Marbling and rib eye size?

[nicolaas]

I'm sort of behind the times so I am not aware of the "health benifits" of grass fed cattle. I keep hearing people talk about them, but havn't had a chance to ask. What are they? What kind of research has been done in this area?

[rkaiser]

Thanks for the youthful compliment smcgrath76, I work hard on keeping that skin on the top of my head shiny and moist.

Can't disagree with much of your post either. Wish our breed associations had the bucks to prove a claim that hide and hair will tend to reduce backfat while allowing ample marbling.

Another point I would like to make is that our customers are not truly demanding the AAA and often prefer the AA. What do the rest of you feel is ultimate marbling in fed cattle?

[grassfarmer]

nicolaas, here is some starter information on health benefits www.eatwild.com/nutrition.html

rkaiser, the group that Christoph Weder helped set up "prairie heritage"?? sell natural beef into BC and they specify that their cattle are AA so he must be agreeing with your thoughts on that.

[nicolaas]

thanks, that was aninteresting web site. I know canola such as nexera canola is high in omega 3's and other "good fats". I wonder if you fed your cows canola oil in the feed lot if the omega 3's levels would surpass the grass fed? Has anyone ever seen a test done on this? I know feedlots really pour the vitamin E to the animals for longer meat shelf life ( I believe). It is definitly a convincing web site, that is for sure.

[cowman]

Now once again, I am no rocket scientist, so this is just personal observation. When you take a top sirloin steak and look at it you can hardly see any internal fat? If you trim off the outer fat...it has to be about as close to fat free as possible? And yet, if cooked properly, it can be very tasty and tender and in fact juicy if cut thick? Again only a personal preference as I just can't abide a greasy steak!
And again from observation: Probably the tenderest beef I ever butchered was a yearling Char heifer, grain fed about 90 days, slaughtered around 1000 lb.! There was almost zero marbling and yet she was very tender and very tasty! And about the worst darned animal I ever ate was a yearling Sim steer, grain fed about half a year? Tough as a boot and not much flavor! Don't know if that was genetics or what? He didn't marble very well but had a good outer fat cover. Maybe there is a reason why Western Feedlots doesn't want any Simmental cattle?

[smcgrath76]

There are a lot of papers out of Lacombe, however nothing super recent and consumer tastes have been changing, but Joe Average will take a piece of generic AA over generic AAA beef out of the meat counter roughly 85% of the time. I am sure branding products has changed this over time.
The kicker is that most preferred AAA in blind taste tests.

[rkaiser]

How abouit this for a kicker Sean. Last CBEF meeting with CEO's from Cargill, Tyson, and such in attendence picked the AAA first and D1 cow second in a blind taste test that included all grades of fed cattle.

[smcgrath76]

And they say this industry has no direction!!!
Does that mean that D1 cows are going to come up in price yet again?

[rkaiser]

I think not Sean. Have been working up to a Western Producer editorial discussing the serving of more cow beef in Canada than ever in History. No that it is bad, as discovered by the CBEF board, but still not as good as that which we are sending our American cousins while watching the packers enjoy yet another Canadian Salmon run. Don't really want to blast the Beef Information Center once again, but they sure have helped this cow meat thing with new recipes etc. Guess some producer other than me is gainig from this producer levy money --- or is it maybe the packers and the retailers?????

[smcgrath76]

I think rkaiser that is another topic worthy of a post.