I tried to sneak this into an eariler thread but it didn’t take so I’ll try it here. What happens to dairy cows after they have outlived their usefulness? Are they slaughtered just like beef cattle or is their meat somehow different? When we buy beef at the Safeway does it include meat from dairy cows? Is that what Grade G beef is made of?
When I worked in a dairy farm, we would sell the older cows for meat.
They go to the butcher. Meat from dairy cows is generally less marbled and tougher, so it’s classed as “standard,” “utility” or another of the less-than-appealing grades. It’s sometimes ground up and mixed with better beef in hamburger, sometimes used for stock or precooked foods where it can be tenderized.
This link has a chart about halfway down the page showing the relation of age and degree of marbling to USDA classification:
http://www.restorationfarms.com/quality.htm
As indicated, a old milk cow will be usable, but be a lousy grade of beef.
McDonald’s tells Cecil