Just come off the phone to the slaughter house !

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Just come off the phone to the slaughter house !
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Bodger

Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 13524

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 06 10:24 am Post subject: Just come off the phone to the slaughter house !

Billy the Dexter bull who I took in for the chop on Monday has produced a carcass of 200 kgs.
He's the first cow that I've have had slaughtered . He was a nearly 30 month old, entire bull.

The economics of it are this. I bought him about 15 or 16 months ago for ï¿½150. He's cost me ï¿½170 to have slaughtered and chopped up.
He's been fed on grass in the Summer and in the winter he was fed on waste haylage from the horses, bread waste and a few nuts.
Billy has produced one bull calf and has two more in the pipeline.
I would probably put the overheads of producing him at about ï¿½100 on top of the ï¿½320 that I've just mentioned.
If I'd had a larger animal the slaughter and butchering costs would have remained the same but the damage to the land over winter would have been more severe.
One thing I might consider, is the option of putting the dexters to an Angus , to get a slightly larger carcass. Its only a thought at the moment.

Pilsbury

Joined: 13 Dec 2004
Posts: 5645
Location: East london/Essex

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 06 10:50 am Post subject:
ï¿½420 to produce, 440lb carcass if my maths it right thats less than ï¿½1 per lb for home grown beef. Sorry just how much space do you need for a dexter???? Wanders off with tape measure towards the small back garden.....

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45674
Location: Essex

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 06 10:58 am Post subject:
Wanstead Flats are still commmons, you could take em over there to graze...

Behemoth

Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 06 11:01 am Post subject:
We have common land round the corner from us where some big hard hairy men graze their "Ho'ses". I could try cows and sheep but I suspect they'd need some clamping device to prevent theft. What's your first meal going to be Bodger?

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 06 11:04 am Post subject: Re: Just come off the phone to the slaughter house !

bodger wrote:

One thing I might consider, is the option of putting the dexters to an Angus , to get a slightly larger carcass. Its only a thought at the moment.

I know almost nothing about breeding cattle (amongst other things), but would it be better to use a Dexter bull with an angus cow? It seems to me that it might make the delivery easier. I'm asking from a position of complete ignorance about cattle birthweights though.

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 06 11:09 am Post subject: Re: Just come off the phone to the slaughter house !

sean wrote:

I know almost nothing about breeding cattle (amongst other things), but would it be better to use a Dexter bull with an angus cow?

Could a dexter bull reach up high enough to do the dirty deed with an angs cow?

Lionheart

Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Posts: 427
Location: Cheshire

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 06 11:10 am Post subject:
>>One thing I might consider, is the option of putting the dexters to an Angus , to get a slightly larger carcass. Its only a thought at the moment. I think you'll need to give them steps whichever way around you do it..........!

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 06 11:10 am Post subject:
Dogs seem to cope with considerable size disparities, and there's always AI.

@Calli

Joined: 03 Jul 2005
Posts: 1682
Location: Galway

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 06 11:11 am Post subject:
More importantly, are you pleased with the result ?

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 06 11:12 am Post subject:

sean wrote:

Dogs seem to cope with considerable size disparities, and there's always AI.

Artificial intelligence is still in its infancy, I don't think it can quite muster fertilising cows yet... Oh, that isn't what you meant...

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 06 11:13 am Post subject:

cab wrote:

Artificial intelligence is still in its infancy, I don't think it can quite muster fertilising cows yet... Oh, that isn't what you meant...

Have you never seen The Demon Seed?

Bodger

Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 13524

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 06 11:17 am Post subject:

Tony .
We are very overstocked due to my daughters boring fixation with horses.
On 4 and 1/2 acres we keep 3 horses and now with the demise of Billy, two dexter cows, one of their calves and another one on the way.
We buy all the winter haylage in and depending on the type of land I would say that 3/4 to a full one acre of land is the minimum that you would need for a dexter.
You can pick up dexter steers for a very low price.
My two cows are pure bred without papers . I picked them up as 12 month old heifers for ï¿½165 each. If you aren't going to show them , then its not essential to have them pedigree , because after all you can't eat a piece of paper and even the poorer specimens with papers go very cheaply. They are still healthy but are perhaps not the quite shape or colour.

To give you an idea of prices go to www.DEXTERCATTLEFORSALE.co.uk

Last edited by Bodger on Wed Oct 11, 06 11:27 am; edited 3 times in total

Northern_Lad

Joined: 13 Dec 2004
Posts: 14210
Location: Somewhere

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 06 11:24 am Post subject:

bodger wrote:

We are very overstocked due to my daughters boring fixation with horses.

Horse meat's supposed to be quite tasty.... just a thought.

Bodger

Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 13524

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 06 11:26 am Post subject:

Northern_Lad wrote:

bodger wrote:

We are very overstocked due to my daughters boring fixation with horses.

Horse meat's supposed to be quite tasty.... just a thought.

I have suggested it

and the swelling has only just gone down

Mary-Jane

Joined: 13 Jan 2005
Posts: 18397
Location: The Fishing Strumpet is from Ceredigion in West Wales

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 06 12:49 pm Post subject:

Pilsbury wrote:

ï¿½420 to produce, 440lb carcass if my maths it right thats less than ï¿½1 per lb for home grown beef.
Sorry just how much space do you need for a dexter????

Wanders off with tape measure towards the small back garden.....

Oh dear, Oh dear - could we hide all this from Gervase?

He's rather keen on the idea of Dexters and I'm not. We have enough on our hands without worrying about bloody cows as well...

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