to the meat processing plant today.
 She was born in September 2010 and was about half the size of a regular calf.
 J was concerned the cow wasn't giving enough milk because she just wasn't growing at a normal rate so he weaned her and brought her to the house when she was about 2 months old.
 We started feeding her grain along with another bottle calf we had.
 She then got turned out on grass for the summer.
 Then back to the barn lot for more grain in November.
 We are feeding 2 show steers for V along with Minnie.  They are the 2 on the right and are 6 months younger than Minnie.
 We don't have a set of scales but are guessing she finished around 6-700 pounds.
We had her contemporaries at a feedlot out west and they just finished at 1300 pounds.  I had hopes of selling her as a miniature but that never worked out.  If we took her to the market we would have just given her away because of her small size.  Making a beef out of her was the only logical options.  Sometimes choices on the farm are difficult.  I should never name the freezer beef.
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7 comments:

  1. Mimi FoxmortonMarch 2, 2012 at 10:02 PM

    *hugs*

    Circle of Life......but......I know............

    ReplyDelete
  2. AlicaMarch 2, 2012 at 10:18 PM

    I hear you...naming them only makes it harder. :(

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sherry SikstromMarch 2, 2012 at 11:24 PM

    I have had the bad luck to be care giver for a pail bunter that became dinner. It sucks. It helps a bit to know it was raised well and healthy . Safer than store bought

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  4. NellMarch 2, 2012 at 11:50 PM

    Oh yes, we know this well at our place. We always name the steers "Chuck", "T-Bone", "Carne Asada" or some other food name to remind ourselves of their purpose while we feed them out. It never works. We still get attached.

    I remember this girl from last year's blog. She intrigued me. I still wish we could see if there was a DNA mutation in her.

    ReplyDelete
  5. DaisyMarch 3, 2012 at 12:50 PM

    That had to be tough! I've been told that you should never name the beef cattle.
    You did what you had to do. And she lived a good life!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Mary Ann March 3, 2012 at 6:11 PM

    She was a pretty little thing, wasn't she? I would have bought her as a mini.

    That's why we don't have calves here, though, getting too attached.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The JRMarch 5, 2012 at 1:03 PM

    I know I eat beef and luv it. But absolutely could not raise my own.

    ReplyDelete