grass fed beef

[Pharmer]

I have a 700 lb calf I was going to slaughter without feeding out on corn. She has just been on grass. How will the beef taste??? Should I go ahead and feed corn for a month?? Thanks for the opinions.

 

[dcara]

The fat will be more of a yellow color, it will probably be pretty lean (partly because its only 700lbs), and the taste will be more dependent on the type of forage its been eating.

 

[grannysoo]

Taste will depend on many things, but I think that you are going to be disappointed with the size of your steaks from a 700 lb. calf. I would probably grain the cow for 3 months to get some size and more fat content.

My "fat" cows that go to the butcher are still much leaner than what you can buy at the grocery store.

 

[hrbelgians]

I have a 700 lb calf I was going to slaughter without feeding out on corn. She has just been on grass. How will the beef taste??? Should I go ahead and feed corn for a month?? Thanks for the opinions.

I think it will taste ok, however like granny stated, your special cuts will be small.

 

[Brute 23]

You won't notice the difference.

 

[Jogeephus]

I recently had one to go "crazy" and I decided she didn't have a place on the farm. Couldn't load her either cause she wanted someone to mash and she wanted someone bad. Due to this I decided I'd butcher her on site. She weighed about 900 lbs and I was afraid of the grass fed taste so I decided I'd hand feed her. My thoughts were that by hand feeding her she would get calmer and I'd turn the yellow fat white. However, each feeding was similar to walking point in a war zone. A shear adrenlin rush to say the least. After a week of doing this I concluded that the 2x6"s weren't going to stop her if made her final committment so I walked to the pen with the rifle and dropped her like a water buffalo in mid charge. When we quartered her we found her fat wasn't as yellow as expected. Had some yellow tint but it was mostly white. Meat turned out good and she wasn't a dark cutter either. Flavor was a little stronger than normal but not bad at all. It was a pleasant surprise. Wasn't the best but definitely not bad.

 

[dcara]

recently had one to go "crazy" and I decided she didn't have a place on the farm. Couldn't load her either cause she wanted someone to mash and she wanted someone bad. Due to this I decided I'd butcher her on site. She weighed about 900 lbs and I was afraid of the grass fed taste so I decided I'd hand feed her. My thoughts were that by hand feeding her she would get calmer and I'd turn the yellow fat white. However, each feeding was similar to walking point in a war zone. A shear adrenlin rush to say the least. After a week of doing this I concluded that the 2x6"s weren't going to stop her if made her final committment so I walked to the pen with the rifle and dropped her like a water buffalo in mid charge. When we quartered her we found her fat wasn't as yellow as expected. Had some yellow tint but it was mostly white. Meat turned out good and she wasn't a dark cutter either. Flavor was a little stronger than normal but not bad at all. It was a pleasant surprise. Wasn't the best but definitely not bad.

What kind and quality of forage base was she on? Seems like I've heard that pastures with wild onion or garlic produce a noticeable taste. I've noticed that hay seems to do a pretty good job of helping turn the fat white. Also, during the 05', 06' drought where we had very little green in our pastures I think the fat might have been a little whiter than usual after feedout.