what does it take to grass finish beef, besides grass

[Judge Sharpe]

i have found that there is a growing market for grass fed and finished beef in my area. I know you put the cattle on good grass, but what else does it take? i know this is a new commers question, but i want to find out from some of you who have had some experence with this and also the "organic" beef that does not use bulk increasing hormones / antibiotics ( other than treating illneses). Just getting started and need a lot of advise. Thanks
Bill Brower

 

[dun]

Excluding very high qulaity forage it requires minerals water the right genetics and time.

 

[Roan]

As for the organic issue, there is a lot of opionions. You dont have to be organic not to use antibiotics or hormones, we dont use either unless for illness. Takes a lot of good grass and time to finish a steer. We feed corn, like the taste and they finish faster. All in what you want. Minerals a must. Fresh water also a must. Hay a must if you run out of grass. Have fun.

 

[farmwriter]

If you dig around on here, you can find some previous threads on grass-fed beef. As the two previous posts indicated, a steer takes much more time to finish on high quality grass alone.

 

[Judge Sharpe]

Thanks for the replys. I thought that is what was involved, but before i jumped in wanted a little direction. This is the most useful foram i have been involved in. Very little gack biting and ridicule of us neophites.
Bill Brower

 

[Frankie]

There are several levels of "grass fed beef". I'm not sure there's a legal definition of that term. Most people on this board raise grass fed beef until weaning. "Natural" beef can't have had antibiotics or growth hormones, but that doesn't have anything to do with being grass fed/finished. "Organic" is much tougher because not only must the animal be "natural", but their pastures and any feed they eat must also be certified as organic.

IMO, the big drawback to grass FINISHING is the length of time it takes an animal to get to slaughter weight on grass/forage alone. The grass you're feeding steers could be supporting another cow while she grows another calf. And to get the marbling people tend to prefer, the animals need to be on high quality forage, especially in the finishing stage, but really their entire life.

Welcome to the boards. Hope you'll stay around for a while.

 

[Howdyjabo]

fescue does not count for high quality grass. The guy that does it well around here interseeds crops into the grass stand year round and rotates pastures. He gets a real finish on his calves and sells them at 1100-1200 lbs.
Most people that sell "grass fed" around here just pull the calf(600 lbs) off the cow(eating fescue) and sell it- personally YUCK. But it fits the description.

 

[hillsdown]

Finished is the key to any animal ,grass finished and I mean grass/pasture finished takes longer as was said earlier. I did a grass finished steer last fall his hanging weight was 882 lbs and he was 21 months old. The beef is phenomenal, marbled well and very tender. The key is though, that he was finished.

 

[wideurt]

I have 2 steers I'm going to butcher this year They will be 2 years old.The one that is going first (early summer )has had one antibiotic shot its first year. I also have fed it feed when weaning and at times in the winter. was wanting to go grass fed with all of them,but theresa lot of pain in the ars to do that.First of all weaning, I weaned for eight weeks the first time and turned them back in and all but 2 went back to sucking, so you need a good second lot to keep them separated a lot longer.The other problem is you need to keep them as close to 2 years as possible because they do not start developing natural fat till after two years. So with a perfect birthing schedule you will be handling 20 up to 30 animals a year to sell 10 beef a year. You might get more money for grass fed but will you get that much more.The quality of grass has to be excellent without bloating as with to much clover.I have two small fields I incorporated alice clover and the last two years clover has gone crazy everywhere. Well I lost my oldest steer and my best heifer when they got over in that pasture.The alice clover came up solid with every pass spreading as light as I could with a seeder on a 4 wheeler. Clover seed is very hard to see coming out.There is a good magazine on grass fed beef I think it called The Grassman Farmer

 

[SRBeef]

My experience is that people TALK about grass fed beef, but when it comes to eating they prefer beef that has had at least "some" corn.

I am experimenting with a middle ground - grass fed up until the last 90 days or so before processing they have standing unharvested corn to graze. this is very different than just feeding shelled corn or silage. They end up eating a lot of cob, husk and leaves and not just pure grain. I also have hay available to them at all times. They have a Mineralyx barrel and lots of fresh, clean water available.

My problem is the time it takes to finish on pure grass alone. I did harvest a steer late last summer off of grass/clover only and the beef was very good, however that steer was almost 19 months old. As was well described above, you end up having to feed three generations at the same time for much of the year.

What I am looking for is good internally marbled but low back/trim fat beef that can be harvested in April (now) at avg 13 months of age.

Here is a picture of some steers grazing corn I took yesterday. They will not have the same "look" as feedlot beef nor will they be at their maximum weight. However I am looking to trade some quantity for quality. As others state above, it looks like genetics is also very important in this type system.

Here's a not so good picture. they are going to be processed in about 2 weeks. Good luck. Jim

 

[dieselbeef]

i finish solely on pasture...altho my animals get pellets(citrus. 5lbs/hd/day) for management and thru the winter.
i am a one man show so easy handling bucket trained cows is important
i do my butchering may-sept only as this is best grass time.
20 mos avg 900lbs at slaughter...beefmaster bull and braford cows.
florida
gary

 

[preston39]

You may find these interesting;
http://www.ranchingschoolofhardknocks.c ... nished.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 00385.html

Also, do a google search for Tallgrass Beef Co

 

[traderaaron]

You'll get a long a lot better with smaller framed thick bodied Cows to produce your grass finishing cattle. Animals fatten and marble at a percent of the cows weight and frame, unless you really want to try and produce 1300 lb. steers on grass then I'd suggest a smaller frame 1000 lb. type cow, the same goes for your bull, a forage tested bull with the genetics to marble on grass is important. Hereford and Angus produce the kind of thick bodied and easy fleshing animals that can do well on grass finishing. You'll need to time your best quality forage for when the animals are ready to fatten and marble. It's bit ridiculous to me in my area to see people advertising grass fed beef in the winter and early spring when it's been many months since high quality forages were available.

I highly recommend the Stockman Grass Farmer publication.

If you can get a farmer to grow you some grazing Corn it will produce high energy grass when grazed before it sets grain and can put on feedlot type average daily gains.

 

[SRBeef]

You'll get a long a lot better with smaller framed thick bodied Cows to produce your grass finishing cattle. Animals fatten and marble at a percent of the cows weight and frame, unless you really want to try and produce 1300 lb. steers on grass then I'd suggest a smaller frame 1000 lb. type cow, the same goes for your bull, a forage tested bull with the genetics to marble on grass is important. Hereford and Angus produce the kind of thick bodied and easy fleshing animals that can do well on grass finishing. You'll need to time your best quality forage for when the animals are ready to fatten and marble. It's bit ridiculous to me in my area to see people advertising grass fed beef in the winter and early spring when it's been many months since high quality forages were available.

I highly recommend the Stockman Grass Farmer publication.

If you can get a farmer to grow you some grazing Corn it will produce high energy grass when grazed before it sets grain and can put on feedlot type average daily gains.

I agree with much of what you've said here except the last paragraph. Beware of grazing green, immature fertilized corn - likeLy will cause nitrate poisoning. It is NOT the same as silage where the nitrates have fermented. You could end up with sick or dead steers. Jim

 

[traderaaron]

I agree with much of what you've said here except the last paragraph. Beware of grazing green, immature fertilized corn - likeLy will cause nitrate poisoning. It is NOT the same as silage where the nitrates have fermented. You could end up with sick or dead steers. Jim

If it isn't drought stressed Corn and you strip graze and watch intake levels then you shouldn't have a problem with nitrates. For finishing you really only want the animals to eat the highest value parts of the plant, the leaves and upper stalk and not the lower stalk, they will do this automatically if you move them once they have eaten the choice parts. Then turn out cows into it at the end to clean it up if you want to in the Fall. Test the grazing corn though for nitrates and ease the cattle onto it.

Certainly take precautions but if you can setup a grazing corn system it can be very good.

Here's an article that may be of interest to prospective grazers; http://www.stockmangrassfarmer.net/cgi- ... cgi?id=426, and this, http://www.baldridgegrazingcorn.com/3.html.

 

[lakeportfarms]

I have a different situation, our cattle are pastured in a large and long neglected apple orchard, that is still producing many apples. I was wondering how the apples may contribute to finishing the cattle in the fall if they are allowed to eat them free choice as they drop on the ground. I can't seem to find out any information about this, since apples are probably normally considered too high value of a crop to feed to cattle, I doubt many people have done this, much less publish their experiences.
Any thoughts?

 

[dieselbeef]

im sure the culls are dumped just like they do oranges here..not a prolem til one chokes on it and dies..keep a broomhandle handy to shove it down thier neck if a happen to be there when it happen..but likely ya wont