How does a cow become a steak?

When I was younger I often found myself inside a slaughterhouse, because I lived near one, and some of my relatives and friends work there. Looking back, the slaughterhouse seems to me more like a factory than a place where our food come from.

Firstly, a cow is led into a tightly-fitting three-sided metal box. Then the door, the fourth side, is closed, with the cow penned in. From the top, a man presses the mouth of a gun onto the neck of the cow. A four-inch long pin is fired into the neck to sever the vertebrate, killing the cow instantly.

The long side of the box opens, spilling the limp cow onto the floor. A chain hanging from a conveyor overhead is wrapped around the ankle of one of the hind legs. A wrench retracts the chain, pulling the cow up into the air by its hind leg.

The conveyor carries the cow hanging up-side-down over a basin. A butcher with a sharp knife cuts its throat. Blood spills out, collected by a bucket below.

The conveyor then transfers the cow to another area, where butchers skin the cow, slit open its belly, and remove the intestines. I was always amazed at how much there were.

Then the head and the feet are cut off, and the rest of the cow is dismembered. Part of it becomes a steak. My favourite, however, is the tail. What is yours?