Is 'Grass Fed' a dirty word?

[L.A.]

Not a dirty word to me! We grass feed our cows every day. :lol2:

As to finishing them on grass, it is very do-able provided you have enough quality grass. We finish ours on a diet that is basically grass, however we do give them about 1% of their body weight per day in grain, along with free choice minerals.

Yep, all depends on the grass. ;-)

 

[RanchManager]

Typically, the longer it hangs, the more tender it becomes to a reasonable point (assuming you have a good temperatured control meat locker). One week is minimum for any butcher who knows what he is doing. We prefer two weeks. We have gone three weeks when we get behind. We can afford the space and time as we have our own facilities, cutting room, and cutting crew who knows what they are doing. Two of them have worked as butchers for national grocery chains.

We feed out on a grain ration for 120 days. Most of our customers prefer grain fed. Most customers we know who decided to go with a grass fed beef went back to grain fed. They try it because someone tells them it is great. We recommend against it, the next year they want a grain fed beef. We will do it either way for the customer and our beef is naturally raised. If you like the flavor of grass fed beef, more power to ya. It's alot cheaper to raise and our margin is higher; So order up grass fed all day long as far as I am concerned.

Our cattles' carcass values are the best the Angus (black and red) have to offer. The grass fed beef even comes out marbled. It just plain has a different flavor. There is a niche market for grass fed. Mostly, it is individuals who believe it is healthier not necessarily better tasting or people raised on it and thus developed a taste for it. You won't find any (well maybe one if you look really hard) steak houses that serve grass fed beef. They all want good, marbled grain finished beef. There is a reason for that.

Again, if you like it grass fed, eat it that way and save yourself some money, but it is a fact that most palates prefer grain fed beef (at least most USA palates; I don't know the stats for other countries. Although US beef is the most preferred).

 

[Nesikep]

I will say I like both, both are differant, and the deer that graze on our grass taste a lot like beef too...

what I will say is that if you want a tasty burger, nothing beats a 15 year old grassfed cow, though I wouldn't want to try that steak... younger beef, it will depend on the breed a lot.. we found with our shorthorns they are so fat you really wouldn't gain much by feeding them grain (we had one were I think we tossed out 200 lbs of fat)...

Ahh well, There's plenty of room for all of god's creatures... Right next to the mashed potatoes!!

 

[4CTophand]

Lets see dexter cattle ----- Angus cattle

mature weight for cows is 750 Bulls 1000 Mature weight cows is 1200 bulls much more
weaning weights are 300 lb weaning weights for PB angus are 600
grass finished calves 18 to 24 months @ 850lbs grass finished calves in 18 months
750 lb cows will consume 22 lbs avg of forage per day 1200 lb cows consume 35 lbs avg of forage per day
calf's worth at weaning = $0.60 x 300 = $180 calf's worth at weaning $0.70 x 600 = $420
300 lbs @ 7 months until finish = 21 months 600 lbs @ 7 months until finish = 18 months
Dressing percent = 56 % Dressing percent = 62 %
Fertilizer cost per acre of grass @ $150 per yr Fertilizer cost per acre of grass @ $150 per yr
Forage lbs per acre = 2500 lbs per yr Forage lbs per acre = 2500 lbs per yr
ADG = 1.2 ADG = 2.25
average weight gain per day -Total 450 days average weight gain per day - Total 311 days
since weaning @ a cost of $486.00 since weaning @ a cost of $540.00
dressing % = 56 / 476 lbs Hwt dressing % = 60 / 806 lbs Hwt
example $1.00 = $476.00 Example $1.00 = $806.00
cost per head equivalence = 486 + 280 = $772.00 cost per head $540.00

I think the angus would be more cost effective and it is a british breed!


T

 

[Onthebit]

Lets see dexter cattle ----- Angus cattle

mature weight for cows is 750 Bulls 1000 Mature weight cows is 1200 bulls much more
weaning weights are 300 lb weaning weights for PB angus are 600
grass finished calves 18 to 24 months @ 850lbs grass finished calves in 18 months
750 lb cows will consume 22 lbs avg of forage per day 1200 lb cows consume 35 lbs avg of forage per day
calf's worth at weaning = $0.60 x 300 = $180 calf's worth at weaning $0.70 x 600 = $420
300 lbs @ 7 months until finish = 21 months 600 lbs @ 7 months until finish = 18 months
Dressing percent = 56 % 60-65% Dressing percent = 62 %
Fertilizer cost per acre of grass @ $150 per yr Fertilizer cost per acre of grass @ $150 per yr


MOOT: "[Dexters] are suited to property with substandard grazing or unimproved pasture . . . My dad has never seen anything like them and he's been around cattle all his life . . . When the burdocks are out in the spring, they'll eat them first."
So with a Dexter your fertilizer costs is NIL! One of the whole points people are raising them. You were wrong on your Dressed weight also as I pointed out.
So now rework your numbers.
Also a guy just sold his Dexter steers at auction for 1.18lb so, there is an obvious movement towards grass fed. 'Course they were black so the buyers may have thought they had some angus! HAH

Forage lbs per acre = 2500 lbs per yr Forage lbs per acre = 2500 lbs per yr
ADG = 1.2 ADG = 2.25
average weight gain per day -Total 450 days average weight gain per day - Total 311 days
since weaning @ a cost of $486.00 since weaning @ a cost of $540.00
dressing % = 56 / 476 lbs Hwt dressing % = 60 / 806 lbs Hwt
example $1.00 = $476.00 Example $1.00 = $806.00
cost per head equivalence = 486 + 280 = $772.00 cost per head $540.00

I think the angus would be more cost effective and it is a british breed!


T

 

[nap]

I have tried searching for Grass Finnishing or Grass Fed and come up with nothing on this board. There has to be someone here with some knowledge. I am raising dexter cattle and although I finnished my first two steers on grain, I am planning on grass finnishing from here on in....(the two i fin. on grain were a trade and i didn't want them with the herd.) So how long on grass, how long to hang, and are there dif. cuts? I am looking for some insight please.

Grass-Fed Cattle by Julius Ruechel is an excellent resource. I ordered my copy from Amazon.com. It is the most comprehensive resource that I've been able to find on producing and marketing natural beef.

 

[hayray]

I was looking at the economics of finishing on grass vs. grain fed a couple years ago and after I crunched the numbers even with high grain prices it still looked to me that grain fed was more econmical because of the faster ADG and total carcass "cut weight" yield at the end. I seem to average about 375 lbs. meat off of my Angus, and Angus cross Hereford steers by about 12 to 14 months but I purchase of Limo cross steers from another guy every year and I had the same thing happened that others mentioned, they seem some what hard to get fat and seem like it takes 16 to 18 months of age to get them ready and I only get about 20 pounds more packaged weight after it is all said and done. But I know the feed lots make them work and I am guessing that they are controlling the DMI of the bulky stuff like hay? On the other hand, I'm thinking I don't want to buy any more of these Limos', I don't have a high tech feeding op. and just don't think I should have to be feeding them for a year. Plus this guy wants $1.18 for them and he has about a dozen at 600 lbs.

 

[4CTophand]

I was looking at the economics of finishing on grass vs. grain fed a couple years ago and after I crunched the numbers even with high grain prices it still looked to me that grain fed was more econmical because of the faster ADG and total carcass "cut weight" yield at the end. I seem to average about 375 lbs. meat off of my Angus, and Angus cross Hereford steers by about 12 to 14 months but I purchase of Limo cross steers from another guy every year and I had the same thing happened that others mentioned, they seem some what hard to get fat and seem like it takes 16 to 18 months of age to get them ready and I only get about 20 pounds more packaged weight after it is all said and done. But I know the feed lots make them work and I am guessing that they are controlling the DMI of the bulky stuff like hay? On the other hand, I'm thinking I don't want to buy any more of these Limos', I don't have a high tech feeding op. and just don't think I should have to be feeding them for a year. Plus this guy wants $1.18 for them and he has about a dozen at 600 lbs.

yes it takes too long to benefit from grass fed dependng on the quality of your grazing of course, but really that dexter may be great for small operations where they aren't really in the beef biz-- just a pastime.... thats ok though actually I believe the best grass grazers are the North Devon cattle

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

I feed Limis and never have a problem with 1200 pounds at 14 months and can beat your yeild pretty bad i think.

 

[4CTophand]

I feed Limis and never have a problem with 1200 pounds at 14 months and can beat your yeild pretty bad i think.

yeah well I doubt you can either beat my quality grade or my yeild grade in 14 months

I imagine you are putting up QG of Select to maybe Low choice and YG of 0 or 1-- that wont get it done for the educated palate..... and I imagine if your customers ever had some Angus QG High Choice--- Low Prime YG 3 you would never see them again.
T

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Never get any complaints. Its a free country if they want to eat angus they can.

 

[haase]

Red Bull Breeder,you dont have to worry about the above comments, you havent figured out who that is yet, has to be simangus23, same type comments and always uses bold letters.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

I already had it figured hasse. I don't let him bother me I think he is as silly as a pet coon. If you read his posts it gets kinda comical.

 

[grannysoo]

I already had it figured hasse. I don't let him bother me I think he is as silly as a pet coon. If you read his posts it gets kinda comical.

Comical is a good description for it. I know some people like this in real life and it's always interesting to watch them crash and burn...

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

I could have a wee bit of a warped sense of humor grannysoo. But when you see someone running off at the mouth like Toper does they are bound to stick there foot in sooner than later.

 

[grannysoo]

I could have a wee bit of a warped sense of humor grannysoo. But when you see someone running off at the mouth like Toper does they are bound to stick there foot in sooner than later.

Can't be any more warped than mine. Ole' Hi Top is really great with them people skills. We have a name for folks like that that would never get past the board censors... :roll: