Nolan Ryan beef

[Anonymous]

Has anyone sold cattle to them?I emailed the cattle procurer a while back and he said the packer paid market price with no premiums or discounts except for maybe carcass weight and dark cutter.Maybe a way to offset the brahman discount if it lasts.Sam Plank

 

[A. delaGarza]

As far as I know you won't get discounts, your brahman influence cattle will be payed as I's instead of II's, so you will have a premium payed.

Has anyone sold cattle to them?I emailed the cattle procurer a while back and he said the packer paid market price with no premiums or discounts except for maybe carcass weight and dark cutter.Maybe a way to offset the brahman discount if it lasts.Sam Plank

 

[Frankie]

Has anyone sold cattle to them?I emailed the cattle procurer a while back and he said the packer paid market price with no premiums or discounts except for maybe carcass weight and dark cutter.Maybe a way to offset the brahman discount if it lasts.Sam Plank

We heard the CEO of Nolan Ryan Beef, Charlie Bradbury (sp), speak a couple of years ago. Nolan Ryan Beef doesn't belong to the Beefmaster Assn, as CAB and CHB belong to the Angus and Hereford Associations. It was financed and started by a group of Beefmaster breeders, including Nolan Ryan. At that time they were not paying any premiums, all the profits were being put back into the program. He said they are buying cattle that fit their specifications no matter what the breed while they try to identify lines in the Beefmaster breed that will consistently work in their program. It seems like he said they were leasing kill space in a plant one day a week to kill cattle for the Nolan Ryan Beef program. They use three steps to guarantee a tender beef, some sort of bath, mechanically tenderizing, and aging. As I understand the program, you will need to buy your breeding stock from one of the original investors to be able to sell into the program.

 

[A. delaGarza]

Has anyone sold cattle to them?I emailed the cattle procurer a while back and he said the packer paid market price with no premiums or discounts except for maybe carcass weight and dark cutter.Maybe a way to offset the brahman discount if it lasts.Sam Plank

We heard the CEO of Nolan Ryan Beef, Charlie Bradbury (sp), speak a couple of years ago. Nolan Ryan Beef doesn't belong to the Beefmaster Assn, as CAB and CHB belong to the Angus and Hereford Associations. It was financed and started by a group of Beefmaster breeders, including Nolan Ryan. At that time they were not paying any premiums, all the profits were being put back into the program. He said they are buying cattle that fit their specifications no matter what the breed while they try to identify lines in the Beefmaster breed that will consistently work in their program. It seems like he said they were leasing kill space in a plant one day a week to kill cattle for the Nolan Ryan Beef program. They use three steps to guarantee a tender beef, some sort of bath, mechanically tenderizing, and aging. As I understand the program, you will need to buy your breeding stock from one of the original investors to be able to sell into the program.

and as I know they buy almost any English or Continental cattle with Brahman (no >50%) influence, they are promoting Lean Meat

 

[CMeyring]

The Nolan Ryan Tender Aged Beef (NRTAB) program is owned by a company called Beefmaster Cattlemen LP (http://www.nolanryanbeef.com). This is a limited partnership owned by 37 individual investors. Most of the investors are either commercial or purebred cattle producers.

The program is not breed specific. However, this is one the only programs that actually prefers Brahman influenced cattle. The program currently sells a USDA Select product. This is the first program of its kind to sell a USDA Certified Tender beef product. A very detailed and objective selection process is performed on every animal that is fed for the program. The NRTAB program utilizes a HACCP type approach to tenderness. Included in the process is the use of post-mortem electrical stimulation, imagining by the BeefCam as well as a USDA certified aging program. The BeefCam® is an add-on module to the RMS Computer Vision System (CVS). It is the only commercial non-invasive, non-destructive, real time tenderness evaluation tool used in the red meat industry today.

The NRTAB program is currently working with six licensed feedyards in South Texas. The cattle are sold to and harvested by Sam Kane Beef Processors in Corpus Christi. The program does buy feeder cattle or cattle in the feedyard. Instead, the program works with the cattle that are placed on feed, either as cattle bought by the feedyard or retained ownership cattle.

The program pays a premium incentive for cattle that perform well against the program specifications. Currently anywhere from $5 to $20 per certified head is being paid back to the cattle owners depending on performance. There are no discounts. In addition, individual carcass data is available at no cost.

 

[D.R. Cattle]

Does this promote the theory that marbling and tenderness are two unrelated categories?

 

[Anonymous]

In addition to what CMeyring wrote, as I understand it, the Nolan Ryan program has a number of criteria or tests and if the animal and/or carcass "passes" then it is accepted into the program and ultimately the carcass is also dry aged for a minimum of 14 days. I think most would agree that the aging process and the work of the natural enzymes involved adds to the natural tenderizing.

I usually eat only Choice or Prime steaks, roasts and ribeyes - sometimes CAB, sometimes not. But I have recently tried some Nolan Ryan strip steaks, ribeyes, etc. and was actually pleasantly surprised at what a positive eating experiences they were. Perhaps not quite as juicy as some of the CAB and Choice/Prime stuff I have had, but nevertheless it was quite tender and the flavor was very good.

The store I shop at prices the Nolan Ryan beef about a $1 per pound below the CAB which I at first thought was not enough of a difference in price (I thought the Nolan Ryan should be even cheaper) . I don't know if Nolan Ryan et al is getting that good of a price for their beef or if the store is just getting a relatively higher markup -- I hope it's the former.

Here in Houston the Nolan Ryan beef seems to sell pretty well -- of course that may be due to a bit of "home town boy" loyalty as well! But it looks like they have a pretty good program going, albeit still pretty much in its infancy. I am all for anything that helps the actual cattle rancher being able to take a higher portion of the ultimate consumer dollar.

On another note, recently I've noticed one of the upscale grocery chains in Houston advertising 97% lean Texas Longhorn hamburger under a name something like Silvervista. I'm going to give it a try since I like meatloaf and a number of other dishes prepared with hamburger and I always try to buy the leanest burger I can find. Makes me now feel so guilty when I eat a BIG juicy steak that my doctors frown upon. Any of you that have diabetes or have had heart problems probably know what I mean. Regards, Arnold Ziffle

 

[Anonymous]

Correction: ... makes me NOT feel so guilty .....

 

[greatgerts]

This is actually called the American Breed Coalition. I have an application to become a member in my hands right now. It is for breeds developed in America with some degree of Brahman breeding in their genetic make-up. You can probably request an application from:
ABC
6800 Park Ten Blvd, Ste 290 West
San Antonio, TX 78213

 

[Frankie]

Does this promote the theory that marbling and tenderness are two unrelated categories?

There is MARC data that shows the higher percentage of Brahman, the more likely the meat will be tough. The Brahman Association was doing some feedout and carcass programs to try to identify lines of cattle that were more tender and/or gained well. I don't know how they're doing with that program, though. Nolan Ryan is the only branded beef program to select FOR Brahman influence, they use several methods to tenderize the meat before it goes to the consumer. That's good to ensure tenderness, but it has to cost them something.

 

[greatgerts]

I would like to re-word what I said in my last post. You can better market with the Nolan Ryan program if you are a member of the ABC.

 

[D.R. Cattle]

A member of ABC Liquor store?

 

[Anonymous]

This is a very good product but you must not over cook it due to the fact that it is so lean

 

[markfrenzel]

Here are some links that might answer any of ya'lls questions. And yes it is a very good product. Right now it is open to all steers and heifers that are no less than 1/2 brahman, but the requrements may change later.


http://www.nolanryanbeef.com/producers.html

http://www.nolanryanbeef.com/beefmaster.html

http://www.nolanryanbeef.com/process.html

http://www.nolanryanbeef.com/nutrition.html