So what makes us so good...

[parsley]

I have to jump in grassy and kato, you know how
brassy I am, so grit your teeth for this post, will
you. LOL.
I'm an eater and cooker. Canadian beef is often fed barley. And hay. USA Corn fed beef has a
different flavor,and texture and SMELL when
cooked.

I prefer Canadan hands down. And can
differentiate, as you do with your beer! Pars

[per]

Pars just so you know, train load after train load of corn gets fed to cattle in our feedlot sector. So if corn fed tastes inferior then some one should convince our feedlot sector to change their buying patterns.

[grassfarmer]

Another weakness of the commodity system Per and
another reason people are looking to buy direct
from the rancher. How much of the corn-fed,
Alberta raised beef is sold in the States as "AB barley
fed beef"? How much is sold to Japan with the same
tag? how much is eaten in Canada branded as
Alberta barley raised beef? How much US raised,
corn-fed beef is sold in Canada? How much offshore
beef is eaten in Canada and what did it eat?
Not saying there is anything wrong with corn or
barley fed beef - just kind of nice to know what you
are eating.
At least my customers know they are getting
animals raised by me, on my place, fed my grass
and for most that is a piece of mind they don't mind
paying for.

[burnt]

"...that is a piece of mind they don't mind paying for." - the Freudian slip appears here, lol!

[parsley]

Per, lots of eaters buy direct from the farm. We
do. Barley fed. You might want to try peppermint
supplement in your feed. You're a bit of spice at
times. Lol Pars

[grassfarmer]

Wasn't a freudian slip as much as an Apple slip, Burnt.
Damn new IMAC is too smart by half - always
"correcting" my spelling as I type. Drives me crazy.

[kato]

I don't know how the difference came about, but when our niece and her husband, when working as nurses in Texas, used tell us they had to come home to get a decent steak.

Texas is supposed to be famous for it's steak, but they said it tasted odd, and tended to be pretty tough. The first thing they would do when they got home was fire up the barbeque.

[grassfarmer]

Texas - where the steaks are so tough they
make your smile turn down like a brahma's ears.

[per]

Hey I was just pointing out a fact of our feedlot sector. I am a bit of a fan of the grass finished beef that I grow along with commodity calves. You won't find me trashing grain finished beef either, they are a very important part of the cattle economy in our province and produce a decent product. I was just pointing out that as long as our feedlots use corn we can not differentiate this product as being best because it is barley fed.

[kato]

Maybe climate makes a difference? Even in our big feedlots, for a large part of the year it's cold enough that the cattle don't stand around in mud, and spend their days fighting flies. They have to be cleaner, even in big numbers.

Nothing less appetizing IMHO than a slaughter steer climbing out of a truck covered in mud (manure?) balls. A nice clean fuzzy coated one is another picture altogether.

[forage]

Climate sure does make a difference.
-42 with wind chill to arrive home to a chinook 4. Makes every beef steak taste good. I was in Australia this fall and had the opportunity to visit some main cattle station that raise a animal called DroughtMaster charxbrama,angusxbrama,your choice of cross. These steers are only grass fed, sold as two year olds. Very interesting, Australia has a band on our cattle, but we stupid Canadians continue to allow Aussie beef to be imported into our market...

[PureCountry]

Kato, you should come inspecting fats at
feedlots with me sometime. I haven't seen
clean fuzzy fats since September. Most are
so tagged up they make brand inspection
rather pointless; unless you want to give
them a haircut, and feedlot staff look at
you a little sideways when you mention it.

[PureCountry]

To me we ought to be a lot more forward
thinking as an industry, and as a
society in general. We know oil and gas
are not going to last forever. When
they'll run out, who knows? And
honestly, I don't care to argue the
time, we simply know it's going to come
eventually. So, we ought to be planning
ahead for a time when we cannot harvest
millions of tons of silage, barley and
corn. We ought to be planning ahead for
a time when we cannot manufacture
glyphosate, draxxin or ivomec( If they
aren't banned first due to consumer
pressure ). We ought to be planning
ahead for a time when genetics that will
fatten on forage alone in under 30
months are an absolute necessity, and a
rarity.

Most of you don't want to hear this kind
of talk, but it's how I feel, and it's
what we plan for. And besides, Randy
said he missed my controversial Hippie
twist to everything on the boards, so
I'll throw the first snow ball and take
whatever comes next. lol

[kato]

This time of year, there's no excuse for cattle with clods of manure stuck to them.

A message for the feedlots out there... It's called bedding guys.... use it.