Food for thought, no pun intended

[legendrockranch]

Below are links to two studies I thought you might enjoy seeing.

Ground beef from grass fed and grain fed cattle: Does it matter
animalscience.tamu.edu/2013/12/07/ground-beef-from-grass-fed-and-grain-fed-cattle-does-it-matter/

OSU study: Few differences in organic cow health, milk
www.ktvz.com/news/osu-study-few-differences-in-organic-cow-health-milk/27664986

Barb

[hollydzie]

that is interesting, I will still take my home grown beef over conventional factory farmed beef any day. The steer we just processed was fed some grain, but mostly grass and hay

[kansasdexters]

What the Texas A&M study evaluated, isn't the same as actual ground beef that most Americans are purchasing and consuming. This is important to consider, since about half of the total beef consumed in the United States is consumed as ground beef (hamburger). Many culled dairy cows also end up as ground beef in the US food supply.

Ground beef is typically a mixture of domestically produced and imported beef, ground up and blended together to attain a specified fat content. Here is a better explanation (scroll down to the paragraph on "Imports"):

www.agmrc.org/commodities__products/livestock/beef/commodity-beef-profile/


The differences between commodity beef purchased from grocery stores and fast food businesses, and homegrown beef are significant. The Texas A&M study did not evaluate or compare these in its research. Homegrown beef is slaughtered, dry-aged, and custom cut from a single animal. With homegrown beef, its source is known, its diet is known, and the owner of the beef determines how the animal is cared for, fed, and finished. The owner of the beef animal also determines when it is slaughtered, how it is cut, and where it is processed. All of these factors matter when it comes to producing a healthful and wholesome meat.

The other unknown in the Texas A&M study was if the breed of the animal mattered. They kind of suggested that in the following sentences,

"At the other end of the spectrum is premium ground beef, such as from conventionally produced Certified Angus beef or from cattle with Japanese genetics (available as Wagyu or Akaushi ground beef). Ground beef from these cattle is very high in oleic acid and is also much lower in saturated and trans-fat."

The Texas A&M study did find that grass-finished beef had significantly higher levels of Omega-3 fats. There are major health benefits associated with getting enough Omega-3 fats in a person's diet: www.webmd.com/diet/ss/slideshow-omega-3-health-benefits

Now I'm wondering if the Texas A&M study results and conclusions would have been different if they had controlled their experiment for the cattle breed genetics, in addition to the animal's diet. That would have perhaps given them a better indication of the effect of diet on the types and quantity of fats stored within the meat, for the group of cattle studied. I would expect fat and cholesterol levels to vary between individual beef animals, just like these vary considerably between individual people, due to genetic predisposition.


Patti

[zephyrhillsusan]

Maybe they'll do another study by breed? That would be great!

[lakeportfarms]

Susan, I hate to be a cynic, but if a study was done by breed you'd probably hear about the superior quality of the Angus and Hereford breeds because they would be quietly funding the study with their deep pockets.

The articles that were posted by Barb seemed to show the bias toward grain finished beef such as "Certified Angus". Or you could get the really expensive "Kobe" or "Waygu" beef breeds for the same results, but who would want to spend THAT kind of money and have to shop around for a butcher who carries it, when you could just get your certified Angus at the local supermarket and have the same health benefits, great taste, etc...?

Also, there is a difference between "grass fed" and "grass finished". Grass finished is very difficult to do well and get good marbling, texture, and taste. You have to have excellent forage, move them frequently so they're always grazing the forage at its optimal stage, and pick the ideal times to butcher which limits the supply and availability to certain times of the year depending on your location. You also need the right genetics. From what I've seen of the "grass fed" beef at the supermarket, I wouldn't pay the prices they ask for the product. Here is an example of a young steer we're selecting to finish on grass, he is 8 months old now.

[kansasdexters]

I agree with Hans on this. We only harvest properly grass-finished animals, which means we only process beef animals that have been properly finished (fattened) on green, growing pastures, continuously consuming nutritious brome and native grasses. Because grass pastures don't grow in Kansas in the winter and early Spring, our cattle are fed and maintained with high quality brome hay, but that doesn't "finish" them and we don't slaughter any animals for beef during those months. We want our beef animals to be on high quality, green growing pasture for at least 60 to 90 days or more, prior to being processed for beef. Because of this, most of our beef is custom processed in September and October, providing a full summer grazing season to achieve optimal finish on each animal. Fattening on green, growing grass maximizes the level of beneficial Omega-3 fats in grass-finished beef.


Patti

[legendrockranch]

I only wish we had enough grass to finish the animals on

Barb

[zephyrhillsusan]

That steer makes my mouth water, Hans! We harvested our first steer in October or so like Patti. He was tender, marbled and delicious! We harvested our second steer at the end of June this year because we needed to get an animal off the pasture, and he went as soon as he'd had 2 months of spring grass. I can tell the difference--of course allowing for genetics, since we didn't breed either of them and bought them from different people. We will never harvest one that way again if we can help it.

Too bad a breed study couldn't be done fairly. Such is this day and age, I suppose--someone has to fund it, and money talks.

[midhilldexters]

Then you have to figure out when is the best time for steers to be born, and hope you get some. For me it's around April I get two full years and then a summer on grass to finish them and they hit 30 months in September time. For me though I don't like to calve at that time, I like to calve in the winter (yeah winter in Western NY ?)as then my Heifers are ready to sell in the summer when people are looking for them.
So it's a fine balance on choices, like most of life!

Carol K

[lakeportfarms]

Patti, I've heard a lot about Brome but have only seen it in hay around here once, and that was some that came up from further South during our "drought" a couple of summers ago. It seems like it is a grass more suited for warmer climates, but I didn't think Kansas was that much warmer than we are here? Anyway, I know a lot of hay farmers and none of them grow Brome. Timothy and Orchard Grass seem to be the grass of choice here, along with Fescue and of course clover and Alfalfa.

For the first time in a while I've seen some third cutting just now going on. This is about the last week that hay can be cut and dried, and the yields are probably pretty low, but we've had such a cool and rainy summer that the grass never went into a summer slump. I wish I had some steers to finish this fall, but I sold two that we would have had to a customer that also purchased a bull from us this past spring.

Susan, that boy "MM Good" (the MM is for Mike and Molly, his parents) is a chondro carrier, and his mother makes beefy calves, so even though he would have made a pretty nice bull, he was steered early on. A1/A2 and all he would have been a difficult sell...despite a great temperament, but that is another topic altogether. He's still on his mom at 10 months of age, but will be weaned shortly. The only issue with him is like Carol mentioned...born in December, he will be shy of two years next fall. He'd probably be fine if he keeps up his growth, but he'd be 30 months in early June of 2016, too soon to finish on grass here in Michigan. So I guess we'll find out how a 22 month old grass finished chondro carrier hangs. I wouldn't try that with a non-carrier that young. He'll have lots of stockpiled grass and apples to eat, and we'll get him in before deer hunting season gets into full swing and all the butchers are swamped with work.

[marion]

Sept 2, 2014 12:54:56 GMT -5 lakeportfarms said:

Patti, I've heard a lot about Brome but have only seen it in hay around here once, and that was some that came up from further South during our "drought" a couple of summers ago. It seems like it is a grass more suited for warmer climates, but I didn't think Kansas was that much warmer than we are here? Anyway, I know a lot of hay farmers and none of them grow Brome. Timothy and Orchard Grass seem to be the grass of choice here, along with Fescue and of course clover and Alfalfa.

Hans, We have brome in Ontario. It's good feed. I have some in a pasture that has not been reseeded in at least 50 yrs and there is more or less of the brome depending on natural succession. We have heavy clay soil and the brome has survived through too wet and too dry.marion

[kansasdexters]

Hans,

Here's some information on brome grass: forages.oregonstate.edu/php/fact_sheet_print_grass.php?SpecID=23

It doesn't grow well in areas that get flooded or that stay too wet, which probably explains why you don't see it much in your area. Brome is a cool season grass, and it grows best in the Spring and Fall in our area, it goes dormant in the summer. We count on native prairie grasses during the warm summers in Kansas, since they grow well in the hot sun if we have sufficient rainfall. But we never see the rainfall (or snowfall) that you seem to get! We only get one cutting of brome or brome/fescue hay (in June) and one cutting of native grass (in August), because of the limited rainfall in our area.

We've been processing our chondro-carrier Dexter steers as early as 23 - 25 months old, with good results. They seem to get too fat if we let them get much older than 26 months old before processing. When they're ready, they're ready -- so don't hesitate to process at the younger age, if the animal is properly finished.


Patti