Grass Finishing

[Cedar]

Anybody know how long these animals have to be on grass before the health benefits of the beef can be quaranteed?

[grassfarmer]

I'm not sure which health benefits you are referring to specifically or how you could "guarantee" the meat contained high enough levels of anything, it is bound to depend on the grass, cattle condition etc. Here are some of the advantages I found:

Omega 3 fatty acids :60% of the fatty acids in grass are Omega3s - cattle removed from grass pastures and put in a feedlot lose their omega3s steadily - halving in the first 56 days on feedlot rations. After that they drop off slower but by 200 days they are gone.

CLAs( Conjugated linoliec acid). Grass cattle have 3 to 5 times the levels of these cancer fighting entities than feedlot cattle.

Vitamin E in grass cattle is present at 4 times the level of feedlot cattle and twice the level of feedlot cattle that have been boosted with Vit. E prior to slaughter.
Check out the excellent
"www.eatwild.com" website which has proven research on all aspects of grass based production.