Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Butchering 101 (not for those with a weak stomach)

We had a little mishap working cows today....we had one go down and got trampled by several others and she died. We quickly bled her out and then we called several butchers in the area but they were all too full to take her in. So..... we called a good friend of ours (Pat) and he and my father-in-law (Al) are going to grind her by themselves for hamburger. I ran to the house the first chance I got to get my camera...they were already well into the process.



Here is Pat skinning her...he is almost finished with the process.





A closer view





All skinned!





Now the "gutting" process.





Here come the guts!





Pat and Al were laughing at me taking pictures of the process for my blogging
friends!




This is the heart....it is HUGE! Pat is pretty proud displaying this for all of you!




The pile of guts...the big white things are her stomachs...she has 4 of them. I wanted to cut them open but they warned me that it gets too "stinky".


***


They cut her into quarters (didn't get pictures of that as I had to leave for the field)....they will let her hang like that until tomorrow night and then take the meat off the bone and grind it. Don't know if I will be around for that or not....I have a feeling I will be in the field.

27 comments:

Joyce said...

We have had to do the same for a young sow once. Your pictures brought back why I do not want to do some thing like that again. I still am enough of a town girl to get a little weak at times. I am glad you were about to save the meat. There are a number of ways to fix hamberger up in very enjoyable ways. Have fun.

Just Mom said...

OK. I can't believe I'm going to say this: That was actually quite interesting, guts hanging out and all.

Sorry about the cow getting trampled in the first place.

Momma Roar said...

That was interesting - I was always curious. Its great to be able to save that meat. We get most of our meat from my hubby's work when they buy steer (and pig) from the local farm shows.

April said...

I don't think I will ever look at beef the same way again.LOL. Sorry she got trampled.

Anonymous said...

Sometimes it's better to be ignorant. I don't think I will ever eat cow again. Can't say you didn't warn me.

Excuse me while I go throw up..

Jen said...

I think I might give up meat now. GROSS. I am so a city girl. Interesting though and you did warn us but like some dummy that has to push the red button that says DO NOT PRESS, I kept scrolling down. Thanks for the insight and I bet Al and Chad were laughing at you taking pictures for us. I sometimes wonder what everyone else thinks of us bloggers. My hubby just rolls his eyes at me! :)

Amber said...

Interesting...GROSS, but interesting!

Dawn said...

Sorry you lost the cow. I've never seen a bigger animal butchered, just chickens, pheasants and fish. My favorite part of butchering chickens was pulling the guts out!

I do need some time between seeing the photos and eating meat, should be ready to go in oh, say, 10 minutes or so.

~ Amy ~ said...

Good way to turn a bad situation into a good one. Food in the freezer for winter - what could be better than that?!!

Hope your corn harvest is going well.

kdwhorses said...

That was great! My husband and I normally do that to the hogs they kill and use the meat and give out to others. Tractors have multiple uses!?!?! At least it happened during the day, there are times when we clean hogs that you have flashlights and truck lights to see! Sorry she got trampled. Oh and hogs have lice and scabes, UGH! They are such dirty animals. Enjoyed the post!

Pen of Jen said...

Oh I want the hide. I am a weak stomach person except to things on the farm.

Thanks for the show!
Jen

Jamie said...

Wow - that was pretty neat! I can't say that I have ever seen all of that!

How weird...to say that was all neat. :)

Michelle said...

I think the butchering business must be the thing to get into. Five in our immediate area seem to be booked out two months in advance...and that's not when it's hunting season.

Good thing Pat and Al were able to salvage the meat. Burgers on the grill....yummy.

(Wasn't hard to tell which Pat you were talking about...he looks just like his dad!)

Michelle said...

I have to tell you...Abby wanted to see all the photos when I got done commenting. She was intrigued and would have loved it if you would have cut the stomach open. Plus:

~She wants to know what happened to the head. She wanted to see the brains.
~She wants to know what it said when it died. (I told her moo-ouch.)
~How big was it? Was is 60 pounds or 22 or 88?
~And, where did all the 'poo' go?

Finally after her looking at all the pictures numerous times, she said. "That's so disgusting."

Anonymous said...

Ewwwwwwww... and I just had a hamburger for lunch. Gross!

Tracy said...

I am speechless...

Kerrie said...

Um, wow. Yeah....speechless.....

sarah said...

definitely put me off my breakfast for a bit. However, I had jujubes instead of reaching for those hamburger patties, so we're all good! lol.

Rose said...

Gee, too bad you lost her. Hope she's tasty.

We lost one last year and she was so old and tough we couldn't even make hamburger out of her. Saved her calf though so that was good.

Hope your corn harvest goes well!

Hope4Grace said...

OMG, my eyes are bleeding.....

I'm such a girl!

Unknown said...

What can I say? Thanks??? well YES!! Shane just loved this and discussing it. It was probably the best "scienc" (biology) session we've ever had! He said, "Cool! Its like we are disecting a cow!" He then went on to inform me that Bison have 3 stomachs. I'll need to google bison and check that out!

Rising Rainbow said...

I saw that done to a bear once when I was a teenager. I was staying at my friends. She drug me over to the neighbor's garage where they had this bear hanging. It was very interesting.

Karenkool said...

Awwww poor moo moo. It was a cool post. I got a kick out of Pat too. Tell him we enjoyed he's big cheese!

justgottalaugh said...

I clicked on your link from a friend's blog and am so glad I did because I never knew a cow's heart was that big!!! My life is complete now that I've seen a cow's heart :) Very cool!

April said...

That was amazing! I got a bit grossed out, but that was really cool! I want to know why she has to hang for two days?

Marcy said...

Chris-I found your blog through my friend Jennifer's sister Kris's blog and saw this post (yeah, I know that was long). I am definitely a city girl, but I found that very interesting! I am sure I could not have stood there and taken pictures like you did, I am not that brave. But, it was very educational. I am glad that that meat did not get wasted!
Marcy

Anonymous said...

post some pics next time you do a hog, would be interesting to see the difference between the two, good to see some more females getting into the butchering at last.