Leftover beef bones

I have a fair amount of leftover beef bones I’m trying to decide what to do with. What would happen if they were fermented by covering with water? Bone meal makes a fantastic fertilizer as long animals don’t get into it. A grinder could break them down and make them usable for homemade dog & cat food. However, affordable grinders run on electricity and manual grinders consume more time and can be quite expensive for whatever antique value is contrived.

What has worked for you?

This isn't the sexiest use, but I toss them into my compost.

I usually have boiled the bones previously for stock so there is some processing to the bone, but nothing dramatic.

I have heard you can do a vinegar soak on the bones to extract the calcium and leave them bendy, but this might take multiple days. I'm unsure how someone would make use of vinegar/calcium liquid but perhaps someone has more imagination than me!

I might have remnants after one full cycle of composting depending on how big/what part of the bones I have but never had issues on adding them into a second round.

I live in close proximity to neighbors, and I never had an animal/smell issue. You just want to keep the amount of bones proportionally small to the bulk of the compost ingredients. Put them near the core and let them cook!

We keep the bones in the freezer and make bone broth in the pressure cooker since it's quicker than the stovetop method. I roast the bones in the oven then put them in the cooker with water to cover the bones, a tablespoon of vinegar and some leftover veggie scraps and cook on high pressure for 90-120 minutes. This usually leaves the bones soft/crumbly and makes a wonderful broth for us and our pets. The cooked bones can be composted just as Timothy said and they break down over time.

For chicken and turkey bones I cook them for about 60 minutes and that seems to be plenty to soften the bones. Pork bones are somewhere between poultry and beef for cooking time. It's a matter of bone size and density.

Pressure cooker for sure.
If it's still hard, put it through again.
I put the bones leftover from this directly into planting holes.
You can also make biochar with the bones.

William Bronson wrote:You can also make biochar with the bones.

People have reported elsewhere that burning the bones makes them easy to crush.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:People have reported elsewhere that burning the bones makes them easy to crush.

True story. I'm one of them. I can put big old gnarly knuckle bones through the fire and crush them with my bare hands after they've cooled down. The heat also "unlocks" the minerals -- mostly calcium and phosphorus -- by turning them into more soluble forms. Great for the soil life, along with shells.

 burn the bones black, then vinegar extraction

I make them into biochar as well.  Bones char more easily than wood.