Grass Vs. Grain Fed Beef Discussion Turns Ugly

[newguy]

Corn fed cattle vs barley fed is common
knowledge the taste differance. If you
marble your cattle on high energy grass
that land could probably grow barley or
grain as well. Also the genetics you use
may be british cattle like welsh black
or wagu. So in fact like alot of organic
grain farmers you are losing maximum
production to obtain a product for a
niche market. Good for you for suppling
a product . What type of grass produces
a fat as white as barley? Do you finish
your cattle on standing barley?

[grassfarmer]

On land quality/use: the best land for growing grass
to fatten cattle is the marginal grain land on the
fringes. Typically the areas people on here complain
about being tough too wet, too cold, too short season
to grow crops easily. You just have to get your head
around growing grain not being the best use of land
if the grain produced is going to feed cattle - it can't
just compete on cost. The feed only component of
our cost of gain is under 35c/lb of gain - which will
be less than 1/2 maybe closer to a 1/3 of the cost of
feedlot gains. Of course ours is a seasonal business
and for that reason will never comprise the majority
of the countries beef production. Still leaves plenty
room for expansion of the sector to meet the growing
demand from consumers.

On grasses: Preferred grasses for getting a fall finish
on cattle here are meadow brome, orchard grass and
lots of legume - alsike clover and cider milk vetch are
my favourites. These species all retain their quality
late into the fall. The beauty of this climate, although
few seemingly realise it, is that the light, early frosts
that come in September have the effect of
concentrating the sugar above ground in grasses like
Meadow Brome and Orchard grass which gives you
the energy you need to get a proper finish on cattle.
You need to manage grass though - if it's under an
inch high and brown by the first of August you are
not going to finish cattle on it.

On genetics: We use Luing cattle because they were
designed for the purpose - maternal cattle that the
byproduct steers fatten off grass at 18 months. This
breed is prepotent for these characteristics.
In most breeds the name means nothing - "Angus"
contains everything from charolais types to holstein
types as they have chased every popularity fad in the
book. Like almost every other breed in North America
the Angus has been selected for gain in the feedlot
environment for so long they have evolved away from
their grass finished roots. There are good Angus out
there for sure but not available with any consistency.
We run some commercial Red Angus cows which
mated to our Luing bulls produce a very good
carcass. The Red Angus calves that came inside them
when I bought them were very inconsistent to fatten
on grass - from the smallest carcass I've ever
processed to some that had to be shipped as feeders
at slaughter weight with not enough finish on them to
kill. They wanted to be 1600lb fat cattle. Marbling
and tenderness of these straight Reds was the
poorest I've ever produced.

[ASRG]

I wonder if the "urbanites" who want to buy organic, or non-GMO, or milk and cheese without bovine growth hormone, would be considered as ignorant, naive, uninformed consumers?
It seems to me if it is their dollar, they can spend it however they see fit?

Or all all these organic/natural farmers decieving these poor vulnerable souls?

Maybe the government should force all consumers to eat the factory food at Walmart? Maybe they could also outlaw private gardens unless the gardeners use hybrid GMO seeds, chemical fertilizers, and every spray under the sun?

[perfecho]

Careful ASRG......I beleive Walmart is growing to be the largest organic retailer in North America....or at least thats their mandate .......goodbye to margins in organic!

[tweaker101]

I prefer grass feed beef as do our customers, but again each to there own opinion. I think our customers would be not impressed if they seen us feeding a corral full of steers bucket after bucket of barley and wallowing around in the mud and shit from a corral and being penned up as to seeing them out on the pastures with the grass blowing in the wind around them. Our pastures are not on mariginal land as where we are situated there is none...but if I had any poor land it would be fenced off and used for pasture.

[riders2010]

Grassfarmer do you grow and market your animals based only on your costs and the quality of taste as you see it or do you market at all on the anti cancer properties of grass fed compared to grain? Curious do consumers care about the health side at all or is it all about taste? Not even sure if it is true that grass fed only is healthier maybe your and other input on this could shed some light.

We buy from the neighbor grain finished but nothing that has had to treated with antibiotics. Great stuff but was always curious about the health part of it compared to grass only.

[JDGreen]

Thanks grassy. Many questions answered. :-)

[BFW]

Interesting points of view. Funny though how it usually boils down to one side or the other trying to defend or justify its own position. Whether grain or grass fed, the beef produced is essentially the same and accomplishes the same objective in the mind of the consumer. We built a grain fed industry because we had excess grain (now not so much)and ranchers who wished to dispose of their calves every fall. Grass fed production exists mainly because of a misinformed consumer who thinks that somehow this production system is producing a better protein for them. I do believe that because of increased demand for grain more pounds of cattle will be produced on grass rather than in the feedlot but to say that we will market much more grass fed beef or stop producing grain fed is a stretch at this point. I also have to wonder why the main marketing feature of grass fed seems to be to try and discredit grain feeding

[perfecho]

BFW....the "misinformed" cconsumer is your words.....there are many benefits to grass fed... google leptin.....just as there are benefits to grain fed.

[Fransisco]

Geez, one of these days we're going to have to have a rumble on who makes the better pickup truck GM or Ford. That'll send the Dodge guys right over the deep end. LOL