from a friend on how her family processes a beef carcass on their family
farm. This got me thinking about how our animals are processed from live
animals to the final product that you see coming across our table to your
freezer and into you skillet. I do have some pictures that were taken down
at Boones Butch Shop in Bardstown Kentucky of our carcasses after they have been
harvested and hanging for two weeks before they are processed into steaks and
burger.
We schedule harvest dates with Boones Butcher shop
several times a month so we can keep our beef freezer in good supplies.
This requires me to have calves ready to go at anytime depending on the amount
of beef in the freezer. Since the farm is about an hour away from
Bardstown we get up to get the calves on the trailer early in the morning
around 6am. We do this so the steers arrive at Boones by 7am and are ready
to process before it gets too hot or a back up is created at Boones. We do
not like to stress our calves in any way they are led into the trailer with
their morning feed and are led off the trailer the same way. From the time
they get off the trailer at Boones they are in his hands for the next
phase. The cattle are slaughter in accordance to the USDA in the presence
of an inspector. Once on the rail Quarles Farm likes our claves to hang
for 14 days at the least.
I like to go down and look at every
animal that we slaughter to see what kind of meat the animal is going to turn
out like. This helps with decisions that we make when breeding our cattle
for the next generation. Our main goal in addition to providing your
family with great tasting beef is a better cow and calf. I am able to keep
the records on each animal that goes from the pasture to the program in regards
of behavior, feed performance and quality of product. The
Quality of product is looked at when I have Boones Split the Carcass for me to
get a look at the ribeye. We look for marbling though the steak, we like
more marbling for the least amount of feed. This saves us the producer
money and you the consumer with a cheaper better tasting steak.
From
the point that I look at the carcass the animal has been hanging for two weeks,
after I look at the animal it is then cut and packaged and back in our freezer
by the end of the week. You are looking at a product that travels about an
hour from the farm and is back at the farm within three weeks. You are
always looking at fresh local product when dealing with Quarles Farm