Grass vs Grain

[cswilson]

Hey no problem whiteface I get steamed sometimes too-as to those steers grading A1 that was a yield grade because at that time they weren't quality grading cattle-I'm just guessing they would of been single A marbling-but I'm sure they could of been improved with more good pasture. The whole yearling deal has almost moved to far forward-the grass yearling run starts in August now when it used to be late Sept.-Oct. September can be a great month for yearlings no bugs and if you have some good grass they really can harden-i've bought cattle in August and turned them back out again in the years we used to have lots of grass. In fact the oldtimers up here used to watch the manure to decide when to ship when it starts to pile instead of pie off they went.

[whiteface]

Intersting and thanks for reminding me of that "gauge for finishing." I'm not sure if you meant, cswilson, that it applied to all fed cattle, but my grandfather used the manuare to determine finish as well, maybe that was their method before technology such as ultrasound. And I actually, use it myself (although I have not admitted this much...people laughed at me!), to my grandfathers advice, when they've been on full feed (whatever type feed you're using) and the stool piles instead of shootin' through a needle is when I ask for the ultrasound to determine finish and its pretty acuurate a large portion of the time. I wish my grandpa was around today so I could thank him for some good advice, so I'll thank you cswilson, for "confirming" for me that my grandpa ( and me!) aren't total nuts!

[cswilson]

Actually whiteface cattle will try and adjust their diet themselves to keep their rumen ph steady. If you turn grass cattle out on really lush pasture in spring they will still consume a fair amount of dry straw if available-the old thread a needle stool isn't real good either-mind you i'm an A.I. tech soo maybe I'm prejudicedLOL.

[grassfarmer]

Pandiana, I can't give you dictionary definitions of grassfed beef - I don't know there are any. To me grassfed means finished on grass. I wean my calves in the fall and overwinter them on a hay/silage/straw ration with some wheatshort pellets as a supplement (cheaper and better quality ration than feeding all hay)I am opposed to intensive grain finishing in a confined environment not adding a little grain at this growing stage, in fact I need to keep them growing to hit their target slaughter weights this fall.The cattle hit the grass weighing 950-1050lbs this spring and will be killed around 1st October. Throughout this period they will receive only grass - and it will need to be top quality grass (May-June quality) right through to finish properly as the cattle will be 18-19 months old. I do not feel the need to feed grain for 60 days to change the fat colour - our product is different and I'm not trying to sell it to the packers on the strength of it's white fat. The yellow in fat is the same omega 3s showing up that makes the egg yokes bright yellow in real pastured hen eggs as opposed to the intensive raised ones you buy in the store. One concern I have is with moving the cows to later calving the calves would need to be fattened at a younger age and it's not likely we can extend top quality grazing much beyond 1st October. I have an experimental small herd calving in August/September this year which would allow me to fatten them at two years of age which means we could cut costs by utilising some more compensatory growth. We did this in Scotland and weaned the fall born calves around 1st Feb which allowed us to save feed on the cows through the spring months.
One advantage you seem to have in Alberta is the ability to grow high quality grass in September - seems to me like grass is high quality once it starts to get light frosts at night but still heat by day - I'm guessing this might concentrate sugar above ground leading to a high energy grass. I've certainly noticed outstanding weight gains on all classes of cattle on fields that were silaged then rested through August ready to graze off in September/October.