The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Cattle => Topic started by: Beechgrove Dexters on July 26, 2014, 12:23:11 pm
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Good afternoon folks. I am fairly new to this forum and also Dexter farming in general. I keep a small herd in Donaghadee, Co.Down and wanted to ask if any of my fellow dexter farmers could give me a rough approx breakdown of the 100kg of meat from a steer ie roughly how much ribeye etc. I know this is a tedious question but as I have not butchered any yet it would be a great help to me if someone had an approximate answer. Thanks very much for you time
Jamie.
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Hi, we sent off our first Dexter steer a couple of months ago. He was short (and a small short at that) and was near 30 months when he was slaughtered. Dead weight was 130kg and I got back 105kg of beef from the butcher. This is roughly what we got (to the nearest half kilo). 9kg offal, 13.5kg mince, 3.5kg brisket, 8kg fore-rib, 4kg wing-rib, 1kg short-rib, 4.5kg blade, 2.5kg skirt, 7kg chuck, 6kg shin, 5kg rump, 1.5kg sirloin, 1.5kg fillet, 2.5kg T-bone, 10.5kg stewing, 3.5kg leg of mutton cut, 6kg silver-side, 5kg top-rump, 8kg top-side, 2kg Aitch bone. It seems that so much is down to personal choice and what cuts you prefer. Despite its small size we are thrilled with the meat (even if I can no-longer close my chest freezer!)
Helen
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That is such a great help Helen, thank you for your reply. Over 100kg of meat returned is a good amount and I was just looking at chest freezers online today! Do you keep any other breeds? I have to say I am looking forward to the dexter meat.
Thanks again.
Jamie
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We had a belted galloway heifer but she was just too big for our small set-up and bullied the Dexters. We have just got non-short Dun steer to replace the one that went off and have another steer off to the abattoir in October. We don't sell any of our meat (yet!) and so we find that Dexters are perfect for home consumption and the meat is delicious. I have also got sheep and pigs and so my chest freezer is well and truly full to bursting at the moment.
Helen
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That's interesting because belties had definitely crossed my mind to keep with the dexters. I think we will stick to dexters and see how it goes. Plan to fill the freezer and hopefully shift the rest through boxes and a local restaurant. Thanks again for all the info Helen.
Jamie.