New Farmer FAQ

1. WHAT ARE THE QUALITIES OF REALLY GOOD CARCASSES?

We see animals of all shapes, sizes, breeds and ages crossing our processing floor and so we understand that there’s a huge variety in the methods that lead to an animal being ready to process. In our experience as both the people who see your meat first and meat-lovers ourselves, there’s one factor that is the most important in terms of flavour and tenderness, and that’s fat cover.  Your success at bringing in an animal with good fat cover will be affected by its breed, age, diet and living conditions and will make the difference between meat you can eat and meat you can’t wait to eat.

As Bruce Forrest explained it, “it’s a lot like baking a cake.  You have three main ingredients that must be good quality:  genetics, feeding and environment.  Get any one of those ingredients wrong and your cake will flop.”

Bruce knows that fat cover is essential because beef must be hung to age for a period of time after processing.  This aging process uses gravity and the carcass’ own weight to slowly stretch out and break down muscle proteins, tenderizing the meat in the most natural way possible.  The longer a carcass can hang beneath its protective coating without drying, the more tender the meat will be.

Jason Reid agrees and says that, although the hanging time is shorter, the same is true for lambs; he calls that layer of fat a natural “Ziploc bag,” keeping your meat moist and juicy while gravity does its job.  Not only that, but a good layer of fat makes it easier to remove the hide and preserves the meat beneath from damage during the process, contributing to a better end product in multiple ways.

Like lambs, pork hangs for less time than beef.  Peter Brink looks for the perfect amount of fat on his market hogs; enough to give good hanging time, to melt generously into slow-cooked pork shoulders and pad out the bacon, but not so much that it represents a lot of wasted feed or results in meat that shrinks significantly when you cook it.

Fat cover is the most important factor in really good meat.  Read on to learn a little about how these farmers achieve it.

3. I DON’T HAVE A SCALE.  HOW WILL I KNOW IF MY ANIMAL IS A GOOD WEIGHT FOR PROCESSING?

Although it’s not 100% accurate, farmers have been using the “taping” method of estimating livestock weights for hundreds of years.  To tape your animal, you’ll need a marked string or a measuring tape (a tailor’s tape works great) and either a handling squeeze (a narrow stall that can be closed in at both ends, holding the animal still while allowing you access from the side) or a very good distraction like treat food to keep your animal occupied while you measure. Keep in mind that if you’re aiming for really good meat your biggest concern is good fat cover – an older animal may have a larger frame and measure larger but not have good fat cover.

Taping Hogs

Hogs can be measured this way to an accuracy of 3 or 4 percent.

1. Measure the circumference of the animal, as shown in “distance C” in the illustration. Make sure to measure girth in relation to the location of the pig’s heart. This is the “heart girth.”
2. Measure the length of the animal’s body, as shown in distance A-B in the illustration. The pig must be standing or restrained in the position shown in the illustration for the calculation to be nearly accurate.  This is the “length.”
3. Using the measurements from steps 1 and 2, calculate body weight using the formula HEART GIRTH x HEART GIRTH x BODY LENGTH / 400 = ANIMAL WEIGHT IN POUNDS.
   Example: your heart girth is 42 inches, your length is 45 inches.
   42 x 42 x 45 / 400 =  198.45 lbs.  If you’re aiming for average market weight, this hog has about 75 lbs to go before slaughter.

Note:  If the hog or sow weighs less than 150 lbs., add 7 lbs. to the final answer. For example, if you have a young hog whose total body weight you have calculated to be 125 using the formula above, use the formula 125 + 7 = 132 lbs.

Taping Cattle

Cattle can be measured in a similar way, except the length is measured on the diagonal across the animal’s flank rather than down the back; the equation is slightly different.

1. Measure the circumference of the animal, as shown in “distance C” in the illustration. Make sure to measure girth in relation to the location of the animal’s heart.
2. Measure the length of the animal’s body, as shown in distance A-B in the illustration.
3. Using the measurements from steps 1 and 2, calculate body weight using the formula HEART GIRTH x HEART GIRTH x BODY LENGTH / 300 = ANIMAL WEIGHT IN POUNDS.
   Example: a beef cow has a heart girth equal to 70 inches and a body length equal to 78 inches.
   70 x 70 x 78 / 300 = 1,274 lbs.

Taping Lambs

Taping lambs tends to be a little trickier than hogs or cattle because of the puffy coat.  In our conversation with Jason Reid, he told us that sheep and lambs are more “hands-on” – literally – than beef or hogs because you can’t see their bodies; in order to gauge an animal’s fitness for market you need to be able to feel its muscle development through the wool.  Jason says market-ready lambs are “square,”  explaining that when you feel their bodies beneath the wool, finished lambs will have wide, flat backs and you won’t be able to feel the knobs of their spines – hence the “hands-on.”  If you’re already doing this, taping may be a natural next step for you anyhow.

1. Measure the circumference of the animal, as shown in distance C in the illustration. Make sure to measure girth in relation to the location of the animal’s heart. On a sheep, ensure an accurate measurement by compressing the sheep’s wool so that the circumference reflects that of the body and does not include that of the body plus the wool.
2. Measure the length of the animal’s body, as shown in distance A-B in the illustration.
3. Using the measurements from steps 1 and 2, calculate body weight using the formula HEART GIRTH x HEART GIRTH x BODY LENGTH / 300 = ANIMAL WEIGHT IN POUNDS. 

Example:  a lamb has a heart girth equal to 30 inches and a body length equal to 28 inches.  30 x 30 x 28 / 300 = 84 lbs.

5. HOW MUCH SHOULD I FEED MY ANIMALS?  HOW FAST WILL THEY GAIN WEIGHT?

Much like the answer about cattle weights at processing time, this is a complex thing.  All of our producers talked about environment and water as part of this equation.  Rather than controlling their feed bill by feeding their animals less, our three experts encourage plentiful diets and promote healthy metabolisms, which keeps animals content and encourages their development in as efficient a fashion as possible.  The short, simple answer may be: feed your animals as much as they want to eat.

Bruce and Jason are firm believers in the free-choice method, allowing their animals free access to their feed.  “Their bellies are always comfortably full this way, so they don’t gorge, ” Jason told us. “The larger ones aren’t trying to protect their food supply, so they don’t push the smaller ones away from their feed.”  This actually optimizes feeding habits; all of the animals can eat as much as they need, and don’t tend to overeat.

Bruce, Peter and Jason all described the way animals will eat less if they don’t have fresh, clean water to wash down their feed, or if their feed bunks aren’t kept clean.  “If it smells like spoiled food, they won’t want to eat it,” Bruce explained, and lower consumption generally means that animals take a longer time growing or, worse, lose critical ground on the growth curve when they’re developing the metabolism that will let them convert feed efficiently and finish properly.

“Well-bedded is half-fed:”  Control your animals’ environment, control your feed costs.

Bruce also talked about the conditions in which animals are kept, describing the way a cold, wet cow will burn energy keeping itself warm instead of putting on weight.  Cows with lots of manure on their hides will take longer to dry off than clean ones, contributing to issues of health and feed conversion.

Feed Conversion Rates

Bruce told us that he estimates that he will feed between 1 and 1.5 lbs of supplemental grain per 1 lb of body weight gain while he’s finishing his beef, but some breeds require more and others require less.  

Peter says that, throughout a market hog’s life – keeping in mind that Peter breeds white F1 sows to Duroc boars to produce market hogs which conform fairly well to industry standards – an average of approximately 3.3 lbs of feed is required for every 1 lb of live weight gain.  That means that Peter’s 275 lb market hogs will have consumed about 900 lbs of feed by the time they’re ready for processing.  This figure doesn’t often go down, but it can definitely go up if he buys a new jacket.

7. OTHER ADVICE FROM OUR EXPERIENCED FARMERS

Sickness in Sheep and Lambs

In addition to describing them as really “hands-on” animals, Jason Reid cautions that sheep and lambs have delicate constitutions.  Not only are they susceptible to copper poisoning – beware of feeding sheep other animals’ feed as they may be too high in copper and result in sickness or death – a sickness in a single animal is often just the precursor to a sickness in the whole flock.  Jason says they’ve learned that when a single sheep gets sick the first step is to identify the cause and immediately move to prevent the rest of the flock from falling ill, because the initial case will probably not recover.  Prevention is key to their health.

Grouping by Size

Bruce spoke specifically about beef cattle, but his advice is sound for any species of domesticated animal:  group your animals by size whenever possible.  Even if you’re offering your animals free-choice feeding, larger animals will bully smaller ones and this can result in herd/flock upset, poor eating habits and even injuries.