Grass Finished

[CopeMan]

Can someone explain to me what a grass finished cow is?

 

[la4angus]

Can someone explain to me what a grass finished cow is?

A grass finished cow, steer, or heifer is considered to be one that has had
grass as its main diet before slaughter. Lots of cattle are fed grain while on pasture to improve the taste of the meat.

 

[Randyman]

Can someone explain to me what a grass finished cow is?

A grass finished cow, steer, or heifer is considered to be one that has had
grass as its main diet before slaughter. Lots of cattle are fed grain while on pasture to improve the taste of the meat.

Just to support the corn that we raise. I perfer corn fed beef.

 

[Anonymous]

Some of the leaders in the Illinois Farm Bureau made a trip to Japan to view things over there, especially their beef production. They reported what they saw in the farm bureau papaer. They (the resturants) said that the beef they grow over there is that kobe beef, and since mad cow over here, most of their other beef comes from Austraila, which is a grass fed beef and has less marbling. They were complaining that they couldn't get American beef which is more marbled than the Austailians beef, yet not as marbled as their kobe beef. They seemed to really prefer it to serve in resturants. The resturants also said their consumers notice a difference and would rather have American beef, so they were complaning to the govt. to have American imports again.

 

[A. delaGarza]

Can someone explain to me what a grass finished cow is?

A grass finished cow, steer, or heifer is considered to be one that has had
grass as its main diet before slaughter. Lots of cattle are fed grain while on pasture to improve the taste of the meat.

Just to support the corn that we raise. I perfer corn fed beef.

some corn as a complement to grass fed cattle will be enough to improve taste but I think that at least 2 months before slaughter, cattle should be fed just corn to really improve marbling

 

[CopeMan]

Thanks yall

 

[CattleAnnie]

No offense to you corn-fed beef lovers, but I'm for barley finished all the way! Yummmm...reminds me, I think I'll take a some steaks out for the barbie tomorrow. Gotta love spring!

 

[Anonymous]

DelaGarza,
I weaned some calves in the fall and put them on winter oats till they froze out about jan 1 . I then put them on about 12# of feed per day once daily and free choice sorry hay. The feed was about 1/2 corn (actually ground corn shuck and all and alfalfa). After 1 month on this ration I ultra sounded them and most of them graded upper select to mid choice (3.5% imf to 5.15% imf) . They were Saler Angus cross. I contribute most of this to the oats since they were only fed a month. They gained on average a little over 2# per day.

 

[Anonymous]

While I cannot fault the moderator becasue the comments were true, there are some other things you need to know about "grass finishing." Cattle do very well on all grass feed. We Americans really made grain an issue when western cattle were "drove" many miles to railheads for shipment. Industries (ok cheap) purveyors of beef in the midwest realized they could make the beef less tough and weigh more, by grain feeding. Also, grain was plentiful and cheap there. We got used to it and liked it...........
Now the other side of the story. Grass fed animals produce much higher Omega 3 and 7 content meat (proven anticarcinogenic and healthier!). Grass fed animals are the least risk for BSE. Grass fed animals do not support mutant Ecoli bacteria, hence are safer in the processing facility. Finally, since most grass fed animals never leave their pastures these days (in the US anyway, Austrailia has it's own problems), they are not tough either. It is possible although not proven that genetics may play a role in tender meat as well.

 

[A. delaGarza]

DelaGarza,
I weaned some calves in the fall and put them on winter oats till they froze out about jan 1 . I then put them on about 12# of feed per day once daily and free choice sorry hay. The feed was about 1/2 corn (actually ground corn shuck and all and alfalfa). After 1 month on this ration I ultra sounded them and most of them graded upper select to mid choice (3.5% imf to 5.15% imf) . They were Saler Angus cross. I contribute most of this to the oats since they were only fed a month. They gained on average a little over 2# per day.

sounds quite reasonable but what will happened if you fed 1oo% corn instead of ground corn shuck and alfafa

 

[MrBilly]

Now Selkirk you are right about the amount of good fats in grass-fed beef, however since the main attribute of grass-fed beef is the fact that it is lower in fat than grain fed, the actual amount of CLA's and good fat it contains is really very low and may be less than or equal to grain fed.

To learn more about this topic go to the grass-fed discussion board and read the long essays and reports on the research:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/grassfedbeef/