your omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acid ratio

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4CTophand

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Cattle fed in feed yards have an omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acid ratio of 1:20
Free-range, grass-fed beef has been found to have a ratio of less than 1:1
Grassfed beef actually has more omega-3 fats than fish. Why is this important>?

"The evolution of the American diet in it current form finds that Americans are eating far too many omega-6 and omega-9 fatty acids due to the high vegetable oil presence in most all processed foods with an inadequate intake of omega-3 fats. In addition, the presence of partially hydrogentated fatty acids in processed "fake" foods has lead to a high intake of "trans" fatty acids which are now clearly shown to contribute to coronary disease as well as lesions in the heart muscle itself. The dietary ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids in our ancestors who ate a diet high in beef, butter, whole milk and cheese was about 1:1 due to the way in which their animals were raised".

Current estimates of our "low fat, low cholesterol" diets are that this ratio has changed to somewhere between 1:20 and 1:50.

Since a 1:1 ratio is more likely optimal, Americans need to decrease their intake of omega-6 fatty acids ( vegetable oils) and increase their intake of omega-3 fats (fish oils and/or grass-fed beef).This means avoiding soybean, canola, corn,safflower and sunflower oils as well as hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats including margarine and shortenings. These oils are chock full of omega-6 fats and will worsen your omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acid ratio. Acceptable oils are virgin olive oil or coconut oil as well as avocados and butter derived from grass-fed cows.

With this background information --

why arent we pushing grass fed beef a little farther? Why aren't we using this imofrmation for our benefit? Are "we" as an Industry just afraid of Change?

Your Thoughts

:tiphat:
 
Where did u cut n paste this from? The reason I am asking is because I want to know if the butter and cheese from a grass fed cow is still in the 1:1 ratio...

The beef producers are not afraid of change. It has been argued that it is cheaper to feed-lot cattle than to do it on grass....and they are concerned about feeding the masses cheap beef! HAH!
 
Weird...my brother and I were just having this same conversation over Christmas dinner. We discussed in great detail on how we could improve our ratio(which probably isnt bad, but a little high, nonetheless), as the New Year is always a good time for "New Beginnings" and we're expecting our tests back from the Doc this coming week and wanna have a game plan ready to go.........after much debate, we decided that people in general are lazy, extremely overweight, dont care about how much Omega-3 they get in their diet and will always prefer the taste of grain fed beef over grass fed beef, so we would probably have a rough go trying to market grass fed beef in this area.......So we decided to go on the Mediterranean Diet instead!! :cowboy:
 
Onthebit":3fsp1p81 said:
Where did u cut n paste this from? The reason I am asking is because I want to know if the butter and cheese from a grass fed cow is still in the 1:1 ratio...

The beef producers are not afraid of change. It has been argued that it is cheaper to feed-lot cattle than to do it on grass....and they are concerned about feeding the masses cheap beef! HAH!
Yeah it is quicker therefore probably cheaper but at what cost to your health?

Well the feedyard is in trouble ever since the growers decided upon fuel instead of feed. I just think this is a good way to market your beef to the ever misimformed, non-believing consumer. The only thing keeping the vast numbers of commercial cattle raisers from having their own gate to plate grass fed operation is desire.

here is the Site >>>> http://www.grasslandbeef.com/


:tiphat:
 
buckmaster33":21qecjwt said:
Weird...my brother and I were just having this same conversation over Christmas dinner. We discussed in great detail on how we could improve our ratio(which probably isnt bad, but a little high, nonetheless), as the New Year is always a good time for "New Beginnings" and we're expecting our tests back from the Doc this coming week and wanna have a game plan ready to go.........after much debate, we decided that people in general are lazy, extremely overweight, dont care about how much Omega-3 they get in their diet and will always prefer the taste of grain fed beef over grass fed beef, so we would probably have a rough go trying to market grass fed beef in this area.......So we decided to go on the Mediterranean Diet instead!! :cowboy:
well what does the Med diet consist of? i sure hope it isnt mercury infected fish?
:tiphat:
 
The pristine waters of Northern Wisconsin would have no mercury...the WI DNR tells me so! 8)
 
4Ctophand: That is a very interesting post and I suspect in the future there will be a lot more grassfed beef if this biofuel thing continues to gain ground? Personally I think that is a good thing.
A good grass fat yearling should have enough fat content to do the job although the rub has always been without fat they are too tough? My local yokel butcher says you can't age a grassfed beef as long as grain fed...don't know if that is true or not?
In my area a company is going to build the biggest ethanol/biodeisel plant in North america. Wheat for ethanol, Canola for bio deisel. I'm not sure about their "economics" but supposedly they are going to start construction in the spring. I suspect there is a lot of government money going into this project.
Maybe the day has come when we will be forced to quit feeding barley, corn, wheat to cattle and have to rely on grass? Slaughter them at a lighter weight and it should lower the supply of beef? I don't see that as a bad thing....what do you think?
 
Alberta farmer":2v98vuu7 said:
My local yokel butcher says you can't age a grassfed beef as long as grain fed...don't know if that is true or not?

The length of time that you can age depends upon how much fat is in and on the meat. Normally a grass fed cow does not have as much fat covering as a grain fed, so it could not be aged as long.
 
4TC - you need to quote your source. I have seen several other studies about the fat contents and types of grain vs. grass fed and the numbers were no where near what you pointed out. I think we can all agree there is a difference in fat but like I said, the numbers I have seen were no where near that. The cattle feeders are not afraid to change, they are afraid to go broke, it is an economic issue. There is no way American beef producers would stay competitive and raise the amount of beef we currently do with a 100 % grass fed system. Currently well over half the system is grass fed because of the predominance of the cow calf industry on grass lands, but in order to have a finishing system on grass I don't believe we would have the acreage to do that, or at least not economically competitive with other ag. commodity uses of acreage. Also, beef has been battleing consistency and quality issues for decades, can you imagine the consistency issues with grass fed beef? - Consumer preference studies over-whelmingly sway towards grain fed feed, so why produce a product that will limit the field to a smaller group of consumers. Grass fed beef makes money by charging premiums for the product, it is a niche market and would no longer be a niche market on a massive scale with high premiums needed.
 
I wonder though if this bio fuel thing makes it too costly to feed grain to cattle, if we might go to grassfed beef? Obviously the feedlots would be out of business but how about the regular cattleman?
I suspect a 1000 lb. grass yearling of a suitable breed could still make money...if the consumer would accept it?
Hogs and chickens have a much better conversion rate on grain than cattle? Does that give them an advantage for shrinking feed grain supply?
I agree there would have to be a huge reduction in the cowherd if grassfed was the norm. Is that a bad thing? If you could make more money with fewer cattle wouldn't that be better? Isn't that basically what is starting to happen now?
I often wonder how it worked before grain feeding became the norm. I read a lot about how they drove Texas cattle to the railroads to be transported for slaughter in Chicago. Apparently that beef found a ready market...and those weren't one year old grain fat babies? In Alberta at the turn of the century Pat Burns sold thousands of grassfat three year olds all over the place including England. Maybe it is going to be back to the future?
 
I doubt that the 3 year old long horn cross cattle drove to the cattle yards in the 1800s would compete well with the not then established hog and poultry industry that we now have. Also, a lot less demand for beef back then. How would you get 1000 lb. grass fed yearlings on a consistent basis.
 
hayray":11t73cg2 said:
I doubt that the 3 year old long horn cross cattle drove to the cattle yards in the 1800s would compete well with the not then established hog and poultry industry that we now have. Also, a lot less demand for beef back then. How would you get 1000 lb. grass fed yearlings on a consistent basis.
For one everyone would have to reduce the size of their herd because if you are retaing calves for that long you will need alot more grass so less cows eating that grass and going to this system would take alot of $ because you would also have at least the first yr with out any cash flow and then the fert prices of sustaining enough grass to feed them yr round would be another problem in the $ of producing this beef
I beleive for this to happen feed prices would have to be astronomical for it to ever work on a large scale

I believe Lorenzo stated that they butcher their grass fed beef at about 24 months (I could be mistaken) and that would create a really big slowdown in the U.S. beef supply

Also the quality of beef would drop considerably in alot of the regions in the U.S. because of the type of forages we have
If you have ever eaten a grass fed beef off of Fescue you know what I mean it is tough and has a strong taste
 
We can;t compete in the world market for commodity beef. Other countrys can produce it a lot cheaper then we can. Where would we export it to? Most of our export markets are for high quality beef, I can only imagine what would happen if we tried to pass off older grass fed beef to Japan, etc.
 
Excellent post and "food for thought". I suspect it is the usual inertia in the cattle industry that is resisting new ideas. To overcome the inertia, facts about omega fatty acid consumption need to pounded into the heads of the American public. I suspect there will be a lot of resistance from the feed yards but who cares. If there are better ideas out there let's try them!
 
hayray":3pjxoy73 said:
4TC - you need to quote your source.

I disagree. 4CBigHat is the defining source for all cattle info. If you don't believe him, just ask him. He's just here on the board slumming with the stupid people for kicks.

4CBigHat is "The Cattle God". :tiphat: ( :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: )

But you're right nap, there are lots of good ideas here that are food for thought. Many times however, it's not a matter or pounding something into peoples heads (as much as we want to do that!). It's just a matter of economics. What the market will bear and what you can afford for your input costs to be.

I know what I eat with my beef. It costs me more to raise the beef that I eat than my regular cows. They get the best of everything that I can give them. The best grass, the best hay when needed, free choice minerals at all times, high protein feed, but no hormones or antibiotics. All the girls can't get this special treatment, but when I'm eating it, price is not the object. Quality and taste is.

Consumers can be educated, it just takes time. I have quite a few converts to my beef and am converting more, 1 at a time. As long as I consistantly produce a better product, they will never eat Wally-World beef again...
 
TexasBred":2hg6489w said:
Granny...eat your beef, chase it with about 12 gr. of fishoil and wash it down with a Bud Light. :idea:

Actually, it's Bud Select..... (And Jack Daniels for dessert.) :lol2:
 
grannysoo":1954bola said:
TexasBred":1954bola said:
Granny...eat your beef, chase it with about 12 gr. of fishoil and wash it down with a Bud Light. :idea:

Actually, it's Bud Select..... (And Jack Daniels for dessert.) :lol2:

Oh ok...is that an invitation over for dinner??? Let me find my cap. :drink:
 
TexasBred":2jk67yp7 said:
Oh ok...is that an invitation over for dinner??? Let me find my cap. :drink:

Sure! Anytime you're close to South GA, let me know and we'll feed you. We don't have much, but we certainly share with our family and friends. We'll get out some of that home-grown black cow, plenty of fresh vegetables, good cold beer and feed you till you can't walk.

Anytime my friend. Let me know.
 
Not sure how big the US cow herd is but if you reduced the number by 50% to accomodate the increase in grass yearlings you really wouldn't need to export anything? In fact a big shortage of beef would probably be the result?
With proper genetics/breeds I think you could get a fairly decent/ weight finish on yearlings? They don't have to weigh 1400 lbs., could be more like baby beef 800-1000 lbs? This would further reduce supply. Does it make sense to over supply a market?
If the cattle groups would really push the health aspect of baby beef and the omega 3 thing we might be surprized how the public might accept it? I don't think this whole concept has been pushed enough. Why aren't the medical profession saying much about the benifits of this "healthy" beef if it is true?
Now I don't sell any fat cattle, but I do sell grass yearlings and I aim for 950 lb. In the present system they go to a feedlot where they put about another 400-450 lbs on through grain. Personally I don't care who buys them, a feedlot or someone who would wants to butcher them...as long as I get paid!
I suspect though some breeds would fall by the wayside like Charlais, Simmental, Limo etc. and the old British breeds would become stronger. My cattle are becoming mostly Angus so it wouldn't hurt me.
 

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