Butchered

Even though we are talking about dairy cows, when their calves are male and you raise them, they will meet the almost inevitable fate of being butchered for meat. That is what we have been facing with our two 13 month old steers. The drought this year only reinforces that this is how we must handle these animals who have become our pets.

We have chosen not to let our steers go to slaughter. We think it’s most humane to have them killed quickly at home. We researched reputable meat shops and kill/transport companies and talked to folks who were satisfied or dissatisfied with their past experiences. We decided to have Bill Gonzales (362.2550)  come out and kill, skin and transport the steers. He will shoot them together—one, then the other, very quickly. We separated them from their moms the morning of the kill, which was  January 20. We did not want the moms to see this happen, obviously. They didn’t. But later on we could tell that they knew what happened and were very upset, of course. It was hard on them, and us.

The meat shop we decided on is Tootles (Ron), in Marysville on 3^rd St. He uses vacuum bags, so the meat will last up to 24 months. With paper, it is good for only about half that. He charges .89/lb. “hanging weight”, which is the weight of the animal hanging to cure. There is 618 pounds of hanging weight for one steer and 716 for the other. The packaged amounts are about 60% of that weight. The price to our buyers is $6.45/lb.

The local beef ranchers such as Mark McEwen of M&A Angus, as well as Scott Costa, have recommended we have our beef cure (hang) for 21-28 days, so it is most tender. These are guys who take their cattle to slaughterhouses and may not have had their cattle killed and processed at home in recent years. After talking to Ron Tootles, we are not going to have our beef cured that long. It will be cured for 7-10 days. The fatter the animal, the longer it can cure. The fat breaks down and is scraped off over the course of the curing.

We understand now that whether the meat is tender has more to do with how well fed the steer has been, rather than curing length. And, the meat shrinks the longer it is cured, according to Ron T. Our steer meat will hang approximately two weeks. It will be ready on  February 6^th.

Bvd

 Betty had very high titers to two BVD strains. Since she and Cortana tested negative to BVD in April 2012, they will never be BVD positive themselves. Also, they continue to be vaccinated against BVD, to protect them. The high titers indicates exposure to a PI (persistent infected/typhoid Mary) BVD cow during Betty’s current pregnancy. The exposure would have had to be one of our beef calves from Jim Gates, another cow over the fence, or at the Nevada County Fair. Betty was three months along at the Nevada County Fair. If a PI cow was at the wash rack next to her and peed or breathed on her, that would have been enough to infect the calf. PI calves are born to either PI cows or non-PI cow. This type of infection is how a non-PI cow ends up with a PI calf. There wouldn’t be an outbreak at the fair, as a result, because most cattle are vaccinated. The susceptibility is with a pregnancy—a new fetus, like Betty’s.

With a booster vaccine, as Betty and Cortana had on 12/28, Betty should be ready to breed 30 days later with no risk to herself or baby

Neospora

This week I will be talking about things that may have caused my cow to have an abortion. My cow Betty had recently lost her calf and we did not yet know what the cause was of it. We had our vet come out and draw blood from her and she tested positive for Neospora. Neospora is picked up by grazing near infected dog, coyote or fox poop. It is passed only from mother to baby within a herd. Since Betty has had this through one pregnancy, the calf she lost, she should now be immune which means it will not affect future pregnancies. We do know my other cow "Cortana" slipped a calf, early term. Since Neospora causes later term abortion, this is probably not the cause of her abortion.

continued form last post

So I now have the results from last post. My cow aborted her mummified fetus two saturdays ago. Our vet came out last thursday and pulled the aborted fetus out of her. A mummified calf is about 1 2000 chance of happening, which is extremely strange and weird that it happen to us.