# Live calves out of the slaghter house/ meat locker, plauseable?



## rittert3 (Dec 10, 2009)

I have worked with a recenly retired gentlman at a sale barn for the last couple years who claims that he built his first cow herd off bringing salvaged calves home from the meat locker / slaugher house he worked at as a younger man. I would assume he would cut out and attempt to save calves from pregnant kill cows, he has never seemed like the lieing type and have proven knowledgable. Is this plausable? Me recently being hired at a locker plant has spiked my curiosity.


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## Imissmygirls (Dec 10, 2009)

More likely he bought back/rescued live prospect calves before slaughter.  I don't know of any farmer who sends a cow to slaughter when she is that close to delivery and it's near impossible to keep a preemie calf alive.  A farmer is more likely to keep the cow til she calves and then ship her quickly.
These days heifer calves are in short supply so I doubt you get a good opportunity at the slaughter house.  Heifers especially never make it near a slaughter house. They are going for $4 /lb here!


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## FarmerChick (Dec 10, 2009)

Any federal inspected slaughterhouse would not permit this at all.

So I doubt it was salvaging calves from the womb of cows to slaughter.
If anything, he either got for free or paid very little for some animals he thought would be good for his herd.

Just ask him how he acquired them....get the right info. and maybe you can copy what he did if you are interested.


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## jhm47 (Dec 10, 2009)

My wife worked at a butcher shop for 12 years, and they occasionally would get a cow that was close to calving because of a broken leg, or some other problem.  They saved a few calves from doing what is described by the OP.  It didn't happen often, but it did happen.  Those calves can be hard to keep alive.  They often are deprived of oxygen for several minutes, and they don't get colostrum quickly, so they don't do as well as "natural" calves.


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## rittert3 (Dec 11, 2009)

Like I said we work at a sale barn and I had asked him if these Kill cows being sold (lame, crazy,flesh wounds, broken legs,ect.) that were about to drop calves were going to the locker plant with the rest of the pen or would be held until after they calved (we have about 3 buyers that exclusivly buy bad cows to go as hamburger and they have the same pens every week) when he told me that when he was in his twentys he worked at a meat locker and got his first cow herd that way. keep in mind that this would have been around 40 years ago so in the 70's and I am asuming this was a larger privatly owned meat locker not a commercial plant that ships to our grocery stores.


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## rittert3 (Dec 11, 2009)

Imissmygirls said:
			
		

> More likely he bought back/rescued live prospect calves before slaughter.  I don't know of any farmer who sends a cow to slaughter when she is that close to delivery and it's near impossible to keep a preemie calf alive.  A farmer is more likely to keep the cow til she calves and then ship her quickly.
> These days heifer calves are in short supply so I doubt you get a good opportunity at the slaughter house.  Heifers especially never make it near a slaughter house. They are going for $4 /lb here!


wow thats high heifers are only bringing about $1.10/lb here only a little higher than steers


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## FarmerChick (Dec 11, 2009)

40 or 50 years ago...yea anything could have happened...LOL

now I am sure that wanting to handle a situation of cutting out a live calf before slaughter will not be permitted due to federal/usda etc. etc. health codes.

A butcher shop being privated owned, yea maybe this could happen but rare like the poster said.  

But in the "olden days" who knows what went on..LOL

For me, if you want to acquire a herd like this now, nah, I don't see it happening at all.


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## jhm47 (Dec 11, 2009)

Just to clarify, the calves are cut out AFTER the cow is slaughtered.  This is why they don't do well, since they are deprived of oxygen for several minutes before they are delivered.


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## rittert3 (Dec 11, 2009)

From what I had gathered jhm is correct the calf was removed right after the cow was killed and shackled, as far as the butcher, we have small businesses that prosess game and livestock for the public here and tend to stay fairly busy. They arn't nessicarily tiny but they arn't anything compared to a federal facility.


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