Grass-fed beef on the menu

[riders2010]

sumdumguy, the neighbor we get our beef from uses peas in the ration for awhile near the end. Never tasted any beef as good or as tender, so by your post pulses seem to have a positive effect on quality or at least what we think is quality. lol

[riders2010]

GF for us yo yos in terms of beef carcass aging what is meant by wet in the bag process? Just trying to figure out why the store stuff seems to have a taste to it sometimes.

[burnt]

Excellent points Riders2010. Very balanced. Everyone thinks they have the silver bullet.

[grassfarmer]

Yes, I agree Burnt a good post from Riders2010. The only bit I would disagree with is that the CWB "had a great opportunity that was missed to show it could be a good thing but got tied up in their own bullshit and imho had people not capeable of running it to be effective." I would say the issue got more tied up by the polarized ideology among grain growers than the CWB's own BS.
You can't say they didn't listen to farmers though because the directors elected represented the wishes of the majority of the electorate. This has been the biggest weakness of the anti-cwb side. If they wanted change vote for it and if you are in the majority your side wins. The anti side were split between voting with their drills, not voting in cwb elections and the minority that voted for reformers like Tom Jackson. At the end of the day though people like Tom were never elected because not enough people thought they were the right choice at the ballot box.

On the beef question wet ageing is the new method by which all the big processors age beef nowadays. They kill the beef, chill it and then break it into primals which they vacuum wrap and ship out of the plant straight away. The beef is sitting in it's own juice for however long it takes to get to its destination. So most 14 day aged beef you buy at the store has been "aged" lying in a plastic bag,in it's own juice, in a reefer getting hauled across the country from plant to store. Its a factory system designed for quicker turnover at the plant but one which compromises quality in my opinion.

Dry ageing is the age old method whereby it hangs dry in a chiller for 14 or more days and the weight of the half hanging on a hook stretches and tenderizes the beef as well as concentrating the flavor due to the resulting shrinkage from moisture loss.

[grassfarmer]

Sumdumguy, You too must be hypocritical then if you want the "marketing choice" option but want to deny the right of those board supporters to retain the single desk selling authority. Cuts both ways.

[burnt]

grassfarmer, I must be getting a bit jaded in my older years because I no longer believe that democracy = representative or responsible government. There is this little hindrance to the process called "bureaucracy".

Bureaucracy is the toxic, persistent residue that accumulates behind generations of successive governments.

Its successive layers provide an unyielding barrier between the elected official and the unwashed electorate, propagating itself under the guise of providing service to the constituency.

There is no institution - from religious to political to agriculturally oriented - that escapes this cursed burden once it matures into a "trusted" entity.

Thus, just as is shown in the federal election, getting your representative of choice into a seat does not mean that he will represent your choice!

[Happytrails]

From GF's defense of the CWB it is apparent that he has a very poor grasp of how it works. I am even willing to bet that he has never signed a delivery contract with them. Talk about ideology driven. My guess is that he is parroting one of his NFU friends. HT

[grassfarmer]

OK then HT in an effort to educate me could you answer the question I posed Allfarmer?

"If the CWB made such a bad job as some guys alledge and returned the lowest prices to farmers anywhere in the world how come the "value adders" weren't building processing facilities in the past but are starting to build them now when anti-cwb farmers are anticipating higher prices?"

Please explain that to me because it would appear to totally defy logic.

[ASRG]

grassfarmer: I've seen beef aged 21 days, never 32 days! How much extra does the abbatoir charge for aging tha long?

[grassfarmer]

They didn't charge any different, once it's hung up there isn't any more work in it afterall. I guess if I was doing a lot like this there might be an increase as it takes up more chiller space and a little more electricity. I think the butcher probably charges enough on custom processing already to cover the extra cost.