Castrating a 12 month old bull calf for beef

[hedgesjp1985]

Has anyone castrated one this old and tried the beef I'm wondering if it is too late and the meat will be off tasting.  He is probably 900 pounds andI would like to get him up to 1275 - 1300 pounds, I just don't want to waste my time and be disappointed with the meat.  I thought I could sell him as a bull and it's not working out so I'm not sure which direction to go from here.

 

[CAB]

It's done regularly. Another option would be to leave him a bull and try to get him finished as fast as possible. I have a neighbor that sells intact bulls all of the time to regular customers. The trick is to get them there with some finish and that they be young like 14 months old B4 they get tougher. I would recommend castrating with a bander. A lot less chance of losing one that way.

 

[Doc]

I'm like CAB. I have a neighbor that raises Hereford's. Sells about 14 head a year for custom beef. Doesn't castrate any of them. I have banded 12 -14 month bulls a lot for freezer beef with no difference.

 

[cowboy_nyk]

We regularly eat virgin bulls.  Anything that doesn't pass semen test.  I find it better than a steer.  A touch leaner and larger cuts.  Even my meat customers that have had one ask for a bull again afterwards.

 

[blackdirt cowboy]

Bull meat is pretty terrible. That being said, yours is still salvageable. Being a yearling, I’d band him. Knife cutting him will be very hard on him, maybe fatal. Even banding him, I’d look and see where the moon sign is in the zodiac. You want it as far away from the groin area as possible and moving away from the groin is better. Don’t even pay attention to the farmers almanacs best days to castrate. Google “moon sign in the zodiac.”  The third or fourth result will be the farmers almanac. Click that one and it will tell you where the sign is on what day. Band him when the sign is in the knees or lower and moving away from the groin. I know it sounds crazy, but when castarting show steers, we would have a few bleed out. When we researched it, the one that died we cut when the sign wasn’t right. When the sign was right, they wouldn’t bleed a drop.

 

[Doc]

Bull meat is pretty terrible. That being said, yours is still salvageable. Being a yearling, I’d band him. Knife cutting him will be very hard on him, maybe fatal. Even banding him, I’d look and see where the moon sign is in the zodiac. You want it as far away from the groin area as possible and moving away from the groin is better. Don’t even pay attention to the farmers almanacs best days to castrate. Google “moon sign in the zodiac.”  The third or fourth result will be the farmers almanac. Click that one and it will tell you where the sign is on what day. Band him when the sign is in the knees or lower and moving away from the groin. I know it sounds crazy, but when castarting show steers, we would have a few bleed out. When we researched it, the one that died we cut when the sign wasn’t right. When the sign was right, they wouldn’t bleed a drop.

I guess everyone's opinion is different on going by the sign. My sign is whenever I have the time or the help to do it. I've done plenty of 1,200 to 1,400 pound bulls(and some bigger) over the years by banding them and haven't lost a one. I give a shot of tetanus toxoid, wait a week then band them and give another shot of toxoid at that time. Even when cutting them, I don't go by the sign.
As far as taste goes, if they are fed right and haven't been breeding cows I don't think that you will be able to tell any difference. JMO.

 

[cowboy_nyk]

Bull meat is pretty terrible. That being said, yours is still salvageable. Being a yearling, I’d band him. Knife cutting him will be very hard on him, maybe fatal. Even banding him, I’d look and see where the moon sign is in the zodiac. You want it as far away from the groin area as possible and moving away from the groin is better. Don’t even pay attention to the farmers almanacs best days to castrate. Google “moon sign in the zodiac.”  The third or fourth result will be the farmers almanac. Click that one and it will tell you where the sign is on what day. Band him when the sign is in the knees or lower and moving away from the groin. I know it sounds crazy, but when castarting show steers, we would have a few bleed out. When we researched it, the one that died we cut when the sign wasn’t right. When the sign was right, they wouldn’t bleed a drop.

I guess everyone's opinion is different on going by the sign. My sign is whenever I have the time or the help to do it. I've done plenty of 1,200 to 1,400 pound bulls(and some bigger) over the years by banding them and haven't lost a one. I give a shot of tetanus toxoid, wait a week then band them and give another shot of toxoid at that time. Even when cutting them, I don't go by the sign.
As far as taste goes, if they are fed right and haven't been breeding cows I don't think that you will be able to tell any difference. JMO.

Like Doc said.  If he has been fed and hasn't been breeding you won't be able to tell that it's bull meat.  Don't waste your time castrating.  Just kill him and enjoy.

 

[justintime]

We routinely eat virgin bulls, in fact, it is the best beef we have ever had. Like Doc said, it is slightly leaner and I can't see any difference in the taste. When I was running our feedlot, we had a niche market where we supplied beef to 5 small town meat shops. Every one of them asked me to supply them with meat from yearling bulls if at all possible. Last year, I had a two year old bull separate a front shoulder and it would not heal properly. I was not sure what if the meat would be as good or not, but we have no option but to butcher him. We are still eating this beef and I think it is probably some of the best tasting beef we have ever had. The only problem was that I had to buy another freezer to get all the meat in. We have been selling beef to several city people, and several of them have to me, that they will never buy beef in the store again, after eating the beef we sold them from our bulls. I really don't think you will have any problems if you don't let him breed.
One of my neighbors had to butcher a 5 year old herd bull as he snapped a leg off and could not even get up. This happened in the winter time, so this bull had not bred any females for a few months. He said the meat was excellent. Maybe he got lucky, I am not sure. One butcher I supplied beef to, told me that he loved to buy mature bulls that had been fed for awhile so they were in good condition. He said he could sell roasts from these carcasses faster than anything else he had in his store.

 

[blackdirt cowboy]

Y’all are kidding yourselves. Bull meat cannot compare to steer meat, so long as the steer is finished. I had a virgin bull break his leg in the squeeze chute when we were doing a BSE on him. I ended up butchering him. He was fat and I put all the meat into hamburger. It was pretty much inedible. In an effort to salvage it, I tried mixing it in various percentages with steer meat I had in the freezer. This only made the steer meat inedible. I guess to each his own, but you have to ask yourself, if bull meat is so good as to be equivalent to steer meat, then why go through the trouble of castarting them in the first place. There’s a reason the nations feedlots are full of steers.

 

[Doc]

Y’all are kidding yourselves. Bull meat cannot compare to steer meat, so long as the steer is finished. I had a virgin bull break his leg in the squeeze chute when we were doing a BSE on him. I ended up butchering him. He was fat and I put all the meat into hamburger. It was pretty much inedible. In an effort to salvage it, I tried mixing it in various percentages with steer meat I had in the freezer. This only made the steer meat inedible. I guess to each his own, but you have to ask yourself, if bull meat is so good as to be equivalent to steer meat, then why go through the trouble of castarting them in the first place. There’s a reason the nations feedlots are full of steers.

Not kidding anyone. I have a neighbor that feeds out 16 to 20 bulls a year. Never cuts them, sells them as freezer beef off them farm and has repeat customers year after year. I would routinely buy bulls at spring expo's if they were cheap, try to move them at a profit for 30 days. If I couldn't get them sold then I would give them their tetanus toxoid shot, band them and sell them for freezer beef. Never had the first complaint.

 

[justintime]

Y’all are kidding yourselves. Bull meat cannot compare to steer meat, so long as the steer is finished. I had a virgin bull break his leg in the squeeze chute when we were doing a BSE on him. I ended up butchering him. He was fat and I put all the meat into hamburger. It was pretty much inedible. In an effort to salvage it, I tried mixing it in various percentages with steer meat I had in the freezer. This only made the steer meat inedible. I guess to each his own, but you have to ask yourself, if bull meat is so good as to be equivalent to steer meat, then why go through the trouble of castarting them in the first place. There’s a reason the nations feedlots are full of steers.

Don't think I am kidding myself or anyone else. When we were operating our feedlot, we had one packing plant that gave us a 5 cent / lb premium on the rail for virgin bulls. I also know that a well known feed lot owner in Ontario fed only bull calves as he could buy them cheaper at weaning and he consistently got more gain from them and he received a premium for them as well.  I defy anyone to be able to tell which meat is from a virgin bull or from a steer. I think an experienced butcher could tell when they are hanging on the rail possibly. Most feeders prefer feeding steers simply because they are easier to handle while on feed. If you pen a bunch of bulls next to a pen of heifers or anywhere close to them, you could have problems or weight loss if something shows heat. Bulls ride more than steers and there is far more chance of injury. If can be almost impossible to add cattle to a pen of bulls already on feed, without fighting, riding and weight loss. There is a higher chance of getting a dark cutter from a bull when it is slaughtered but this is greatly reduced if they are shipped properly and killed right off the trailer.  I know quite a few feedlots that would feed bulls if they thought they could get them to market weights without any additional problems. I think you might be surprised at how many bulls actually go on the rail at the packing plant that are graded as being steers and sold as steers.

 

[newfarmer88]

Can I raise a bull to breeding age let him breed then band him and grain finish him for beef