how to butcher a cow

[Abitrary]

Was just googling for where different steaks - rump, sirloin etc - come from off a cow and found these brilliant bullet-pointed instructions about how to slaughter a cow from the 'pets editor' of this site.

Gotta love point #4:

"Try not to frighten other members of the herd when you capture the cow you are butchering."

http://www.ehow.com/how_2077536_butcher-cow.html

 

[Aperitif]

Maybe if you were butchering a donkey, the answer would be on eHaw...Sorry - just making an ass of myself as usual.
Jordan and Peter André butchered a song once.

Shoot the cow with a .22 caliber gun at the point where lines from eyes to opposite ears intersect, approximately the middle of the forehead at a point above the eyes

 

[Keith Oates]

I'll leave the butchering to someone else, that way I will enjoy the steaks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Cycling Naturalist]

That's interesting reading.

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Shoot the cow with a .22 caliber gun at the point where lines from eyes to opposite ears intersect, approximately the middle of the forehead at a point above the eyes.

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Almost certainly illegal in the UK

 

[Gerry Attrick]

Almost certainly illegal in the UK

Absolutely certain.

 

[domtyler]

Can you use standard power tools?

 

[Cycling Naturalist]

Can you use standard power tools?

For slaughter or butchery?

 

[domtyler]

For slaughter or butchery?

Either/Both.

 

[Arch]

Almost certainly illegal in the UK

Despite probably being one of the best ways - if you're a decent shot, you can be a little way away and avoid freaking the animal with a bolt gun pressed against its head. Self sufficiency guru John Seymour recommended the same for a pig - let it out into a pen, give it a bucket of feed and when it puts its head down to eat, *bang* and it dies happy.

I gather someone who studied animal behaviour once designed the ideal humane abbatoir, and it included a curving ramp to drive the herd up, because cattle tend to naturally move in a curve not a straight line, and not being able to see round the corner to what was happening prevented panic, or something like that.

 

[Maz]

I gather someone who studied animal behaviour once designed the ideal humane abbatoir, and it included a curving ramp to drive the herd up, because cattle tend to naturally move in a curve not a straight line, and not being able to see round the corner to what was happening prevented panic, or something like that.

That's interesting. What little I know of Islamic slaughter of animals includes not slaughtering any animal in the presence of another animal awaiting slaughter, and washing away all blood before the next animal is brought in for slaughter. I guess these are anti-panic measures.

 

[Cycling Naturalist]

Despite probably being one of the best ways -

A very experienced dairy farmer told me that when cows have to be killed in a hurry, the best method is to shoot them in the forehead at close range with a shotgun. The animals suffer no distress and the almost solid wodge of shot stoves the skull in. I'd have reservations about using a .22 at even very close range because the small low energy bullet (about 100 foot llbs) may well not penetrate the skull and merely inflict a nasty injury.

 

[Canrider]

I gather someone who studied animal behaviour once designed the ideal humane abbatoir, and it included a curving ramp to drive the herd up, because cattle tend to naturally move in a curve not a straight line, and not being able to see round the corner to what was happening prevented panic, or something like that.

A Temple Grandin design, methinks.
I've used a faunal reference collection where at least one cow skull had two bolt-gun holes in it. The animal must have jerked at the last moment as one only grazed the skull cavity. The second was on target, but who'd want to be in the pen after the first one missed!

 

[numbnuts]

I’ve shot a feral pig and butchered it while I was in Australia

 

[Arch]

A very experienced dairy farmer told me that when cows have to be killed in a hurry, the best method is to shoot them in the forehead at close range with a shotgun. The animals suffer no distress and the almost solid wodge of shot stoves the skull in. I'd have reservations about using a .22 at even very close range because the small low energy bullet (about 100 foot llbs) may well not penetrate the skull and merely inflict a nasty injury.

I bow to your superior munitions expertise - perhaps a heftier bullet? The skull at that point is pretty thin...

Maz, you may well be right, I didn't know about that rule. Apart from anything else, I gather excessive adrenalin can make meat taste less nice - so as well as being kinder not to panic animals (and easier, you try holding a paniccy cow still), it's better for the end product. The blood washing away might also be a sensible precaution against contaminating the carcass of any animal with any blood borne disease from the previous one. Most dietary laws seem to have a very sensible root in practicality, even if the reasons appear to have become lost over time...

 

[Fnaar]

Mmm... lovely steak... mmm...