Tuesday, June 20, 2017

#7 More Dailey Show

Emma Campa.

Posted by Buckles at 6/20/2017 06:38:00 AM

10 comments:

Chic Silber said...


I was told that the most

common Florida cattle

were mixed breed of Texas

Longhorn & Brahman that

required little care

Florida is 2nd largest

beef producer

20 June, 2017 11:18
4pawfan said...

Brahma cattle do very well in hot weather and have a very thick skin that works well against bugs. This one is tiny to the grays and reds of today (1800lb to 2400lb for bulls and 1100lb to 1400lb for females). Females can calf till they are 12-15 years old vs angus that you may get 10-11 years of service. Of course it depends on soil conditions as a very sandy soil will wear their teeth down a lot sooner.
p.j.

20 June, 2017 13:06
Roger Smith said...

I can testify to the thick hides of these guys. We had a number of brahmas come into the Jungleland Slaughterhouse from ranches and feed lots. Animals would drop dead, and Ted Mosqueda, our Stiff Truck driver arrived to wench them aboard. Big diary cows also had heavy hides. All stiffs were skinned and the hides dragged into a pile to be heavily cured with shovels of rock salt, until our count ran to 400. Then all cagehands helped load our aged Keystone trailer for the selling point at California Tannery, down in L.A. The brahma hides were the heaviest to cut away. Yarda and yards of thick hide became a struggle to flay off, and the goal was not to cut holes in the removal. From there, we gutted the carcass, hauled it up on a gammil via chain motor, and cleavered the spine into sides. We cut the sides into quarters, then into individual feeds. Quite a job, but this is how we fed the 72 cats I cared for, plus 124 carnivores throughout the Compound. Meatcutting skills for the big cats, on this order, are lost to this country now, but I learned them right there in Uncle Ben's Slaughterhouse.

20 June, 2017 14:17
Patricia said...

When I arrived at Carson and Barnes W.Q. in Hugo in January of 1981, I guess I thought most established places with cats all had walk-in freezers of tidy pre-boxed meat as they had at Hawthorn. I didn't have 72 cats to care for as Roger did, but I did have 8 (there were two extras). My first day there, it was late afternoon, I had just been ushered through the cat barn. I asked where the freezer was. The guy pointed to a dusty,dirty chest freezer in a corner which had obviously not been used in ages. Oh dear. I asked where the meat was kept. He rummaged around a minute among some rakes, shovels, and such. "Follow me" he said. I dutifully followed him to a charming place behind the barn called "the gut pile". My heart kind of sunk as I saw the three day dead bloated cow with buzzing flies all around and legs pointing skyward. He handed me a knife, a stone, an axe and a saw. "Well, there you go, lady. If you want your cats to eat tonight, you best get at it. It'll be dark soon, and it's supposed to rain." As he walked away, I said, "But...I don't know how!" He assured me I'd figure it out. He didn't offer to help. Oh my.
But, he was right. I figured it out. Sort of.
After I'd butchered a few dozen cows, I got pretty good at it, if I do say so myself.

20 June, 2017 16:26
Roger Smith said...

Once you learn how meat-bearing animals are put together, cutting them apart becomes rather obvious. If you have no one to show you how, or can't figure it out, you can beat yourself to death trying to render a whole animal into feeds. Jungleland also sold this meat to acts that swung by to replenish all provisions. Once, when Uncle Ben had his day off, and I was out with Miller-Johnson, Baron Julius Von Uhl pulled in wanting meat. He was told he'd have to cut it himself, and then have it weighed for pricing. I came in the next day, and found Julius must have suffered the pains of hell trying to cut feeds. The sides and quarters looked like they had been assaulted with an ice pick. I didn't see how much meat Julius got from us, but he left most of it on the roller hooks.

We gutted our stiffs, and most of the entrails went into barrels picked up twice a week by the "Gut Men" from California Rendering. But my mentors had seriously wised me up, and to the horror of the come-and-go cagehands, I regularly claimed half a wheelbarrow full of guts, with the contents present. Few knew, or cared at all, that guts hold the most potent nutrients produced by the herbivore, and at feeding time will be the first portions consumed by the cats. Muscle meat on the bone comes second. We had a cageline called the old "Gut String", housing retired cats that some figured should get short shrift from the Slaughterhouse. Uncle Ben taught me to wheel loads of guts over to them, shovel them in, and await the results. These guys had the glow of brilliant health from mostly gut feeds that astounded the vast unwashed. Their coats gleamed, and for those who caught on, who got the most guts to feed their charges almost led to fistfights out back.

20 June, 2017 20:51
Patricia said...

I recall trying to feed lungs once. It was pretty funny. First they all looked like they were trying to chew bubble gum, then had happy play time when they discovered their meat bounced as they flung it away in disgust. (I would supplement with livers, kidneys and heart, but no more lungs...)

21 June, 2017 14:41
Dennis said...

Patricia
When I still had the cat act, D.R. bought chicken necks and backs. I never had to deal with bovine bodies. I was always amazed that all 22 cats, act and menagerie, could thrive on chicken parts that looked to be so devoid of much meat. Plus, I always waited for a bone to get stuck in a cat's throat. Especially when two cats in one cage fought over the meal. I'm thinking the tigers Harriet and Mabel. It never happened.
At the end of the 1976 season the giraffe died and the winter quarters cook made meals for all the carnivores (22) and the skeleton staff. I declined. I liked that ole' giraffe.

21 June, 2017 16:38
4pawfan said...

Dennis the giraffe's name was Lee.

And Patricia don't ever eat Haggis if you don't eat or like lungs. lol

p.j.

21 June, 2017 16:48
Dennis said...

It was very late into the Fall that year on some lot not far from Hugo. I was still relatively a first-of-may but I decided it was too cold to put Lee on display. D.R. came along and said to let him out. Two or three days later he lay gasping on the cement floor of his winter quarters. Took his last breath as I sat near his head waiting for the vet.

21 June, 2017 17:23
4pawfan said...

He was a very gentle guy and you could handle him without any trouble. Whenever I came on the lot he would notice me and pace until I had to go over to see him. Still have a photo of myself standing next to him on my desk.

p.j.

21 June, 2017 17:46

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