Anyone Interested in Grass Finishing Beef?

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WOW what an article. I have never read such a leftwing spin on beef before. It really torques me to read articles written by journalists who literally know nothing about what they are writing. Send some liberal out to texas to find out that ecoli lives in cow crap. How many different strains of ecoli are there? funny thing they forgot to mention the one they connected to the '93 Jack in the Box outbreak. Is likely not the same strain. Ecoli mastitis? in milk everyday (even organic) nobody dies? "that's unpossible" (ralph wiggum quote). Why the sudden move to organic foods? I would suggest it has something to do with society leaving the farm. Pre Industrial revolution most people farmed. Pre depression 1 in 4 farmed and most grew gardens and had a couple animals or their grandparents did. Anyways people knew where food came from. Now in this ever changing and pesimistic society they have turned up their noses at the sources of their food, The farmers and ranchers. The heathen of the field that poisons their food in an attempt make money and at the cost of the enviroment. Funny thing is i know several people who raise organic food (meat and veggies) I haven't met one of them who believes in it. When asked what the eat the typical response is "both". Why raise organic is my next question they respond that their is a good market for it. In reality most products recieve such trace amounts of anything that might be construed is washed away or passed through the system long before it ever reaches the table. Basically it is paranoia and ignorance coupled with a doomsday leftwing press that causes the demand for these products. Next time you find somebody who only eats organics ask them why? the typical response is something about pesticides or hormone implants. Then simply ask which Pesticides or hormone implants (i not had someone give me an answer with any specifics yet) if they do know a word or two ask them what the half life is on the product? ask if they know about a withdrawl periods. Then ask if they prefer to eat an animal with a chronic illness or one that was treated and cleaned up? It is a shame that americans have become so ignorant of their food that they fear it.

Now back to this pasture fattened crap. It is the worst beef there is. I knew some people that raised grass beef. These same people bragged about the best critter they ever ate a five year old bull. The butcher told them it was the toughest thing he had ever cut and recomended that the grind it and mix it with another animal (to help with coloration). They said that animal was "the best eating they had ever had". They had to get rid of the bull because their field was becoming "overpastuerized". Don't get the idea i haven't ever eaten grass beef, in college i had a professor who raved about grass beef being the wave of the future. I had some yearlings and figured i'd fatten one on grass. I did and i ate some of it, keep in mind i was just married and in college so finances were tight. Tight as finances were i gave the crap away to some people who "wouldn't rather starve" because i would. I hope i haven't offended anybody to seriously. I just hate to think of people wasting a good beef.
 
Well, to have excellent quality grass-finished beef you need
to start with the right genetics. If our beef turned out as
bad as the one experienced by Beef11, I suspect we would
not have any repeat customers! And rightfully so. As it
is, some of our customers drive 6 hours one way to get to
the butcher's to pick up their beef...and we have advance
orders at least 6 months ahead of slaughter. I turn people
away every week who inquire about grass-finished beef.....
mostly those that have become informed about the health
benefits (see http://www.eatwild.com). We just can't produce
enough; and only those animals that are not quite good
enough to be breeding stock are put into the beef program.....
so our supply of beef is limited. I refer people to
http://www.oklahomafood.org. That is an organization that I
wish were copied all over this country.
 
Beef11":dr212akd said:
Don't get the idea i haven't ever eaten grass beef, in college i had a professor who raved about grass beef being the wave of the future. I had some yearlings and figured i'd fatten one on grass. I did and i ate some of it, keep in mind i was just married and in college so finances were tight. Tight as finances were i gave the crap away to some people who "wouldn't rather starve" because i would. I hope i haven't offended anybody to seriously. I just hate to think of people wasting a good beef.
Click to expand...

We have eaten grass fattened (on the farm) beef for years (and I still have a bunch in the freezer) and while I admit it is a little toughter than MOST of the stuff at the store (not as tough as the steaks on Western Sizzlin's All you can eat for $8.99 bar though) I generally enjoy the product and do not share your experiences at all. If your basing your opinion on ONE steer it is quite possible that that animal would have been tough even on grain.
 
There are definitely different genetics that work better in grass-fed scenarios. A family in our area does only grass-fed beef as part of their marketing and seem to be doing quite well with it. They bought our steers last year and hopefully will again this year.

They also raise a small herd of cow/calf pairs and are using AI to get genetics that will help maximize profits from the cow herd. LAst year they used a Red Devon(Ithink) in their AI and clean up breeding.

I personally think that grass fed is a good way of doing things. I haven't eaten much of it, but lots of people claim that it is really good, but I think thats because they had the right genetics. Most of our genetics today have been formed to convert fast of concentrate diets. Those are genetics that probably will not work very well for grass-fed programs.

I am going to look into this alot more and maybe even try it with a few head next summer.
 
The key to healthy AND tasty grass-finished beef, is HEALTHY SOILS. Genetics can play a role, yes, I agree. But the proper balance of the chemical, biological and physical properties of your soil will do FAR more. Anyone who knows anything about feeding cattle knows that, even in a feedlot scenario, the diet of the animal must be just so, to result in a desired product.

What makes any of you think for a minute that grass is any different? Just because your animals graze foliage does not mean the beef will be tasty. WHAT'S IN THE SOIL, IS WHAT'S FEEDING YOUR FOLIAGE, AND THAT IN TURN IS WHAT IS FEEDING YOUR LIVESTOCK. I am a firm believer in the necessity to balance our soils FIRST, focus on your grass second, and the livestock will fall into place.

There is a huge movement in New Zealand and Australia for grass-finished products, especially those from healthy, balanced soils. Anyone interested should check out:

http://www.cambrianmeats.com

Some very good reading on there. I've met Ewan Campbell that owns it, good fellow. Just another farmer who didn't want to follow along with the rest of the herd.
 
good posts ya'll.

I bought some basic average priced sliced roast beef from Albertson's deli the other day and the packaged said "dyed for coloration" or something like that. No biggie thats what most grocerie store meat is. But back at the ranch we started eatin' it and let me tell you it tasted like a tortilla dipped in shampoo. Read the label on the meat, if i can't pronounce half of the things on the ingredients, then i'm not getting real meat.

Thats the reason I support grass-fed beef and higher-quality niche markets such as natural/grassfed and aged beef. Its bad enough that i have to know there's chemicals in my meat, but I don't want to taste the ****.
 
purecountry":2ljh9qqk said:
The key to healthy AND tasty grass-finished beef, is HEALTHY SOILS. Genetics can play a role, yes, I agree. But the proper balance of the chemical, biological and physical properties of your soil will do FAR more. Anyone who knows anything about feeding cattle knows that, even in a feedlot scenario, the diet of the animal must be just so, to result in a desired product.

What makes any of you think for a minute that grass is any different? Just because your animals graze foliage does not mean the beef will be tasty. WHAT'S IN THE SOIL, IS WHAT'S FEEDING YOUR FOLIAGE, AND THAT IN TURN IS WHAT IS FEEDING YOUR LIVESTOCK. I am a firm believer in the necessity to balance our soils FIRST, focus on your grass second, and the livestock will fall into place.

There is a huge movement in New Zealand and Australia for grass-finished products, especially those from healthy, balanced soils. Anyone interested should check out:

http://www.cambrianmeats.com

Some very good reading on there. I've met Ewan Campbell that owns it, good fellow. Just another farmer who didn't want to follow along with the rest of the herd.
Click to expand...

I agree completely. Out west of seguin my dad's got a ranch, coastal pastures, but knows little about soils and nutrients and how that affects the cattle. If you reap hay every season off of the same pasture over and over and never put cattle in that pasture, the quality of grass and soil there go down the drain, right?
 
Exactly, TXTibbs. If you continuously 'mine' your soil of crops or forage, you are just depleting your soil of all of it's nutrients. We've been doing it for years by swath-grazing or cropping the same fields over and over. Sure we were putting on chemical fertilizer, but that just feeds the plant, NOT THE SOIL.

By putting the cropland back into forage, we are starting to rebuild our soils, but it will take time. With high stocking rates we can ensure that some litter always gets tramped into the organic layer, but it is a delicate balance between too much grazing, and too little. And of course, there are always years of less rain when pastures have to be overgrazed some, or else cow numbers must be reduced. It has taken me along time to see it, but I now realize that reducing cow numbers to save the grass/soil health, is alot wiser in the long run than overgrazing and reducing nutrient numbers.
 
Yes, we have a few pastures way overgrazed since last fall. My poor dad fertilized the large hay field (the one i was talking about) and just in time for it to NOT RAIN for 3 months... ouch he was pissed, but i try to refrain from saying "i told you so..."

Ecology, biology, become very interesting fields of study when its your cattle and pocketbook taking the bullets for bad management...


self-sustaining is the best long-term strategy.
 
Just thought I'd chime in with my experience with grass-fed beef.
We had a Hereford steer grain-fed for 60 days, the beef was pretty good, not great. The steer was 18 months old. He was a small framed, about 525 pounds hanging weight.
Had a grass-fed steer butchered at 10-11 months ( didn't want to butcher that early, but circumstances warranted it). It is the most delicious tender beef I've ever had. He was a Hereford Shorthorn cross, tall, ended up with 515 pounds hanging. Butchered him late winter, so he'd been eating grass hay and alfalfa, with some produce scraps thrown in..
Have some friends that bought half a cow, grass-fed beef, it was so dry and tough they could hardly stand to eat it.

We've had the same experience with pork- the better you feed them ( not out of a sack ) but with real veggies milk products bread, etc, and theyounger they are, the better your end result. Makes store bought meat taste like crap.
Oh and had the same experience with pasture-raised chicken-- totally different product than mushy watery store-bought.
i think to produce great meat you have to have the animals on a high plane of real nutrition ( luscious pasture in the case of beef ) and butcher them younger.


JMO,
Susie
 
Grassfed genetics:

I would suppose if you did the DNA testing for the tenderness
genes plus did ultrasound(depending on the operator), you
should have a good idea if your genetics are suitable for
producing grass finished beef. I don't think there's a lot
of producers willing to do both. Maybe people are afraid
of the results? But if the results were good, those
favorable reports should be an absolute marketing
advantage.
 
susie":2chcwvfy said:
We've had the same experience with pork- the better you feed them ( not out of a sack ) but with real veggies milk products bread, etc, and theyounger they are, the better your end result. Makes store bought meat taste like crap.
Oh and had the same experience with pasture-raised chicken-- totally different product than mushy watery store-bought.
Click to expand...

I think the grain fed guys have a legitimite taste/tenderness argument; but you are absolutely right about pork and chicken. A hog grazing winterwheat and rye and butchered at ~220 lbs (especially if he is an old fashioned Hamp or Duroc) is a LOT better eating than the pork chops Wal-Mart is selling off of these high growth commercial lines. I can remember when breaded pork chops were a big time meal growing up. Today I would just as soon have ANY burger......(of course that was when Grandmother was making the pork chops and it is entirely possible that she was cooked them better than I do). There is no question that a bunch of Austrolorp or Rhode Island Red roosters produce a chicken with more flavor even when raised on grain than the stuff Tyson sells in a bag.....but when $4 buys a whole fryer at the store I simply can not justify buying roosters to raise.
 
There is no question that a bunch of Austrolorp or Rhode Island Red roosters produce a chicken with more flavor even when raised on grain than the stuff Tyson sells in a bag.....but when $4 buys a whole fryer at the store I simply can not justify buying roosters to raise.
Click to expand...

It's definitely not cheaper to raise your own--- I know. Esp if your raising RIR or Australorps-
we raise a slower-growing Cornish cross, just takes 6 weeks to be butcher size. Do 50 or 100 at a time in smaller groups in moveable pens. We picked up some used equipment that makes it more manageable- a big brooder about the size of a twin bed that holds them until they a week or two old, and a chicken plucker that is wonderful when butchering days comes, do all of them in a day.


Susie
 

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