A Killer of huge proportion !
As I mentioned in a post while we were working at Durham Downs Station, the beef that the staff and family eat is the station's own.
A ' killer ' is chosen from the herd to supply the station's beef about 2 weeks before it is needed. It is separated from the herd and brought into a paddock with a couple of others to keep it calm. The cattle are then left for a few hours to graze and settle before the ' killer ' is put down, this ensures the steer is calm and therefore provides better beef as it is not stressed.The steer is then hung up to drain/bleed in the coolroom for a week before it is butchered.
At the end of our second week our boss came into the schoolroom and suggested the girls and George and I might like to come out and watch the men and butcher bring in and store the beef from the steer they'd brought in.
Apparently it was an unusually big one. And It was !
Apparently, this steer had been avoiding being mustered each time the men went out for quite a while. They believed the steer would see the boss's chopper coming and head into the thicker bush and disappear. This time the beast was spotted on the side of the road and quickly dispatched.
It hung from the bobcat from a height as high as the hook would go. It was thought to be close to a tonne in weight. While hanging there it was cut to make two sides of beef before being cut into four pieces and then chunks to be hung up in the coldroom once more. It took up most of the space in the coolroom.
The meat from this one steer has kept the freezer stocked for a couple of months. Now I asked at the time if the meat would be tougher as it was an older, larger animal but apparently age and size does not necessarily predict quality of meat. It is more dependent on the quality of pasture, grazing and calmness of beast when ' killed.'
By Lynne
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