Steroid laced beef!!!

[Bruce14]

Did anyone see Marketplace on the good old CBC last night? I missed it and didn't find out about it until this A.M. It never ceases to amaze me how little the consumer knows about what we do.

Go to this CBC forum site. It makes for interesting but frustrating reading. http://interact.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/WebX?8@@.ee8a9dc.77394605

[cswilson]

I missed it too Bruce but I understand it didn't do feedlot or grassfed beef any justice.Just some more of our good old factless CBC drivel.

[cakadu]

Actually I did see it and thought it presented both sides reasonably well. The feedlot does put a hormone into the beef and they do give shots on arrival and when necessary. It showed a feedlot situation and how the cattle live - there wasn't any sensationalism about it.

As far as grass fed went, that was pretty much reality too.

You are quite right that consumers don't know enough about where their food comes from and how it is grown. They should know these things in order to make informed choices about their food. The sad fact is that most people don't know and for a variety of reasons - no interest, no time, no information readily available etc.

One of the ongoing concerns with beef is the lack of consistency in the product. It is getting better, but we've all likely had a steak that was great one time and not so great the next - doesn't matter if it is grass fed or grain fed.

What I didn't care for was the piece about the grass fed being hung to get rid of the "gamey" flavor. I'm not so sure that is true.

In my opinion, the piece really wasn't that bad, but then I feel that consumers have a right to information.

[Bruce14]

cakadu I am glad to hear that the show wasn't all that bad. Like I said, I wasn't able to see it and from the postings on the CBC website I came to the conclusion the feedlot industry was getting slammed again.

We sell some off farm freezer beef at a premium due to no implants. We do our usual vaccination program however they are virgin bulls so have their natural growth enhancers intact. If handled properly these bulls will not cut dark and provide a very good eating experience.

I agree with your comment that lack of consistency haunts the beef industry. I doubt that grass fed beef would do anything to overcome that. One posting I read commented on grassfed beef have a more golden color to the fat as opposed to the "dead white" fat color of grain fed beef. I suspect this is probably related more to the age of the animal than anything. I also agree with you that the gamey flavor is probably not helped by hanging it longer.

From one of your earlier postings you said you were in the sheep industry. Do you market off farm farm or are they sent to a feedlot? Is cheaper Australian lamb and mutton a problem?

I know we would have difficulty in competing with off shore grass fed beef from Australia or heaven forbid South America. (They really blow us out of the water on cost of production). The only way Canada can compete is on quality and I don't believe grass fed is the answer.

[cakadu]

Bruce, we sell our lamb from the farm - we take in to be processed and then we deliver to our customers.

Yes, offhsore lamb is a huge problem because as you've already stated, they can grow it and send it over here for less than our costs of production. Unfortunately there really isn't much that can be done about it because the volume of lamb grown in Canada isn't enough to warrant putting on any kind of tariff to slow down the imports.

I've often wondered about the implications of all that beef coming from South America, especially once they get their act together in terms of foot and mouth. They can raise it all year on grass, where our growing seasons are limited to 5 months (gosh that sounds like a lot this year) at best.

I'll have to go and check out the website and see some of these comments.