Assessing Cattle for killing

Dickie10

What ddo you lads use as a guide to knowing if cattle are fit to kill or have u a rough or handy guide for viewing them espically in a field, i finish heifers at around 24-30 months mostly off grass, there all continental.

Sam Kade

A phone call to the factory agent

Count Mondego

Dickie10 wrote: »

What ddo you lads use as a guide to knowing if cattle are fit to kill or have u a rough or handy guide for viewing them espically in a field, i finish heifers at around 24-30 months mostly off grass, there all continental.

At times it's not easy as certain animals have poor confirmation and won't appear finished to the untrained eye, even when they are. Two good indicators are:

1: there's a shelf of bone/cartilage that comes out from the backbone on each side in front of the hip bone, comes out maybe four inches and about six long. You'll notice a hollow under this ridge in thin cattle. This ridge is covered and rounded out in a finished animal, so that you won't see that shelf.

2: from behind, high on the are either side of the tail a lump of fat will form. Also the cod (ball sack) will fill out and widen (boys only)

Over fat cattle will develop a big lump of fat at the base of the neck, between front legs. That's fat score of 5 and penalties time.

Dickie10

yes i notice one heifer has no shelf and very square from the front which is prob the fat at the base of the neck. i usuually go by the shelf being rounded too, but i had angus x friesan heifers last year and the factory man told me they were finished a month before but comfrmation wasnt great

dohc turbo2

Dickie10 wrote: »

yes i notice one heifer has no shelf and very square from the front which is prob the fat at the base of the neck. i usuually go by the shelf being rounded too, but i had angus x friesan heifers last year and the factory man told me they were finished a month before but comfrmation wasnt great

https://youtu.be/POb9tVvVRas We were shown this clip in Ag school , he explains it well

patsy_mccabe

That's a great video. The width along the back bone wasn't something I would have paid great attention to, if I'm honest. I would look for width when buying, but didn't think it was that important for grading.

blue5000

Best way to learn is try grading and guessing the carcase weight before you kill a bunch of cattle, write it down. Then follow them through the factory. Seeing your own cattle being killed shows you what fat cover they have.