A little horse anyone?

[smcgrath76]

GF - there is beef sold as grass fed that
has not been raised on high quality
forage, and may be extremely lean due to
diet rather than genetics (eg: skinny
rather than lean)
In my mind grass finished beef differs in
that it is raised on a high quality forage
diet and the animal has adequate condition
at harvest.

[grassfarmer]

Sean there is a lot of grain fed beef currently being
sold as grass-fed too. When you see Alberta grass-
fed beef offered year round its time to get suspicious.
Some of the highest profile, biggest turnover
operators are the worst. I see a lot of similarity to the
purebred cattle business - some guys are only in it
for the money and will cheat, lie and misrepresent
their product to get where they want to go.
Definitely buyer beware in the grass-fed beef
business.

[Happytrails]

Sean and GF you are right to note the difference between grass fed and grass finished beef. 60 years ago almost all beef was grass finished. But those steers were 2 1/2 or 3 1/2 years old. That had more to do with the climate than grass management. Its a little tough to keep them on fresh greenery year round with a 120 day frost free growing season. My friend in New Zealand is finishing beef on grass at under 24 months but they have irrigation and a 220 day growing season.

[grassfarmer]

Only a 220 day growing season? that must be South
Island is it?

In the parklands here we have an excellent 150 day
growing and finishing season each summer. Of
course we will never have them eating grass 365 days
a year in this climate but this powerful summer
grazing period in conjunction with the spring calving
most people do lends itself to fattening cattle off
grass at around 18 months. Not too difficult to take a
weaned calf through his first winter at 1.5-1.6lbs/day
gain then get 2lb a day gain through the summer
fattening period.

[grassfarmer]

Discussing this topic on another forum too and someone posted this link today from the US
www.agcentre.com/newcattlereport.aspx
scroll down to the steak pictures which they claim "any knowledge person could identify as grain fed because of the marbling" but was being passed off as grassfed.
I posted this picture of one of our steaks off a 17 month grass-fed Luing x steer by way of reply.
<a href="http://s481.photobucket.com/albums/rr175/ieaitken/?action=view&current=DSCF2270_zpse0cb6756. jpg" target="_blank"></a>

[grassfarmer]

Oops my bad! didn't use the American spelling of centre. The link should be:
www.agcenter.com/newcattlereport.aspx

[rkaiser]

Is that rib eye GF? Looks a little odd. Nice fat and fairly white; but fat and cartilage in odd places for a rib eye.

[rkaiser]

<a href="http://s206.beta.photobucket.com/user/rkaiser_photo/media/Quality-beef-sample1.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb286/rkaiser_photo/Quality-beef-sample1.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Quality-beef-sample1.jpg"/></a>

Here are some barley finished rib eyes in the case at the store.

[rkaiser]

The steaks in the picture on the link to the American site are strip loins that have been extremely trimmed. Yes they look like grain fed, but I have also seen the right kind of cattle at the right time of year marble with the white fat consistancy as your luing cross steak. Especially open heifers. Looked at it again and I feel that it may be a bone in rib steak that you showed us.

The challenge of course in Alberta, no matter what breed or type of cattle, is to get the grass fed animal to show that kind of marbling or finish for more than a few months of the year.

[grassfarmer]

Randy I believe it was ribeye in my picture. There
were 2 steaks and they are frozen so that's maybe
whats throwing you with the fat distribution.
There is an easy answer to the challenge of getting
cattle to marble that way for more than a few months
of the year - it's called seasonal production and using
a freezer! It's just another example of us trying to
fight nature wanting prime season production year
round. The grain guys don't worry about the
challenge of ripening barley year round so why
should we be any different?

[smcgrath76]

GF - what do you use for a freezer?

[rkaiser]

Totally agree GF. Just that the average consumer still likes to buy fresh.

Another thing that the consumer likes that we are not delivering in the conventiuonal market is size. We can cut a muscle across the grain to make a nice sized roast out of almost any cut, however the size of a rib eye, a strip loin, or a tenderloin dictates who will buy it.

That is what makes our industry so attractive to non commodity marketing. Size does not seem to matter so much in pork and chickens can be slaughtered at a number of stages in life and still attract consumers.

Steaks are the difference - always have been. Profit lies there. And even other cuts like tri tips, flank or flat iron. I dished on roasts but the truth is that a nice sized sirloin tip tied and ready for the housewives knife in a hour and 10 minutes works as well.

We wrapped some 4 pound full muscle sirloin tips with bacon one day and the damn things sold like peppermint topped butter iced goodies at Crave Cupcakes. I have turned into a suggestion chef as I tell the ladies to braise these beauties on all sides in olive oil and onions with a dash of garlic and then throw them in the oven at 350 for an hour and 10 minutes. One lady came in and raved about her "Ariosto Staccato" being better than a prime rib. LOL We had to name these bacon wrapped sirloin tips --- just for fun.

AND MAKE SURE YOU SLICE ANY CUT OF BEEF ACROSS THE GRAIN...........

Enjoy your day boys and girls...

[grassfarmer]

I externalize that cost Sean - the customer provides
the freezer and I provide the meat. It doesn't seem
like my customers are put off by buying/using frozen
product.