Butchering a cow (warning, graphic pics)

Bigfattyt

Bigfattyt

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I had an opportunity to help butcher a cow today. My neighbor does his own meat. I told him the next time he did a cow to call me. He also has an injured knee, and said he needed some help.

We went out to a ranch, and selected the cow.




If you are offended by blood or gore..............................................................Look away now.........















The animal was shot with an SKS (not by me).



Transportation was arranged.




Picked a knife (decided to use the wood handled Condor Hudson Bay knife in 1065?). It gets used in my kitchen a lot. It is a bit thick, but I have thinned the edge on my belt sander. I am thinking I need to thin it out more.



The knife worked great for skinning. It was thicker and heavier than the skinners and other knives the neighbor had. the reset of these knives were his. Not all the knives he had are pictured.

Had my Trusty J. Oeser folder handy, but it did not get used. Only fixed blades.




Got the stomach skinned and the feet cut off.

Ready to hang to finish skinning and cleaning out the organs.




One area, I just could not reach with the wide blade. I should have used one of the many traditional folders I had in my pockets, but my small fixed blade was out on my waist, so I grabbed it real quick and got behind the haunches I could not pull he hide away, and could get at it with the wide Hudson bay.



Sawsall did the halving.





All packed up in neat quarters to take back and hang in his garage. They will be finishing the butcher work later, and hopefully I will be able to help out there too.


Hopefully this was not too much gore for everyone. Always great to get a chance to learn a new skill.
 
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Wow! I would love to have access to beef like that. Looks delicious! You guys aren't messing around up there . That's not gory . the grocery store meat is gory. Well done! (no pun intended)
 
nice work.hope it isn't too rare an occasion for you to help out there.
 
I used to work at a custom butcher shop in my earlier days.I worked mainly on the cut side and did little on the kill side,but did work there occasionally.

We once cut 36 hogs and 24 cattle in a day.5 of us,I did the slicing.I also regular cut a deer (no burger)on the saw in 3-4 minutes.I know ,because my fellow worker bet the owner of the carcass I could do it in less than 5 minutes.I knew he was going to take his money.

Thanks for posting,brings back a lot of great memories at that shop.
 
The neighbor worked as a butcher for a time. He has hoists, a big meat bandsaw, meat grinder, huge smoker, etc,

He also has a sweet apple press!
 
Bigfattyt said:
The neighbor worked as a butcher for a time. He has hoists, a big meat bandsaw, meat grinder, huge smoker, etc,

He also has a sweet apple press!
Click to expand...

If you tell us he has a still too, I might just pick up and move to your neck of the woods! Interesting post, BTW. How long does one cow feed a family?

-- Mark
 
Great post. I'm always interested to see these kind of things. I've only ever butchered a deer (post gralloching) bunnies and pigeons.

I keep thinking about asking the butchers nearby if I could do a day in the shop.

Look forward to seeing some of the cuts :thumbup:
 
Looks like that will fill the freezer nice !
I just did my first sheep recently , first time skinning and
Butchering . I used a cheap n cheerful high carbon and was supprised how
It dulled the edge , had to steel a couple of times during the process.
Now i want a steak .
 
Mmmmmm.


When I was in college, we used to spit and barbecue a hind quarter overnight. Roast beef for everyone.
 
I've only done deer. I am amazed at the amount of fat in the pictures.
 
Awesome!!! Thanks for the pictures. I was a butcher apprentice when I was 15, I've always been fascinated with doing my own butchering.
Respectfully, Chance.
 
My in laws own a small meat packing business, I have worked there on and off, mainly while putting myself through school for my EMT and Paramedic, even with electric lifts large carcass saws, cradles, hooks etc the slaughter of animals is a ton of work, then the actual butchering, is another big job even with band saws, electric grinders, stuffers and vacuum packers. I can't imagine the amount of work that goes into slaughter/butchering in the field like that.
 
mnblade said:
If you tell us he has a still too, I might just pick up and move to your neck of the woods! Interesting post, BTW. How long does one cow feed a family?

-- Mark
Click to expand...

My folks buy 1/2 a cow every year, and every year, they have to give a lot away to us. They are only two people, but they eat quite a bit of meat. They normally split a cow with my older sister, who has 5 in her family.

I know that the neighbor gives his kids meat. He normally does two cows a year, and a few hogs as well. But his last kid moved out this year.
 
Edm1 said:
I've only done deer. I am amazed at the amount of fat in the pictures.
Click to expand...

We cut pretty close to the meat too. The only deer I have skinned was a corn and alfalfa fed fatty! It was a 2 point white tail that weighed in at 195lbs skinned, cleaned, minus the head and feet. It was a soft, tasty deer (lived in corn field, and ate alfalfa at night in my friends field. There was a cold clean water source near by). In my neck of the woods, there is a lot of sage brush, and deer can taste a bit gamey if they are out in the brush.



bradlox said:
Looks like that will fill the freezer nice !
I just did my first sheep recently , first time skinning and
Butchering . I used a cheap n cheerful high carbon and was supprised how
It dulled the edge , had to steel a couple of times during the process.
Now i want a steak .
Click to expand...

The carbon steel we were using required frequent sharpening. He only had abrasive steels, but it was quick to get a toothy edge back on. He had a few thin stainless plastic handled skinners, and I used one of those too to try it out. It did not feel as sharp when steeled, and did not stay as sharp as long as the carbon steel did, so I don't think it was quality stainless.



The neighbor did tell me that he sold his huge beef splitter, and is sad he did.
 
We always got a whole hog and half a beef, and those both barely kept us in meat for the year when we kids were growing up. So a whole beef would have kept is about a year with no hog to supplement it.

Wonderful pictures T. More kids need to be exposed to this kind of stuff. Real life, not gore, but real life food production.
 
Butchering the animals u take care of is part of farm/ranch life. We butcher our on hogs and steers. Hogs are easy, but a 1200 pound steer takes a while. We scald the hogs and scrap the hair off. Now scraping a hog will dull any steel. Thanks for posting the pictures. More people needs to see where they're food comes from. Never did understand why people raise animals and buy their meat from a grocery store. We use Case and old hickory butcher knives. When we kill chickens or turkeys we just use our pocket knives to do the butchering. I've never used a fixed blade or a dedicated hunting knife to field dress deer, bear, squirrel etc; just a yellow case trapper.
 
I thought all meat came from little styrofoam plates wrapped in cellophane, LOL.
Great post. I've a friend who believes one day spent in either a beef, hog, or chicken
slaughterhouse or no high school diploma, period.
Ken.
 
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