My first grass fed beef

[grubbie]

Grew up on this place, we always pretty much ate deer and antelope. This year was the first time since Grandpa was still here that we butchered one of our own. At Dad's request, he wanted it grass fed only. We took it out of the pasture and straight to the processor. Just had my first steak from that animal, for those of you who are wondering about taste, DON'T! I was a little concerned about the grass he was on, it is dry country here and he was eating buffalo grass with some brome and crested wheat grass, but it is all brown. Had a sirloin from him today, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I'm sold! (Oh,....and he wasn't even "Certified Black Angus Beef"!!!!) Hard to believe, eh? Course I could never tell once the hide came off anyway.

 

[bigbull338]

sounds like grass feeding paid off for you.but id like to hear what grandpa thought of the steak.

 

[Bluestem]

TNMaster- Here is a grassfed Red Angus. It was far from shoe leather.
Sorry about the picture size. Lucky to just get the picture up

 

[grannysoo]

Cows can fatten plenty off of grass. You've just got to have enough of it. This summer was the first time in 6 years that I have had enough grass and it shows in the body condition/score of the cows. I do fatten my calves for butcher with grass with a little grain to finish them.

 

[Busterz]

I've had several grass finished steaks and roasts ( from Tallgrass Beef, LaCense and a small producer near Hutchinson, KS). None of them were even close to shoeleather.

The fat on the steaks has a different texture to it and a different flavor. But the meat and the juice from the meat has a "beefier" flavor to it. It tastes more like beef stock or beef broth than regular grain fed steaks.

I noticed no difference in the roasts from a grain fed roast.

 

[grubbie]

tonight we had ribeye from the same critter and it rivaled any I have eaten before. Possibly some have had grass fed beef from someplace that didn't have much grass?? We have enough grass to make them good and fat, maybe thats the difference. I just can't imagine anyone tasting this particular beef and not liking it. We raised it this way cause it is supposed to be healthier meat. Was worried about sacrificing taste but not this time at least. Anyway, just my observations.

 

[wideurt]

How old did you let it get.We purchace grass fed beef and they are two years old. That is supposed to help with the marbeling . Just look at the difference in a 15 month old & a 24 month old. In two more years I will have one of my own. I had 8 lil bulls this year , and soon they will be lil steers

 

[grubbie]

How old did you let it get.We purchace grass fed beef and they are two years old. That is supposed to help with the marbeling . Just look at the difference in a 15 month old & a 24 month old. In two more years I will have one of my own. I had 8 lil bulls this year , and soon they will be lil steers

He was right at 18 months old.

 

[Double R Ranch]

The grass fed beef we had was nasty. Had it twice off of two differant animals and both were gross. Maybe it's the grass california has.
This last one smelled of celerie (Sp?). Tasted like it to. This one we raised as a trial so I know it wasn't fed any. Interesting to find out you all have had a good experiance. No on here I talk to will eat it. They all thought the meat was bad and threw it out. Wonder what the difference was?
Double R

 

[wstevenl]

I've had some VERY good steaks from www.americangrassfedbeef.com (they are local to me) and we're in the process of raising some of our own now. I've heard of people throwing out a whole animal though, because they thought it smelled like "wild onions". I'm guessing they had alot of wild onions (some call them wild garlic) in their pastures. I know I've smelled that in grass fed milk the smell comes and goes really fast in the milk though. The morning milk might have it and the evening milk might not.

I think the key is having the animal gaining weight well and not stressed at harvest, if you have good pasture that makes the animal gain, then you should be okay.

 

[Razorback21]

We have our first grass fed steer slaughter a few weeks ago....22 month Murray Grey. My customer got the other half and they called before we had any of it and said they liked this beef better than the others we have given them in the last five years.

That spurred me of course to try a steak, and it was fantastic....no difference for me and if anything, tasted beefier as one previous poster put it.

 

[ArrowHBrand]

We just got back a grass fed heifer from the locker and I was able to give out "Told you so's" to everyone. I heard it all too, grassfed beef had no marbling, tought, gamy taste, etc., but they were all wrong. The first night we grilled T-bones and they were absolutely melt in your mouth. They had consistent thorough marbling and a nice ring of fat around the whole steak. The hamburger is lean with little to no grease in the pan when it's cooked and we haven't had a roast yet. We fed them grain all last winter, but they've been on pasture since May with nothing but good grass and water. We decided to try grassfed because, well, I didn't want to pay to feed them this winter and trying to sell open 18 month old heifers at the sale barn wouldn't bring a very good price. Every calf we raise for the freezer from now on will be grassfed.

 

[SRBeef]

One of the things I figured out with our first processed cow is to cook it more slowly than I had in the past, especially on the grill. I bought a neat little thermometer with a probe that you stick into the center of the thickest piece of beef on the grill. the wire runs outside and continuously displays the center temperature of the beef and even has an audible beeper that sounds when the meat reaches whatever temperature you set.

Sear the outside first then cook it slowly off of direct heat seems to work well. Cooked this way to about a 165 degree F inner temperature, maybe adding some marinade, even grass fed older cow hamburgers tasted great. Yearling is superb.