how to butcher a cow

[Cycling Naturalist]

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

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It's generally reckoned that handguns are best for humane dispatch at short ranges as a large heavy bullet can be fired directly into the brain. Rifles are relatively unsatisfactory because the bullets are not designed to deal with a skull and they can go right through it.

The principles of all this have been well worked out by those who do "deer dispatch" - killing deer that have been hit by vehicles. In the New Forest, there is a rota for the local stalkers to be on duty, so they can be called out by the police. One chap reported the sad story of being called out to a deer with badly broken legs having had a collision with a family car. The family were watching in considerable distress and as the stalker arrived, the mother said to the youngest child, "It's alright now - this man's going to make the deer better."

 

[Maz]

The principles of all this have been well worked out by those who do "deer dispatch" - killing deer that have been hit by vehicles. In the New Forest, there is a rota for the local stalkers to be on duty, so they can be called out by the police.

Sort of relative of mine is a deer dispatcher, on call. He kills the deer but that meat can't then be sold at a butcher's shop. Needless to say, some coppers' chest freezers end up well stocked with venison...

 

[Fnaar]

In the New Forest, there is a rota for the local stalkers to be on duty, so they can be called out by the police.

Never ever give them your details!

 

[Cycling Naturalist]

Sort of relative of mine is a deer dispatcher, on call. He kills the deer but that meat can't then be sold at a butcher's shop. Needless to say, some coppers' chest freezers end up well stocked with venison...

Interesting point. Nowadays, to do deer stalking, most people have to have their Deer Stalking Certificate 1. A lot of the syallabus is to do with meat hygiene and correct butchery the tagging of the meat. In principle, I can't see why someone who dispatches a deer by a road shouldn't treat it in the same way as one shot in the forest and let the meat enter the food chain.

Gralloching it by the roadside might be a bit iffy though, and as for throwing the entrails over a hedge.

 

[Mr Pig]

Do not feed the cow 24 hours before butchering.

So if you're a cow, and you're hungry, be afraid!

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

So don't say to them: "See that guy over there, he's gettin' it by the way".

intestines can be used to make sausage casings or cooked in some other additional dishes.

Once you've washed the sh** out of them I assume! Uglaa, I'm happy I don't eat meat.

 

[Cycling Naturalist]

Once you've washed the sh** out of them I assume! Uglaa, I'm happy I don't eat meat.

The sh** is vegetable matter. And what is that you eat?

 

[domtyler]

When butchering the beast is it generally considered to be best to hack or slash at it?

 

[Arch]

When butchering the beast is it generally considered to be best to hack or slash at it?

Well, depends I suppose if you want proper efficient cuts of meat, or a sort of uneven mince....

I suspect a cow could be quite efficiently cut up by a skilled person using one large cleaver and one really sharp knife. We often find vertebrae in archaeological contexts that have benn chopped in half lengthways, because the first thing you do once it's dead is to hang the thing up by the back legs, bleed it, gut it and then split it into two sides.

 

[Fab Foodie]

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!

Canrider, you are correct. I had tyhe pleasure of meeting her, albeit briefly many years ago. Remarkable lady.
http://www.templegrandin.com/

I've spent a lot of time in slaughterhouses as part of various projects I have been part of. It's not so bad. Levels of care here in the UK are very high to ensure the cleanest and most humane dispatch. Patricks info regarding shooting of livestock also seems correct from my observations.
I contractyed a team of microbiologist to carry-out some sampling work in a slaughterhouse...turned-out that 3 out of 4 of them were Vegetarians! They still carried out the work and were not al all phased by process, in fact they were surprised how good it was.

 

[Cycling Naturalist]

When butchering the beast is it generally considered to be best to hack or slash at it?

Neither, it's best to have a good knowledge of the anatomy and use gravity and a sharp knive. I've seen a red deer hind gralloched with a small Opinel knife.

 

[Mr Pig]

The sh** is vegetable matter. And what is that you eat?

So you would eat a steak someone else had digested?