800lbs Beef Hoof to Dressed Wieght
Target slaughter weights:
Are your beef cattle fatty enough when they get to market?
Prototype Credit:viZZZual.com, Flickr, CC BY 2.0
Beef cattle are considered finished and ready for slaughter when they have sufficient fat in their meat to make their beef tender and flavorful. Finishing cattle is all about the fat.
Only how practice you know when your beef cattle are fat plenty?
In an ideal world you would exist able to x-ray your live cattle to see, on a microscopic scale, when their beef has sufficient fatty cells to brand it tender and flavorful. Unfortunately that's not practical.
Luckily there is an easier way thanks to studies that correlate frame size (bone construction) and slaughter weight. In other words, you tin figure out the ideal slaughter weight of your beef cattle just by measuring their hip superlative and and then using that measurement to expect up the corresponding target slaughter weight on a table.
This simple technique allows you to know the ideal slaughter weight of every steer, heifer, cow or bull on your farm before you send them away to be slaughtered!
This technique is the core of every successful beef finishing operation, regardless of whether the cattle are finished on grass or on grain and regardless of whether the cattle are finished in a feedlot or out on broad open pastures.
In this article I explain exactly how to measure your cattle and I give you the expect-upwards tables to detect the target slaughter weight for every private fauna on your subcontract. And then I answer some of import questions about how to integrate this technique into your cattle finishing strategy, both for grass finishing and grain finishing programs.
Frame scoring
Frame scoring is just a way of categorizing beef cattle from smallest to largest based on their size (hip height). Frame scores are assigned on a scale from i to nine, with one being the smallest and ix beingness the largest-framed cattle. There is a target slaughter weight corresponding to each frame score.
For example, a 9-month old steer with a hip pinnacle of 44.3 inches has a frame score of 4. This steer will exist ready for slaughter when it reaches 1100 lbs. At xvi months this aforementioned steer will have a hip height of 49.6 inches, but its frame score (four) and target slaughter weight (1100 lbs) will nonetheless be the same.
By contrast, a 16-month one-time steer with a hip height of 55.6 inches will be categorized as a frame score of 7. It will therefore take a target slaughter weight of 1400 lbs.
And sixteen-month former heifer with hip height of 52.8 inches volition also accept a frame score of 7. Her target slaughter weight will be 1300 lbs (there are separate lookup tables for male person and female person cattle).
I think you see the pattern. While hip height changes with age, frame score mostly does not. Combining hip acme and age allows you lot to assign a specific frame score to any animal so yous can know in advance, while it is nonetheless growing, what the target slaughter weight of that animal should be.
No more guessing. No more than middle balling. You just measure your cattle and bingo, you know your target slaughter weights.
(Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made using Amazon links in my post.)
With this technique, all yous need is a elementary cattle counterbalance scale to tell you if your cattle accept reached their target slaughter weight and are ready to slaughter.
That'south why the #1 tool yous should ain if y'all plan on finishing cattle for slaughter is a counterbalance scale. The easiest and cheapest solution is to mount a set of weigh confined under your cattle squeeze #CommissionsEarned , like the weigh bars shown in the image on the right, so yous tin weigh your cattle before you ship them to the butcher.
Target Slaughter Weight past Frame Score
First, hither are the target slaughter weights by frame score:
Now let's look at how to assign the correct frame score to your beef cattle:
How to catechumen hip height and age to frame score:
The simple premise backside frame scoring is that all beef cattle have a predictable growth bend.
The chart below shows how hip height changes among steers from 5 months to 21 months of age. There are 5 curves on the graph, one each for cattle with frame scores three through seven.
To find the frame score for whatsoever individual animal you simply find the intersection between hip height and historic period on the nautical chart. Whichever growth curve this betoken is closest to, that is its frame score.
Cattle generally do non modify frame scores in their lifetime. If a heifer has a frame score of 4 at seven months of age, she will nevertheless exist a frame score of 4 when she reaches xx ane months of historic period, and she will continue to be a frame score of 4 to the twenty-four hour period she dies of sometime historic period. That consistency is why we tin can predict target slaughter weights based on frame scores.
For ease of use these curves are generally turned into simple await-up tables, which are shown below. Male and female cattle have slightly dissimilar growth rates, which is why there are separate wait-upwards tables for male and female cattle.
Frame score table for male cattle
Frame score table for female cattle
To utilise the tables to detect the frame score of any private animal in your herd, pick the row corresponding to its historic period (in months) and and then slide across until you lot notice its measured hip height (in inches). So look at the tiptop of that cavalcade to detect its frame score number. That'south the frame score number you lot use to expect up target slaughter weight on the previous set of tables at the first of the article.
Technique for measuring hip height
To measure out your cattle'south hip height, only lay a carpenter's level across their backs direct above their hip bones (hooks), then measure the distance downwards to footing level (the cattle must be standing on level ground).
The best fourth dimension to take hip superlative measurements is whenever you already happen to accept your cattle in the corral, such every bit on vaccination day.
Q&A about frame scores and target slaughter weights
And now for some answers to some commonly asked questions nearly how to utilize this technique to your beefiness cattle finishing strategy:
Do grass finished and grain finished beef animals have the same target finishing weights?
Yes.
1 of the biggest misconceptions nearly grass finishing is that there are unlike rules involved when finishing cattle on grass versus grain. There aren't.
Target slaughter weights don't change simply considering you change what the cattle eat. Nor will cattle be prepare for slaughter just considering information technology is autumn or just because the cattle have been on a finishing pasture or finishing ration for 60, ninety, or 120 days. None of that matters.
Regardless of what the cattle are eating (grass-based vs grain-based finishing diet) or where they live (in a feedlot or out on open pasture), they still need to achieve the same target weight, based on their peak, in order to have sufficient muscle and fat and exist tender and flavorful when they are slaughtered.
How long does it have to accomplish the target finished weight?
How rich is your pasture grass or feed ration? How many pounds will your cattle gain each day using your particular feeding or pasture direction strategy? How many pounds do your cattle yet need to gain between their electric current weight and their target finishing weight?
I have a wide range of frame scores in my cattle herd. How exercise I schedule my slaughter dates?
A wide range of frame scores means that you will take a slaughter flavour that stretches out over a long time, from the time the lightest cattle reach their target weight until the heaviest reach theirs, which can be many months later. When grass finishing in seasonal northern climates this can mean overwintering part of the herd to finish the larger-framed cattle the adjacent flavor when the grass returns.
Larger feedlots tend to sort their calves on arrival to create groups of calves with the same age and frame size. This makes information technology easier for them to adjust feed rations as the calves abound since daily weight gains volition be very similar for all calves in the same grouping. Each group is regularly weighed to monitor progress and slaughtered when the grouping reaches the target slaughter weight. This sorting allows the feedlot to schedule a unmarried slaughter date for the entire group since all the calves in the group will presumably reach their target slaughter weight at roughly the aforementioned fourth dimension.
Grass finishing programs, on the other mitt, by and large keep their cattle as a single large group (or in as few groups as possible) to make their pasture direction simpler and more than efficient. They take a strategy in identify (i.e. alleyways in their pasture layout like those used past this example grass subcontract plan) to easily sort individual cattle out of the herd without having to bring the unabridged herd to the corral every time a few animals are set to go to market.
(Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made using Amazon links in my post.)
Weights can initially be eyeballed on pasture, only when the selected cattle reach the corral they should be measured and weighed on the cattle calibration #CommissionEarned to be absolutely sure they accept reached their target slaughter weight before getting loaded on the trucks to go to market.
Do all cattle from the same breed accept the same frame score and target slaughter weight?
No.
Cattle from within the aforementioned brood tend to be similarly sized (it is unlikely that you lot will see a frame score of two and 8 in the same breed), merely at that place will still be individual differences in superlative and thus a range of frame scores. That's why you accept to go out and measure out your herd.
Practise I demand to remeasure my herd every twelvemonth?
Unless you change your cattle genetics, the range of frame scores (and the range of target finishing weights from smallest to largest) will remain very similar from year to year and you won't need to remeasure every year.
Yous'll know that your smallest cattle need to achieve one weight, your largest cattle another, and the residuum need to be somewhere in between.
But as shortly as you lot introduce a dissimilar breed, y'all'll need to remeasure. You'll also need to remeasure every few years in instance the genetics of your convenance stock starts to drift towards larger or smaller sizes (wait at how much larger Black Angus cattle are at present than they were forty years agone!).
And if you have a mixed breed cattle herd, you'll want to re-measure fifty-fifty more than frequently (possibly even annually) since the more breeds that contribute to your overall cattle herd, the more variation there will exist in individual hip heights and frame scores!
And you should always remeasure if you make any large changes to your herd genetics, similar if you add new bulls or replacement heifers from a different breed.
How verbal is this technique?
Information technology is an estimation technique.
Even after your beef cattle have reached their target weight, you lot still demand to utilize your judgement to ensure that they look fat enough before sending them to slaughter.
One of the most useful tools to make that judgement is body condition scoring - a visual technique for judging cattle fatness - every bit a way to confirm that your cattle are fatty plenty to slaughter. Cattle should exist between a trunk condition score of five and seven before they get to slaughter, never less!
The closer the cattle are to a seven, the higher the beef will class. But a BCS greater than 7 will be getting into obese territory. That actress fat is but going to exist trimmed into the waste matter bin.
However, just remember that target slaughter weight comes before body condition. Your cattle are NOT ready to slaughter at a much lighter weight just because their torso condition score is at a vii. But one time they reach that slaughter weight (plus or minus a few pounds), then use your judgement of fatness (body condition scoring) to make that final decision of whether the cattle are ready to go to market.
What if my hip height measurement is somewhere betwixt two frame scores?
Assign frame scores using halves, thirds, or quarters (whichever is your preference), and make the appropriate adjustments to the weights on the target slaughter weight by frame score tables.
Are frame scores relevant to all beefiness cattle breeds?
Yes.
Does the target finishing weight and frame score technique work for all cattle breeds?
Belgian Blue Balderdash
Image Credit:Mastiff, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY ii.0
Yes...
However at that place are a few rare exceptions such as the double-muscled cattle breeds similar Belgian Blue and Piedmontese cattle. I retrieve the photo on the right speaks for itself... If you have one of these breeds, ask your cattle breeder association to provide you with target cease weights for your cattle based on frame score.
Do frame scores change with historic period?
Frame scores by and large remain the same throughout the cattle's lifetime, though this is not a guarantee.
This is why prudent cattle finishing operations always re-measure their cattle the very final time they weigh them earlier slaughter, even if they already have a frame score consignment from while the cattle were still younger.
Furthermore, some tedious-growing cattle breeds practise not follow the expected cattle growth curve, equally is the case with some (but not all) Scottish Highland Cattle. Their frame score will change as they abound.
And an extreme nutrient shortage tin can also temporarily stunt growth and throw growth curves out of whack.
Does the correlation between frame scoring and target slaughter weights also work for mature bulls and cows?
Aye. I accept included the target slaughter weight look-up table for mature bulls and mature cows simply below the tabular array used for steers and heifers. And the frame score look-up tables for both male person and female cattle extend correct to mature trunk size.
Is frame score and target slaughter weight all information technology takes to ensure that beef is tender and flavorful?
No. Frame score and target slaughter weight is but one of the many criteria that you lot have to pay attending to in order to end upwards with tender and flavorful beef.
Some of the other details that you have to pay attention to in order to produce tender flavorful beef are:
- Cattle MUST be gaining weight right until the day they are slaughtered.
- Cattle must have consistent daily diet throughout the finishing process and must not be allowed to temporarily lose weight any time in the month or more before they are slaughtered, otherwise they will have bereft microscopic intramuscular fat. Slaughtering either after the cattle run out of grass in the autumn or during the winter when cattle are coasting forth without weight gains won't work. Equally soon as cattle brainstorm tapping their body fatty reserves (even just a little bit) to make upwardly for calorie shortfalls in their feed, their beef will be tough, dry, and flavorless even if their slaughter weight was on target. It can takes weeks or even months to refill those crucial fatty reserves if weight gains temporarily stall or reverse.
- You must eliminate or minimize all sources of cattle stress both during the finishing process and on the mode to the slaughterhouse. This includes handling stress, disease, environmental stress (i.due east. heat stress, parasites, etc.), and nutritional stress (i.east. protein, free energy, minerals, or vitamin deficiencies).
(Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made using Amazon links in my post.)
- Yous can learn more strategies for producing tender, flavorful beef in my 7 Unbreakable Rules for Producing Nifty Beef commodity series and in theGrass Finishing chapter of my book, Grass Fed Cattle: how to produce and marketplace natural beefiness #CommissionsEarned .
Summary
The correlation between hip top (frame score) and slaughter weight is one of the core pillars of whatsoever cattle finishing plan, regardless of whether you are grass finishing or grain-finishing your cattle. Information technology's a simple 1-two-3 process:
- Go measure your cattle'southward hip heights to find their frame scores.
- Use the lookup tables to find their target slaughter weights based on those frame scores.
- And weigh your cattle earlier you send them to the slaughterhouse to make certain they have indeed reached their target slaughter weights.
If y'all brand frame scores a cardinal function of your cattle finishing strategy, you will be well on your way to producing consistent, tender, flavorful beef!
Share your cattle finishing tips!
Do you take any other cattle finishing tips that you lot use to ensure that your beef is tender and flavorful? Share them in the comments box below!
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