Dexter Cattle For Sale Discussion Board

Posted: **Wed Nov 10, 2010 1:50 pm**

My normal abattoir was fully booked until after Christmas, so I have been forced to use a different one which although closer is more expensive (£270 instead of £180 for kill, butcher and pack).

Having unloaded the animal I was asked whether I wanted to clean my trailer there (£5) instead of having the normal undertaking to clean decleration. I took them up on this as I normally have to clean my trailer in the road and spend as long cleaning the road afterwards as the trailer itself.

This did make me wonder about the point of the cleaning decleration. The dirt inside the trailer is from my own holding and therefore irrelevant to my holding from an animal heath perspective, surely what they should be more bothered about is cross contamination at the abattoir from other vehicles? So doesn't this makes washing at the abattoir pointless?

I went this morning to pick up the offal and fully expected the liver to have been condemned for fluke, but it wasn't. This surprised me as the past 3 animals have been and this one has been with the same animals throughout its life. When I asked them they said "it depends upon the meat inspector". They only did 4 cattle yesterday including my own.

This of course has got me thinking:
- have I unnecessarily treated the other animals in the herd (I would prefer not to treat them as a routine)?
- could the other "condemned" livers have been fine?
- am I better off having a faecal egg count done?

Posted: **Wed Nov 10, 2010 2:07 pm**

Hello Ben,

How far are you from Talgarth, they aren't that expensive there.
As for the livers I know that years ago the one place always kept the livers - it was a perk.

Stephanie

Posted: **Wed Nov 10, 2010 5:28 pm**

Ben, You'd be lucky if it was your animals liver. They swap offal around to save people waiting etc. Some abattoirs will tell you, others just do it. But if you went back especially and made a point of it, then they probably are yours.

I've filled in those declaration forms for years and I discovered last year I'd been putting my address in the wrong box. I wonder if anyone reads them?

£270 for a dexter is a big price.

Edited By Broomcroft on 1289406610

Posted: **Wed Nov 10, 2010 9:26 pm**

It depends if you got an official MHS report sheet when you lost your offal.
If you did then almost certainly your livers were infected or sometimes just scarred.
If you didnt get the official sheet, it is anyones guess.
the red offal can be damaged easily on gutting, and its a low value product to the abattoir so they dont look look after them too well.
at our abattoir each set of offal is initialed with some kind of pen so it is clear who owns what.
if they know you want it back they are usually more careful with it.

dom

Dexter Cattle For Sale Discussion Board

Abattoir Experiences - Transport cleaning and liver fluke