Question for someone who knows about beef industry?

Question

When cows are processed for human consumption how old are they. Intuition tells me that as soon as they reach the mark body weight. What is the age of the cow when this happens. I'm specially wondering about cows that are 30 months or less in age. Is this considered 'special', similar to veal, or is this the kind that is found on the supermarket shelves.

Answer 1

I believe the ideal weight for market cattle is around 1600 pounds and less than 30 months olds. (After the BSE cases, all cattle has to be less than 30 months old, older cattle have a better chance of having the mad cow disease). If cattle is over the ideal weight or even under, the farmers are docked money.
The cattle that are up for market sales varies in age, usually 18 months seems to best time but it just depends. Any cattle over 12 months or 1600 pounds is the ideal size for portions and for marbled meats (tad bit of fat within the meat, best tasting). These are meats that are sold in local stores.
Veal is baby calves under six months of age, they are the most tender but the demand is not there and they are undervalued (for the farmers). Most farmers will feed them and wait until their value is reasonable (12 mo- 30 mo. depending on overall weight).

Answer 2

There is no particular age when cattle are sold. A rancher will sell some of his herd whenever the market is most favorable. Generally a rancher will sell the younger animals from the previous years calves and keep the older proven heifers to bread for the next year. However, when the heifers get older he might sell them off and keep a few of the younger ones to replace them.

The cows generally go to a feed lot for a couple of months after the rancher sells them where they are fed a rich diet of mostly corn to fatten them up.

Veal is an entirely different story. Veal is milk fed beef that has not yet been weened from its mother.

Answer 3

Veal is a kind of meat from calves that live no longer than somewhere around the lines of four months. Not only are the calves young, but they are torturted and malnurished.

Read Peter Singer's, "Writings on an Ethical Life."


It will make you think twice about eating veal.

Answer 4

I worked in a butcher shop for many years but I could not tell you the age of the cow. I do know that the chicken you eat is only about 6 weeks old. WIth genetic engineering and all of the hormones they pump into the chick most of them are monster size and too tough to eat in only 8 weeks.

Answer 5

it depends actually

now a days cattle and most animals intended for slaughter are raised and grown are hormones and high calorie diets, and they can reach their adult sizes in as little as 6 months or less in some cases

to paint a picture a typical pig that will be slaughtered for food is intended to grow to over 2000lbs a piglet when born only weighs a pound and with the hormones the pig could weigh that much in less than 10 months

Answer 6

I used to live in rural Iowa. 2-3 years old, tops. After that the muscles get too sinewy from walking around all day, or the bull is put out to stud. It's not a yearly turnover from calf to slaughter.