[PrestonSturges]

. Even today most of the weight on most beef cattle comes from grass, sure, some are grown on feedlots from weaning but most are grown on grass and finished on grain. I have 600# of beef in the freezer that only saw grain as a treat. He is almost as tender as grain fed because I let him hang an extra few days, the taste isn't quite as good but not bad for 58¢ a pound.

Sweet, did you butcher it yourself? How hard was it? I butchered my own pigs for the first time last year. I will never send my animals off to the butcher again. Saved a lot of money and somehow got more meat.

I'm thinking of doing a cow, (for meat not milk), this year. I would "pasture" it in my woods.

When you have a butcher cut and wrap a big deer, sometimes the "shrinkage" is about 40% and the good cuts disappear almost entirely.

[Pretorian]

you can always ask a butcher how much does it cost to dress the cadaver without stealing anything.

[Serial_Worrier]

If God meant us to eat vegetables, why did he make bacon so tasty? Gimme some more of that slab of hickory smoked bacon!

[WildRose]

If God meant us to eat vegetables, why did he make bacon so tasty? Gimme some more of that slab of hickory smoked bacon!

Meats have a lot of aroma while they're cooking, more than most other things, except for yummy baked breads and cookies and pies, perhaps. But I don't like the taste of meats as much as veggies and fruits and yummy baked things.

[vtsnowedin]

=[I'm thinking of doing a cow, (for meat not milk), this year. I would "pasture" it in my woods.

When you have a butcher cut and wrap a big deer, sometimes the "shrinkage" is about 40% and the good cuts disappear almost entirely.[/quote]

You need an honest butcher and there are plenty of them. There is shrinkage of course, you want all the major bones cut out and discarded. That can be twenty percent of the weight it had hanging in the halves. Also a butcher will not waste an hours labor trimming the last little bits off each bone using $30 dollars labor to retain $10 worth of meat. If you do it yourself you can pick the bones snowy white and cheat the dog of a good chew.

[Serial_Worrier]

If you do it yourself you can pick the bones snowy white and cheat the dog of a good chew.

It's evil the notion of depriving a dog it's bone.