Factory Weight Issue

TUBBY

Hi all

Had cattle in the factory yesterday. Fifteen picked to go were weighed last week.

One of the heifers was liveweight 600kg and only killed out at 269kg (45% kill out).

I know that the liveweight was pretty accurate as I weighed all the cattle 2 months ago and she was 548kg. All others killed out in line with what in would expect (52-54%).

Now, she was a little belly-ish and a SIMX average enough heifer but surely she would have been 310-320kg at least.

Have any of ye had anything like this where KO was totally out of line. What did ye do. Is there anything can be done at this stage.

Any advice appreciated.

PS Didnt wait to see them killed as there was a big number there and they only went down the line about 4 hrs later.

Farmer Pudsey

TUBBY wrote: »

Hi all

Had cattle in the factory yesterday. Fifteen picked to go were weighed last week.

One of the heifers was liveweight 600kg and only killed out at 269kg (45% kill out).

I know that the liveweight was pretty accurate as I weighed all the cattle 2 months ago and she was 548kg. All others killed out in line with what in would expect (52-54%).

Now, she was a little belly-ish and a SIMX average enough heifer but surely she would have been 310-320kg at least.

Have any of ye had anything like this where KO was totally out of line. What did ye do. Is there anything can be done at this stage.

Any advice appreciated.

PS Didnt wait to see them killed as there was a big number there and they only went down the line about 4 hrs later.

When was she killed if late last week you can still look to see the animal reweighted, If you get the run around you can tell them to hold the animal and that you are contacting the department about it there is a section that deals with it.

bob charles

TUBBY wrote: »

Hi all

Had cattle in the factory yesterday. Fifteen picked to go were weighed last week.

One of the heifers was liveweight 600kg and only killed out at 269kg (45% kill out).

I know that the liveweight was pretty accurate as I weighed all the cattle 2 months ago and she was 548kg. All others killed out in line with what in would expect (52-54%).

Now, she was a little belly-ish and a SIMX average enough heifer but surely she would have been 310-320kg at least.

Have any of ye had anything like this where KO was totally out of line. What did ye do. Is there anything can be done at this stage.

Any advice appreciated.

PS Didnt wait to see them killed as there was a big number there and they only went down the line about 4 hrs later.

Was there any mention of an of the carcass rejected? when you say bellyish - bellies dont weight but killing that low seems a bit odd. Carcass is still in the chill so get talking to your factory. There could have being a mistake in a recording of weight somewhere. where they killed in one of the large groups of factories or one of the more independent ones? Thankfully I have never had a weight issue on a dead animal

TUBBY

Lads
thanks for advice. I will contact them on Monday and ask for re-weigh at least. She was killed in one of the big three.
My idea of bellyish is that she hadnt the widest back in the world and was bit pot bellied but i still had her down for over 50% KO.

My worry is that the weight might well be the same but there is some other lad that will get a great killout for one of his heifers!! Is there any chance of a mix up would ye reckon.

I went through agent so will see if he can do anything for me also.

I reckon though that I might end up marking it down as a dead duck.

bob charles

TUBBY wrote: »

Lads
thanks for advice. I will contact them on Monday and ask for re-weigh at least. She was killed in one of the big three.
My idea of bellyish is that she hadnt the widest back in the world and was bit pot bellied but i still had her down for over 50% KO.

My worry is that the weight might well be the same but there is some other lad that will get a great killout for one of his heifers!! Is there any chance of a mix up would ye reckon.

I went through agent so will see if he can do anything for me also.

I reckon though that I might end up marking it down as a dead duck.

Things are so tight a mix up is very unlikely at the scales, what grade was the animal?

TUBBY

O+ 3+ which was more or less what I would have expected. Maybe sneaking into R- but not miles away there.

bob charles

TUBBY wrote: »

O+ 3+ which was more or less what I would have expected. Maybe sneaking into R- but not miles away there.

its very possible that the weight is 100% correct for that animal. had you more animals out of the same herd as her? was she finished on grass alone, where the rest getting more grain?

Capercaille

Maybe part of the carcase was condemned.

TUBBY

bob charles wrote: »

its very possible that the weight is 100% correct for that animal. had you more animals out of the same herd as her? was she finished on grass alone, where the rest getting more grain?

No more out of the same herd Bob. She hadnt bad figures from the ICBF though from what I can recall.
She was getting exactly the same as all the rest. If anything more, cause she was one of the better ones at the trough:)

As the lads said, some of the carcase may have been rejected for some reason. Will check on MOnday and get back to ye.

Farmer Pudsey

Capercaille wrote: »

Maybe part of the carcase was condemned.

Unlikly as unless she was not insured you should be paid the full value.

Capercaille

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

Unlikly as unless she was not insured you should be paid the full value.

If an abscess was found in the carcase and it was heavily trimmed that would account for the "lost" weight. The beast would be weighed after the trimming. Also in the lairage if the vet sees something wrong with the animal they will put the animal up as "uninsured".

Muckit

Was she in calf? Mystery solved

Gman1987

We killed a batch of Hereford bullocks last year that killed out only 45% in a factory based in Roscrea. We kicked up war over it but they had the cattle deboned!!! They sent us out compensation but not near what they should of came into. We have not killed there since and wont be either, they were 675kg to 700kg animals.

Tomjim

well tubby what was the outcome from the contact with the factory

Milked out

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

Unlikly as unless she was not insured you should be paid the full value.

If all or part of the carcase was condemned would there not be a note sent with the docket with a reason for it being condemned??

TUBBY

Heh all. sorry was away from boards for few days. Anyway, no part condemned. Factory agreed that the killout was very low compared to the other cattle who were comparable.

there was no notes or nothing stood out about that particular animal as they spoke to the lads on the floor.

Not in calf either. Would have been very surprised if she was unless it was the immaculate conception:)

bob charles

TUBBY wrote: »

Heh all. sorry was away from boards for few days. Anyway, no part condemned. Factory agreed that the killout was very low compared to the other cattle who were comparable.

there was no notes or nothing stood out about that particular animal as they spoke to the lads on the floor.

Not in calf either. Would have been very surprised if she was unless it was the immaculate conception:)

and did they reweigh? I got one done the other day. one animal after the other with the exact same weight down to 2 decimal points. ie 321.84kilos for two animals one after the next at the scales. Presume its human error as the second animal should have weighed heavier

blue5000

Saw this on bff and stuck in my mind ''Where there's hooks, there's crooks''

Just wondering if many ppl go see their animals being slaughtered? Meat factories seem to have made it very awkward, if you had a mixed load of under 24mths, over 30 months and older cows again you'd be there all day.

bob charles

watch nearly all being killed, except some of the cows that might not be killed till evening time. Keeps you up to speed with how cattle are killing out etc so I think you can stay up to speed with the live market

restive

When my father was slaughtering an animal he used to have a look at the liver to check for fluke.

Gman1987

restive wrote: »

When my father was slaughtering an animal he used to have a look at the liver to check for fluke.

Dawn send you out a fluke report now.

Lastin

The last dawn fluke report I got was for cattle that were not mine.