[Jacob-list] Butcher Weights

[Jacobflock at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/24/2004 8:10:57 PM Central Standard Time, 
patchworkfibers at alltel.net writes:

> My cut and wrap fees are by carcass 
> weight, which is determined by a skinned, beheaded, gutted carcass.  Not the 
> same as what I take home. 

I know rules of thumb are just that but I found the following helpful.  The 
dressed carcass (the usual cuts for lamb) comes out about 50% of live weight.  
Skull and horns (depending on age and number) about  18%, skin/pelt about 12%, 
intestines including contents 10%, tail/legs/hooves 5%, blood 5%.  

One suggestion for some tender cuts is to ask for as long a hang time as you 
can get; say 4 or 5 days.  Some abbatoires run product thru pretty fast and 
one way they improve productivity of the cooler asset is to turn its contents 
over as quickly as possible.

When I get the skull back, I check the bone on the skull that attached the 
head to the first vertebrae to see if the bone is rather evenly shaped.  This is 
an indicator of good "head/spine" alignment or the congenital defect condylar 
displacia. An uneven shape will be rather apparent.  I double check the bite 
alignment to be sure we kept the sheep with good dentition and culled the 
misaligned bite.  Finally, it provides an opportunity to look at the lateral horns 
of the ewe to be sure they are true horns if there is any doubt.  

For those that keep long tails (returned from the butcher) and expect to 
count the sixteen to eighteen caudal vertebrae (Jacob hock length tail), I was 
disappointed since the first two "fused" caudal vertebrae don't get neatly 
separated at the pelvis and end of the sacral vertebrae.  Caudal vertebrae count is 
now done by xray.

Finally, I can check the hooves for uneven digits and regular growth.  

My point is not to wait for the butcher to "look at the sheep" but there is 
an opportunity to look at the "returns" to confirm the cull/butcher decision or 
learn something that wasn't obvious before.

Fred Horak



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