Grain/Grass finished.

[bigbluegrass]

The pasture i have the steer that I am going to butcher this fall belonged to a dairy farmer before i bought it. It is about 50 % fescue with the other 50% in dallas,crab,bermuda grass. And i drilled winter wheat in it last October. So i hope fescue doesn't taint the flavor of the meat.

Are you going to finish with grain or try to go grass fed all the way? Where are you located at?

 

[sstterry]

The pasture i have the steer that I am going to butcher this fall belonged to a dairy farmer before i bought it. It is about 50 % fescue with the other 50% in dallas,crab,bermuda grass. And i drilled winter wheat in it last October. So i hope fescue doesn't taint the flavor of the meat.

I would not worry about it. If you want to slog through this article, it may put your mind at ease. Plus, grain finishing takes care of most of that.

Nonetheless, results from this study suggest that endophyte type has minor effects on carcass traits and meat quality of grass-fed beef

 

[504RP]

Are you going to finish with grain or try to go grass fed all the way? Where are you located at?

North West Arkansas. Right now i am going to keep it on pasture and leaning to combing the way that Little Joe and SBMF 2015 maybe along with some other tips I am learning from this forum. There has been alot of good information given that I am going to think about. So i am going to grain finish this one. But will eventually try grass finishing one at some point.

I am going to post what and how I am doing things as i go along to get opinions from members here who can tell me what I am doing right or wrong.

 

[sstterry]

North West Arkansas. Right now i am going to keep it on pasture and leaning to combing the way that Little Joe and SBMF 2015 maybe along with some other tips I am learning from this forum. There has been alot of good information given that I am going to think about. So i am going to grain finish this one. But will eventually try grass finishing one at some point.

I am going to post what and how I am doing things as i go along to get opinions from members here who can tell me what I am doing right or wrong.

I don't know about everyone else on this forum, but that is why I enjoy it. I am here to learn what works best for everyone else and hopefully for me.

 

[504RP]

I don't know about everyone else on this forum, but that is why I enjoy it. I am here to learn what works best for everyone else and hopefully for me.

That's the way i feel about it too sstterry. Always want to learn and improve on things anyway I can.

 

[Lannie]

That's the way i feel about it too sstterry. Always want to learn and improve on things anyway I can.

Me three. When I ask a question, and get tons of completely different answers, that's a GOOD thing. Surely someone has had an idea that hasn't occurred to me yet, and the more information I get, the better. It allows me to consider my problem and all the possible solutions so I can make a more informed decision.

I was complaining to someone yesterday (on a milk cow forum) about defrosting one of my upright freezers to make room for possible overflow on Little John the Giant Steer, and how I'd been sopping up the water on the bottom with rags and wringing them into a bucket and how sore my hands were. Some nice lady said why not use a broiler pan or something similar, then just dump the broiler pan into the bucket. No wringing. Now why didn't *I* think of that? (Smacks self in forehead) So what started out as just me complaining ended up with a really good idea that I can use next time. This is why I love forums, with so many different people, and so many different ideas and opinions. Sometimes you find a real nugget of gold in there!

(I'm not REALLY an idiot - I'm just going so fast all the time, sometimes the simplest things escape me...)

 

[sstterry]

Me three. When I ask a question, and get tons of completely different answers, that's a GOOD thing. Surely someone has had an idea that hasn't occurred to me yet, and the more information I get, the better. It allows me to consider my problem and all the possible solutions so I can make a more informed decision.

I was complaining to someone yesterday (on a milk cow forum) about defrosting one of my upright freezers to make room for possible overflow on Little John the Giant Steer, and how I'd been sopping up the water on the bottom with rags and wringing them into a bucket and how sore my hands were. Some nice lady said why not use a broiler pan or something similar, then just dump the broiler pan into the bucket. No wringing. Now why didn't *I* think of that? (Smacks self in forehead) So what started out as just me complaining ended up with a really good idea that I can use next time. This is why I love forums, with so many different people, and so many different ideas and opinions. Sometimes you find a real nugget of gold in there!

(I'm not REALLY an idiot - I'm just going so fast all the time, sometimes the simplest things escape me...)

I don't know the set-up, but a shop vac might work too.

 

[Lannie]

A shop vac would work (no wringing), but I'd still have to go suck the water every few minutes. That particular freezer is near one of the outside doors, down four big concrete steps, so it was up and down the steps all day. Oh, and I had kittens helping me, which made things "interesting." I still think I like the flat pan idea best, with sides, so I don't have to run up and down those steps so often. It doesn't really matter, it was 17 years since I'd put that freezer there, and this was its first clean/defrost, so maybe I don't need to worry about it for another 17 years. Or next time we send a steer to freezer camp.

Now that I think we have enough room for him (I HOPE we have enough room), I can't WAIT to get him back. Only a few more days!

 

[TominTX]

My previous butcher told me that wild onions (which come on strong here in Feb and March) will give the meat an awful taste. He recommended keeping anything to be finished in the early spring off pasture. I have taken a few beef to the butcher in May that were on grass all spring and didn't have any that tasted awful. Maybe the onions had time to flush out.

I hadn't heard of fescue being a problem. I am sure all of the beef I have eaten in the last 10 years has consumed a good deal of fescue. I didn't notice any bad taste. I don't believe I have any pasture that is 100% fescue, but I doubt I have any that are less than 50% fescue. I think our home raised meat tastes pretty good.

I read clover and ryegrass were preferable forages to finish on. Supposed to give the meat a good flavor. I have both of those in most of my pastures, but I don't have any pastures that are exclusively clover and ryegrass.

Clover and Ryegrass = High Energy = Good Marbling!

 

[annmariemz23]

My previous butcher told me that wild onions (which come on strong here in Feb and March) will give the meat an awful taste. He recommended keeping anything to be finished in the early spring off pasture. I have taken a few beef to the butcher in May that were on grass all spring and didn't have any that tasted awful. Maybe the onions had time to flush out.

I hadn't heard of fescue being a problem. I am sure all of the beef I have eaten in the last 10 years has consumed a good deal of fescue. I didn't notice any bad taste. I don't believe I have any pasture that is 100% fescue, but I doubt I have any that are less than 50% fescue. I think our home raised meat tastes pretty good.

I read clover and ryegrass were preferable forages to finish on. Supposed to give the meat a good flavor. I have both of those in most of my pastures, but I don't have any pastures that are exclusively clover and ryegrass.

My experience with grass-fed beef has been that when the grass is green (maybe when it is growing rapidly in the spring?) the meat will taste "grassy." I suppose if there are onions in the mix, it will have an onion flavor. It is the same as the milk from the milk cow. But "terrible" is a relative word. This grassy flavor, I have always theorized, is prized by the rich people in the city buying the "grass-fed-beef" because they associate it with the health benefits included. We have had people who finished grass fed beef on green grass proudly delivering fat sassy animals to the butcher pulled right off a green pasture. We ourselves wait until the grass has dried up to butcher the animals, or feed them hay. When you do this, the fat is white, and the flavor of the meat is almost or totally indistinguishable from grain finished beef. (This is given that we don't finish grain-finished beef on massive amounts of grain or for really long.) Grass finished beef has to be cooked differently, slower and cooler. We did a taste test between grain-fed and grass-fed one time. We basted the grass fed with olive oil, seared them on the barbecue and then moved them off direct heat to cook slowly. No one at the meal there could tell the difference. One friend told me the muscle fibers of the grass fed animals were longer, but I don't know if I believe that. No one showed me that.

 

[bigbluegrass]

My experience with grass-fed beef has been that when the grass is green (maybe when it is growing rapidly in the spring?) the meat will taste "grassy." I suppose if there are onions in the mix, it will have an onion flavor. It is the same as the milk from the milk cow. But "terrible" is a relative word.

I understood the onion flavor to be far stronger than the normal "grassy" flavor. It was so strong the butcher said that he could smell the onions when it was hanging in the cooler! This wasn't one of my beef, but one he was processing for someone else. They ended up throwing out the whole beef because it tasted and smelled so bad. The folks he butchered it for said they couldn't eat it. I suppose it is similar to when a milk cow is on onions. Some of that milk can taste and smell pretty strong. I can smell it on a cows breath when they get into the onions.

To be clear, my post was not intended to be against grass fed beef. It was meant to address the question/comments by @504RP regarding what types of grass would have a negative or positive impact on flavor. I would put onions in the "negative impact on flavor" category. I personally love onions, but it seems best to add them to the meat during the cooking process

 

[504RP]

I understood the onion flavor to be far stronger than the normal "grassy" flavor. It was so strong the butcher said that he could smell the onions when it was hanging in the cooler! This wasn't one of my beef, but one he was processing for someone else. They ended up throwing out the whole beef because it tasted and smelled so bad. The folks he butchered it for said they couldn't eat it. I suppose it is similar to when a milk cow is on onions. Some of that milk can taste and smell pretty strong. I can smell it on a cows breath when they get into the onions.

To be clear, my post was not intended to be against grass fed beef. It was meant to address the question/comments by @504RP regarding what types of grass would have a negative or positive impact on flavor. I would put onions in the "negative impact on flavor" category. I personally love onions, but it seems best to add them to the meat during the cooking process

Thanks for the information. That's the whole idea of the post. To learn about problem that can happen. I am the same as you and cant say which finish (grass or grain ) I like best at this point and time.