About a week ago three of our cattle went to slaughter at Curtis Custom Meats in Warren, Maine. It’s my job to communicate with the butcher and let them know how we would like the meat returned to us. This is a process that I go through with the pigs and lambs as well.
One of them, the retired dairy cow will be solely ground beef for our outdoor classroom program. The other two are to be cut for the kitchen here in Wiscasset. For the most part, I like to keep most of the cuts whole. That gives us more flexibility in the way that we prepare them. It’s easy enough to cut a roast into steaks or stew or kabob meat. Or we can choose to roast or braise it in one piece. We also get a bit of ground beef for the kitchen.
Chewonki’s beef production works in synch with our dairy system. As we breed our dairy cows to maintain milk production, some calves will be raise as meat animals. We also buy one to three beef cows each year, usually Angus, to supplement the herd. All our cattle are almost 100% grass fed and rotationally grazed during the warmer months.
