Butchering Day

Thursday the 10^th was butchering day. Butchering day is a day of mixed emotions for me. On the one hand it is the culmination of the growing season and the payoff for all the feeding, watering, fence fixing, cow chasing and putting up hay for the year. On the other hand it is the day some of our pet cows, most of whom I have known since the day they were born, get killed.

This year wasn’t too bad. I wasn’t overly attached to any of the animals that were butchered though I didn’t bear any of them any ill will either. When I was about 10 or 12 years old I was given the chore of feeding one of our steers a bucket of grain every day to get him ready for butchering. I hated that steer and hated having to feed him. He was always stepping on my toes and I had to feed him when I would rather have been doing other things. I couldn’t wait until butchering day when I would be free of my burden. Funny thing is, when butchering day arrived I felt really bad. I went from gloating about the day to wishing even asking if we could spare the steer. When that steer was killed I bawled my eyes out for an hour.

That was almost the worst experience for me. The worst happened in the early 2000’s. We had a young bull I named Little Feller. This little bull had the sweetest disposition I think I have ever known. He was never rambunctious or mean and when I was out in the pasture, he would always come up to get scratched and he would follow me around like a dog. I had problems moving the cows once and he was there, calm and even, helping me get the other cows to follow along to the other pasture. When butchering day arrived for him, I couldn’t be there. Mom had to handle it. As it was, the place I was working that day was close enough that I heard the shots that killed Little Feller and the three others we had butchered that day. I was in a kind of numb daze for several hours afterward.

The reader might be wondering at this point why do I raise cows and put myself through this? Well, I like the taste of beef. And there is one fundamental, irrefutable truth about life, which is that everything that lives, including me, will die someday. Another truth that I think many people ignore or aren’t aware of is that every organism, including every one of us, uses resources from this planet at the expense of other organisms. Even vegans are not exempt from this. If the food they eat was grown locally in western Washington, forests were destroyed, obliterated in a manner worse than the most egregious clearcut, in order for these farms to exist. In other places prairie grassland communities or some other native habitat was likewise destroyed. I have nothing against farms, obviously. I have one myself and I eat food every day that was grown on farms. I am merely trying to make the point that nothing is free. Permaculture purists who don’t rely on tilled soil for food aren’t exempt either. They are still eating the products of plants that other organisms would have utilized if the permaculturalists hadn’t, so by their existence there are fewer resources for other organisms to exist. Butchering day (and hunting) is a constant reminder of at least a small part of the price that other organisms pay for my existence.

If our cows weren’t raised for beef they would never have existed because we and most other folks I know wouldn’t go to the trouble and expense of raising cows for pets.  And, if the cows (and bulls) were left to their own devices without some kind of human intervention, their numbers would increase to the point that we would run out of pasture, probably in about 4 years. Then they would starve. I have heard of some movements afoot to create artificial meat in laboratories so animals won’t have to die. I wonder if the proponents of these ideas have ever thought about what I have stated in the previous sentences. If our cows were no longer useful as a food source, we would have to get rid of them, which, if they were essentially worthless, would probably involve killing them all.

I believe it was Michael Pollan who put forward a very interesting idea that other species of plants and animals have used humans to spread their genes all over the world. From this viewpoint, it could be said that we humans are actually working for the species we have domesticated though I think it is more of a mutually beneficial situation for both the domesticated and the domesticator.

If I remember correctly, Pollan specifically mentioned corn in the interview I heard but I think he also mentioned cattle. Based on my situation, it would appear that this is the case. Where our pastures and hayfields are, a forest has been cleared by humans who shed a lot of blood and sweat in doing so, to create habitat for cattle which would never have existed here otherwise. The price that cattle have paid for this expansion of their presence to a valley in the North Cascades as well as onto continents far from Europe is that periodically some of their number are eaten by humans who have “domesticated” them.

As I stated previously, every living being will die. As far as the cows go, as I see it, I try to provide a quality life for them, plenty of pasture to roam around in and be cows, and as quick and humane a death as possible when the time comes. I think our cows lead a much easier life than their ancestors did on the plains of Europe, scrounging for food all winter, facing starvation in the harder years and year round death from predators that was quite a bit slower than a single bullet.

This year butchering day went pretty well. The designated animals were dispatched quickly. I doubt they even knew what happened to them. We hire our butchering out because it gets done more quickly and cleanly. I have butchered a number of deer over the years so I am sure I could butcher a cow as well, only it would take most of the day and be pretty messy. The butchers can have a cow “disassembled” (as they put it) in about half an hour with almost no mess.

Some readers might find the photos for this post which involves the butchering of a cow offensive or gross and, if so, I would advise them not to look at them. The purpose of the photos is not to be sensational and I didn’t include any photos of cows actually being killed. I am showing these photos because the process of butchering is a part of my life and it is also part of the process by which many others get their food whether they are aware of it or not. Scenes like this have played out, with varying technology, for hundreds of millennia all over the world. Our distant ancestors didn’t create arrowheads, spear points, knifes and other killing and butchering implements from stone to process plant materials.

Step one in the butchering process. The cow's throat is cut so it will bleed out. The line where the cow will be initially cut open to remove the entrails is washed down.

The butchers frequently wash things down during the butchering process. They have a certain number of animals that they have to butcher today but it is nothing like the volume done by a factory slaughterhouse so they have the time to ensure things are done properly. 

Removing the front legs at the knee joint. 

Removing the head. 

Removing the hind legs at the lower joint. I have never been able to find this joint myself. 

Starting to skin the cow and sawing the breastbone in half in preparation to remove the entrails. 

Skinning. 

Preparing to hoist the carcass with gambrels. 

Hoisting the carcass 

Washing down and beginning to remove entrails. 

Skinning the tail. The tail will be kept in a separate bucket with the heart, liver and hanging tenderloin. The tail will be used to make oxtail soup. 

Completing skinning the tail and removing the entrails. 

The entrails or offal are placed in separate 55 gallon drums after removing the undigested grass from the rumen and sent to a rendering plant where they are cooked down and used to make about 26 different products including chicken feed, dog food and cosmetics. About one-third of the products made from offal at the rendering plant are cosmetics, think glycerin and related substances. The butcher actually has to pay the rendering plant to pick up the offal. 

Completing the skinning. At this point, no knives are used. The hide peels right off the carcass. The hides are sold by the butcher to make leather. Recently the big market for hides has been China but this market is down currently. 

Preparing to quarter the carcass. Two cuts have been made just behind the ribs. The butcher's boots are washed down before climbing into the truck where the meat will be hung. This helps prevent the spread of bacterial contamination. 

Both boots are washed down. 

Beginning the cut. The carcass is cut in half lengthwise down the spine. 

Finishing the cut. 

Washing down the carcass and preparing to quarter it. 

Attaching gambrels to the front quarters. The hind quarters have been transferred to hooks that roll on an overhead rail. 

Washing the carcass. 

Cutting off front quarters. 

Rolling hind quarters into truck. 

Hoisting front quarters and transferring them to the hooks on the rail system. 

Washing the carcass and preparing to roll the last quarter of this carcass into the truck. This whole process took a little over half an hour. It would have taken me a minimum of half a day. 

Buckets with heart, liver, tongue, tail and hanging tenderloin. These don't go to the butcher's we keep them.  They go directly to the people who bought beef from us if they want them. If not, we disburse them. We generally keep the tongue (good sandwich meat), tail and hanging tenderloin and give the heart and liver to people we know who like beef heart and liver. 

All that is left after a little less than 2 hours work. Three piles of undigested grass from the butchered cow's rumens and some blood and scraps. Approximately 1700 pounds of biomass built by these three cows from the grass in this pasture and at the Stump Farm have been removed from the system. This means that, over the years, there has been a constant removal of nutrients from the soil here and at the Stump Farm so, at some point, they will need to be replaced by fertilizer of some kind. Nothing is free.