Grass Fed Beef

[vclavin]

http://www.angusbeefbulletin.com/articlepdf/grassfed.pdf
While searching info on marbling, I found this article. Really good info , I thought. It does help explain the differences between "good" and "not so flavorful" grasss fed beef.
Valerie

 

[SirLoin]

The best TASTING beef I have ever eaten were grass fed and dry aged, but it's texture left alot to be desired. The most TENDER steaks I have ever eaten were grain fed and finished and dry aged. The best overall IMO are a compromise between the two. Grass/Hay fed but supplemented with enough grain to intersperse fat cells with the lean, and then finished with enough grain to plump up those fat cells, and give the carcass sufficient fat cover for dry aging at least three weeks. Many folks swear that you have to straight grain for months to get the grass taste out of the meat, but I love the extra flavor my pasture puts into my meat. It takes me a few months more to finish my beef, but the customers seem to think it's worth it. My waiting list keeps growing every year. I don't believe too many of the members here think very highly of grass fed beef. Many here are undoubtedly too set in their ways and are knocking something before they try it :nod:

 

[Suzie Q]

We only grass feed and also feed hay that we have made. Mainly only grass hay, but can have some lucerne (alfalfa) in it.

I was told yesterday to give our weaners some grain to teach them to eat it. Then we can let them out without it, but if we let them out without giving it to them first, you run the risk of them not eating it later.

I am thinking about doing that in the future. That way we can decide later whether to finish off with grain like you say or not.

 

[TexasBred]

The best TASTING beef I have ever eaten were grass fed and dry aged, but it's texture left alot to be desired. The most TENDER steaks I have ever eaten were grain fed and finished and dry aged. The best overall IMO are a compromise between the two. Grass/Hay fed but supplemented with enough grain to intersperse fat cells with the lean, and then finished with enough grain to plump up those fat cells, and give the carcass sufficient fat cover for dry aging at least three weeks. Many folks swear that you have to straight grain for months to get the grass taste out of the meat, but I love the extra flavor my pasture puts into my meat. It takes me a few months more to finish my beef, but the customers seem to think it's worth it. My waiting list keeps growing every year. I don't believe too many of the members here think very highly of grass fed beef. Many here are undoubtedly too set in their ways and are knocking something before they try it :nod:

I haven't seen anyone knocking it. Only stating "their" opinion of what taste best to them. Heck you and I might split a steak and have a totally different opinion on the flavor and not know whether it was grain finished or grass finished.

 

[JustSimmental]

This is an interesting topic. I have a neighbor down the road that raises Grass-fed beef and I see him most every weekend at the farmers market peddling his products. He has some earthy looking gals talking to the sometimes ill-informed consumers about the fact that they dont use antibiotics and hormones and all this such talk and putting the ideas in the local consumers that all grain-fed folks do use these things, which is very untrue.

My idea is that if the only way you can sell your product is to put down the "opposition" with scare tactics-- that your product must not be cutting the mustard. I believe Grass-fed has a place in our business, but hopefully not marketed in such ways.

Grass-fed folks say that their beef is better for you-- with an increase and balance of Omega 3's
I say, yes this may be true, but I can always go to the health food store and buy some Omega 3 pills.

Grass-fed folks say they don't use Hormones and anti-biotics.
I say, we never have either

I say that grass-fed beef isnt as tasty as grain-fed beef (not enough BF and IMF)
The Grass-fed folks say, that their beef is better for me and don't answer the question

I say that maybe you need to wait a little while longer to harvest the grass-fed calves.
The Grass-fed folks just look at me with a "deer in the headlights look", about them

I say maybe if you waited a lil longer to finish your product it would taste better due to an increase in external fat and IMF and if there was more external fat you could hang your carcasses longer.

The Grass-fed folks say, yes, you may be right.

The bottom line is that no one wants to put a piece of meat in their mouth that gets bigger the longer you chew it...

JustSimms

 

[Suzie Q]

The person I spoke to this week is one of my neighbours and doesn't use any of those arguments. She just likes the taste better. She is older than me and has been around cattle all her life so she has eaten more of her own beasts than we have.

We have only killed grass fed beasts (2) and I can still remember that first T-bone from the last heifer we sent away.

Mmmmmmm I don't know how it is possible to get a better T-bone than that it was B E A U T I F U L. I have heard that heifers are more tender than steers. The first one was a Santa Gertrudas/Jersey cross (Sansy)

We will see in the future when we change from Droughtmaster to Bazadais, as 'they' promote Bazadais can finish with grass and supposed to be so good that once you have eaten it you won't go back to eating another breed, but that won't be for quite a while yet. We have 2 droughtmaster heifers that need to be culled as their mother was bottle teated so they are the next 2 picked to be eaten and there is only 2 of us.

We don't grain feed. We grass feed and make our own hay. We do not use poisons over our crops, but we do fertilise. We don't give antibiotics willy nilly, but if I had a sick calf I would not think twice about giving it antibiotics.

We do worm and vaccinate and have used the insecticidal tags in their ears to keep the buffalo fly off them in summer. Once the grass starts to grow again soon I will probably stop feeding them out hay. They won't even come up and ask for it.

 

[vclavin]

We do grain feed. We do not implant or use antibiotics - just our choice and not to downgrade those who do.
We butcher "bulls" intact some xbreed and some registered. Less backfat - not necessary for taste but a little needed for less shrinkage in dry aging process. Ultrasound tells us they are choice, if not, we don't sell them but eat them ourselves. I have not eaten grass fed. My stepson says what he had was really good, but liked the taste of grainfed better. More used to grainfed taste if I had to guess.
Valerie

 

[Suzie Q]

We have not had to use antibiotics in the last 6 years or so. (7 years in business). Touchwood. Back in the beginning when we bought some calves from the sales to go on our cows. It was inject them or watch them die.

 

[vclavin]

We have not had to use antibiotics in the last 6 years or so. (7 years in business). Touchwood. Back in the beginning when we bought some calves from the sales to go on our cows. It was inject them or watch them die.

I wish that were true here on antibiotics. We don't have as much trouble as uyears ago, but still have an occasional bout of scours that needs attention.
I like that "Touchwood", I assume that our equivalent is "Knock on wood" ?
Valerie

 

[Suzie Q]

Yes I would say those sayings have the same meaning.

 

[Santas and Duhram Reds]

I have read somewhere that grass fed beef can actually be worse for you because it can be higher in LDLs and lower in HDLs than grain fed beef.

 

[TexasBred]

I have read somewhere that grass fed beef can actually be worse for you because it can be higher in LDLs and lower in HDLs than grain fed beef.

I'll probably never know. ;-)

 

[john250]

Now, it's just me, but I like grain fed. Avoid "garlic wheat" however. It's cheap feed but...actually you'll save on onions and garlic so go ahead.
This probably depends more on the producer than the feed. Calves finished on high quality forages in a good improved pasture are probably the equal of calves finished on corn/corn silage. Calves finished in 3 yrs in some worn out pasture probably won't be any better than venison.
The grass-fed v. grain fed debate is a draw as of today. The practical effect of the levels of those heart healthy things (omega whatevers) is really unknown. The amount of beef the world demands would not be possible on grass alone. But if you add in that wonderful high calorie corn you can feed a lot more people. Good grass fed beef is available to everyone who wants grass fed.
Grass fed will survive as long as the niche lasts. Producers have to receive a premium price.

 

[KMacGinley]

We sell grass-fed beef very successfully and I acknowledge the bruised feelings that many conventional producers have when we sell our product as being healthier for our customers and also having the cattle lead a more natural lifestyle grazing on green pastures with the sun on their shoulders and little furry, talking woodland creatures sitting on their shoulders in a blissful life on the farm.

However,,, Reality is perception and the perception of a growing number of people is that ....

1. Grassfed beef is healthier
2. Grassfed animals are healthier and happier
3. Commodity beef is dangerous to eat
4. Use of antibiotics is dangerous
5. Hormones are dangerous
6. Feeding gmo crops is dangerous
7. Using herbicides and fertilizers is dangerous

Now you can get all mad at me and your grass-fed selling neighbors for pointing these attitudes out to you and capitalizing on them, but before you do,,, take a look through your church bulletin and check out all of the people being prayed for that have cancer, especially the young people that have no business having cancer and think about whether maybe these people might have a point and a right to be fearful. I know I have started thinking about it. I talk to people everyday that want to buy grassfed products and believe me they are convinced that they are better for them and that number will continue to grow .

 

[dun]

believe me they are convinced that they are better for them and that number will continue to grow .

And no amount of honesty or truth will convince them different. Maybe they're in the kennedy assissination concpricy, elvis isn;t dead, we never landed on the moon group

 

[TexasBred]

We sell grass-fed beef very successfully and I acknowledge the bruised feelings that many conventional producers have when we sell our product as being healthier for our customers and also having the cattle lead a more natural lifestyle grazing on green pastures with the sun on their shoulders and little furry, talking woodland creatures sitting on their shoulders in a blissful life on the farm.

However,,, Reality is perception and the perception of a growing number of people is that ....

1. Grassfed beef is healthier
2. Grassfed animals are healthier and happier
3. Commodity beef is dangerous to eat
4. Use of antibiotics is dangerous
5. Hormones are dangerous
6. Feeding gmo crops is dangerous
7. Using herbicides and fertilizers is dangerous

Now you can get all mad at me and your grass-fed selling neighbors for pointing these attitudes out to you and capitalizing on them, but before you do,,, take a look through your church bulletin and check out all of the people being prayed for that have cancer, especially the young people that have no business having cancer and think about whether maybe these people might have a point and a right to be fearful. I know I have started thinking about it. I talk to people everyday that want to buy grassfed products and believe me they are convinced that they are better for them and that number will continue to grow .

KMac..nobody is getting mad and I'm sure you enjoy your beef just as your customers do. Hope your business continues to grow and I'm sure it will as any business that starts at zero usually increases in sales. But you'll never be able to prove that "grass fed" is healthier nor that grass fed cattle are happier. As for the talking woodland creatures....mercy I don't guess I have those either. As for items 3-7 those are all BS as far as I'm concerned. Just about anything CAN be dangerous in the hands of a fool but I'll bet you a grass fed beef that more people die from the need for antibiotics, lack of herbicides and insecticides and no commodities to grow food than than die from them. As for kids with cancer....that's awful but don't blame it on grain fed beef. It could have been the Little Debbie snack cakes.

 

[KMacGinley]

I am not blaming it on grain fed beef... I suspect that it may have to do with all the chemicals that we spray on crops that are in turn fed to the animals or end up in our drinking water. I find it mildly ironic that people that would always be suspicious of the government in most everything, seem to believe that the government is absolutely trustworthy in making sure that ag chemicals are safe, especially with billions of $$$$ at stake for the big corporations.

 

[novaman]

I am not blaming it on grain fed beef... I suspect that it may have to do with all the chemicals that we spray on crops that are in turn fed to the animals or end up in our drinking water.

I read this sort of stuff quite often. I hear about this sort of stuff quite often. I get sick and tired of seeing this put out quite often. "All the chemicals". I don't know anybody that just gushes any sort of chemical on anything. Herbicides are expensive. Most crops get one application of herbicide at mid-growing season and that's it. These herbicides naturally degrade and are long gone before any kind of grain-filling occurs. I find it mildly ironic that someone in the ag industry is condemning the actions of others in the ag industry when in the end they are killing the ag industry for everyone, including themselves.

 

[dun]

I am not blaming it on grain fed beef... I suspect that it may have to do with all the chemicals that we spray on crops that are in turn fed to the animals or end up in our drinking water.

I read this sort of stuff quite often. I hear about this sort of stuff quite often. I get sick and tired of seeing this put out quite often. "All the chemicals". I don't know anybody that just gushes any sort of chemical on anything. Herbicides are expensive. Most crops get one application of herbicide at mid-growing season and that's it. These herbicides naturally degrade and are long gone before any kind of grain-filling occurs. I find it mildly ironic that someone in the ag industry is condemning the actions of others in the ag industry when in the end they are killing the ag industry for everyone, including themselves.

But then they couldn;t feel all superior to everyone else!

 

[Suzie Q]

It is common knowledge over here that some horses have reacted to poisons used on lucerne.

So far we have not used poisons on our lucerne. I do get out of the tractor and remove fireweed, and scotch thistles. It does get tiring and frustrating, but I keep it up and then we do not have that in our hay. It is down to only having to get out of the tractor 10 times to the hundred or so in previous years.

If we have the right weather and are able to cut every 3 weeks, then that does curb a lot of the weeds. I do have a weeding wand so I can walk and put glysophate on the weed alone and not on the lucerne. So I am happy with what we feed to our cattle. Of course I only have 100 acres all up. Not thousands of acres.

Oh and we do let the grass grow, so can have grassy lucerne hay. We have been to the BBQ's put on by the suppliers where it is quite noticeable that if you have grass in your crop you will be looked down upon.

Our customers prefer grassy lucerne bales.