Killing cows soon after calving

roosky

According to a friend you cant kill a cow for human consumption within 24 hours of calving.....why is this???....its actually in the lefislation so its similar to the withdrawl dates!

Base price

Personally I think its wrong and there is legislation in place to ensure the well being of the animal.
Cows cannot be transported within a week of calving.
https://www.agriculture.gov.ie/media/migration/animalhealthwelfare/transportofliveanimals/Guidelines_WelfareOfAnimalsDuringTransport.pdf
As an aside - if more men gave birth they wouldn't think of getting outta bed let alone walking into a trailer/lorry :rolleyes:

fastrac

From personal experience reactors will not be taken off farm for a week after calving.

roosky

fastrac wrote:

From personal experience reactors will not be taken off farm for a week after calving.

Any reason why

Base price

roosky wrote: »

Any reason why

This is why -

Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2005 of 22 December 2004 on the protection of animals during transport and related operations and amending Directives 64/432/EEC and 93/119/EC and Regulation (EC) No 1255/97

Specifically this part -
CHAPTER I
FITNESS FOR TRANSPORT
1.
No animal shall be transported unless it is fit for the intended journey, and all animals shall be transported in conditions guaranteed not to cause them injury or unnecessary suffering.
2.
Animals that are injured or that present physiological weaknesses or pathological processes shall not be considered fit for transport and in particular if:
(a)
they are unable to move independently without pain or to walk unassisted;
(b)
they present a severe open wound, or prolapse;
(c)
they are pregnant females for whom 90 % or more of the expected gestation period has already passed, or females who have given birth in the previous week;
(d)
they are new-born mammals in which the navel has not completely healed;
(e)
they are pigs of less than three weeks, lambs of less than one week and calves of less than ten days of age, unless they are transported less than 100 km;
(f)
they are dogs and cats of less than eight weeks of age, unless they are accompanied by their mother;
(g)
they are cervine animals in velvet..
.....

greysides

I'm sure there are physiological reasons as well as legal ones though I can't state them with certainty.

What I have seen is that animals after birthing will often have bruising within the pelvis which will abate over a week, or so. The hormones involved in pregnancy often result in the water-logging of tissues ('springing') and this would be undesirable in meat which needs to set. The uterus undergoes a period of cleansing which involves putrefaction and may result in an excess bacterial load in the blood, again undesirable.

Where the 'rule' comes from I don't know but if it's a long-standing one it may well have come down through the years of butchering experience.

Kovu

greysides wrote: »

Where the 'rule' comes from I don't know but if it's a long-standing one it may well have come down through the years of butchering experience.

I wonder how long- standing it is?

Asked my father about it as he used to work as a boner in a factory. He said much the same as you GS, but without technical terms- 'lot of wastage, stressed meat (?) and dirty inside.' So make what you can out of that!

Rules must have been a lot slacker though- 35 yrs ago- as he said you'd see cows coming in that had been trying to calve all night, dead calves in them and cow worn out trying to push. Cows with calves almost full term being slaughtered and the workers would take the calf out alive & bring it home.