Need some help from beef experts.....

[scfarmchick]

We have mostly registered Dexter, but we also picked up three unregistered steers. We processed the first one in November. He was 24 months old (he was 16months when we purchased) and 100% grass fed, except for about two weeks of some oats once a day to get him accustomed to the catch pen.  The flavor of the meat is great.  Ground beef and roast are awesome, he even had a good amount of fat that we rendered, but the stakes are not good at all.  Again, the flavor is fine, it's the texture.  There is what I guess you would call cartilage running all throw the meet.  I have no idea what he was feed the first 16 months other than grass, and that was kind of poor.  Our pastures were good, plenty of grass that we still had to cut about 6 times, because they could not eat it all down.  And I feel like we took him off at a good time too, because we had green grass up until the week after he went.  The only other detail that may or may not play into it, is that he was Chondro.  Any advice, information, insight, or help you could give me would be much appreciated.

Allison 

[Olga]

Allison, I'm no beef expert, but we have butchered one 2 y.o. long-leg Dexter grass-fed steer, 2 18 mo old non-Dexter grain-fed steers, a yearling Dexter long-leg grass-fed heifer and sold a Dexter-cross short-leg heifer to a friend who then had her processed at 5 y.o. (she was grass-fed only). The first was tough, we didn't like his steaks at all. The butcher thought that he didn't have enough cover fat and no marbling it all. Our grain-fed steers were absolutely delicious, mild flavored and with plenty of marbling. Our Dexter heifer was as close to "baby beef" as I've had, delicious flavor, plenty of cover fat, very tender. But the best meat was from the short-leg 5 y.o. heifer. She had abundant marbling and cover fat, her meat was tender, flavorful, melt-in-your-mouth, buttery.
My guess is that while genetics could be at play in meat tenderness, flavor and such, the biggest issue is lack of finish. As a short-leg, he should've been much easier to fatten up than a long-leg. If he was on inferior pastures initially, it is possible that he had a high worm-load coming into your place. And as to assessing finish on steers, standing next to the shoulder, run your hand, palm down, fingertips toward the tail, horizontally across the ribs, exerting moderate pressure. You should achieve a series of thick rolling wrinkles in front of your fingertips. Make a fist with one hand and feel over the knuckles - that is body condition score (BCS) < 4, too thin for slaughter. Now feel the long bones of your fingers right above your knuckles - that is moderate BCS, about 5. Now feel above the knuckles, the flat upper part of your hand - that is an above average BCS, what the ribs should feel like under the layer of skin and fat.

[kansasdexters]

Allison,

When you say that the steaks have "cartilage" through out the meat, do you mean a jelly-like substance? If it is a jelly-like substance, in the muscles where the steaks are cut (the loin and sirloin, along the back area), it may mean that the steer was infested with cattle grubs. As the grubs migrate to the surface of the back area, they destroy the muscle tissue and leave a trail of jelly-like substance behind them, ruining the meat, in what should be some of the best cuts (the steaks). Since you are in South Carolina, you may need to give some special attention to the proper timing for parasite control for cattle grubs in your area. Timing is everything, you want to kill the grubs before they can migrate through the muscle tissue in the animal's mid-section and back.

Here's some reference material: entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/livestock/cattle_grub.htm


Patti

[zephyrhillsusan]

Olga, thanks for the great description of how to judge BCS by feeling.  And kansasdexters, thank you for the information on cattle grubs. It's a bit hard to "like," but very helpful to know.   

[scfarmchick]

Patti, the cartilage doesn't seem to be jelly like, at least what I think you would be mean as jelly like. It is clearish, but very tough and chewy. Would the grubs effect the flavor also, because it really did have a nice flavor. We did ask the butcher if there were any signs of infestation and he said no, but it may not be noticeable by appearance. Thank you for the information, we will look into that for sure.

Olga, I was actually surprised at the amount of fat that is along the edges of the steaks and the amount of fat that we got back and rendered. But, honestly I have nothing to compare it to, since we are new at all of this and was our first try. I am anxious to see if there is a big difference this coming fall when we process our first steer born on our farm. He is big and healthy and nursed for the first nine months. And it's pretty obvious, comparing the two of the superior genetics of our steer. Even by this novice hobby cattlewoman :-) Thank you for the condition scoring information.

[cddexter]

Allison, I'm wondering if you are looking at sheathing tissue, a flexible grey-white maybe wrinkled line that runs through the cut, and separates the individual muscles from each other. It's tougher than heck, can't be chewed down, and you end up either cutting around it, or chewing around it and spitting out the remainking lump. I've found the same thing, and I've come to the conclusion it's more genetic than finish, because like you, I've seen it (well, tried to eat around it) on animals that did have good cover. I've probably slaughtered and eaten over 70 Dexters in my own freezer, and there is definitely a difference between animals, as in my case, they were all grass-fed with a little finish at the end, usually slaughtered in the fall. If nothing else suggests itself, you might keep track of family lines, and do comparisons between animals, learning as you go.

Having said that, I'm told animals are always more tender when they are in a gain phase, because the walls of the cells are being stretched and so are thinner. Once the animal levels off, the cell walls grow thicker again--at least that's how it was explained to me at a meat research center in Alberta (Canada's major beef industry province). Another study done in South Africa indicated that low light levels make more tender meat (don't ask, I'm just passing this on), killing when daylight hours are at their lowest is better than killing in high summer, or finishing steers in a darkened barn, all other things being equal.

Olga, great info. Thanks.

c.

[lonecowhand]

Kansasdexters Patti, thank you, that is an informative link and disgusting issue at the same time! Have you (or anyone else on here) had to deal with these in the past?
I see that Organophosphates are the ticket, but are there any more organic(or less chemical)controls for these pests?

When you all have discussed flies and their control , I was thinking along the lines of nuisance, not invasive and disgusting parasites!~ Are these the same as "bot flies" on canines?

Bill

[scfarmchick]

cddexter, Yes! That is a perfect description. I'm even more anxious now to see what the difference is in our first farm steer. Thanks for the information.
Regarding the cattle grub - I haven't had a chance to read the whole article, but I did skim through it. One thing that our steer didn't have was the skin condition that the article describes. He had a nice well conditioned coat, that makes me feel a little better and less nauseous lol. And like lonecowhand, I would be interested in hearing any ideas on organic controls. We have free choice diatomaceous earth in with our loose minerals.

[Olga]

Allison, that sounds great about your home-grown upcoming steer. All of our calves that stayed longer on the moms turned out much better than the ones weaned a bit early - they seem to never lose a step when weaned. I hope you have better luck with his meat. I remember being disillusioned with the meat from our first ever steer, but we didn't have good pastures and didn't know much about nutritional needs or deworming.

[kansasdexters]

lonecowhand - we have not had any cattle grubs to deal with, probably because they aren't prevalent in our area and we also use Eprinex pour-on at the right time on all our beef animals. Here is a good summary prepared by the University of Kentucky on different types of flies and fly control measures. pest.ca.uky.edu/EXT/Recs/ENT11-Beef.pdf

First and foremost for providing good fly control is keeping your pasture areas clean, keeping your barn areas clean, and treating your animals before fly populations get out of control. We use an integrated approach to fly control, and spend $$$ every year to provide a level of comfort to ourselves and our cattle. I started releasing 30,000 fly predators last week and will continue these releases every three weeks until October. We use horsefly traps near our barn area and pastures to reduce biting fly populations: www.bitingflies.com/

We use stable fly traps around our barn area to reduce stable fly populations (best price for these, less than $8.00 each, is at State Line Tack, when they have a promo code or 25% off sale, www.statelinetack.com/ ):
www.spalding-labs.com/products/fly_control_products/fly_traps/p/biting_stable_fly_trap.aspx

We also use Flies-B-Gone traps to reduce the number of house flies around our home and barn area: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lycOuTwPeq8

We are vigilant about fly control and we start early in the season. I've already got my Flies-B-Gone trap set up near the barn area and chicken house. I've already released 30,000 fly predators in the areas around where our bale feeders were this past winter. We have already harrowed the field areas that had manure pats in them to break it up and let it dry out. We will be treating the cattle for flies this month and again in about 30 days. The earlier you start your fly control, the more effectively you will be able to reduce the fly population throughout the warmer months.

Patti

[scfarmchick]

Great information Patti! We have a small number of cattle in ratio to our pasture acreage and my husband is dillagent about keeping them dragged, so that helps. We also have an amazingly helpful little creature here in South Carolina called the dung beatle. They eat the fly larva and take the organic matter of the manure and drill it into the ground. Thank y'all for all the helpful information!