April 25th, 2011 Grass Fed ?
 

http://www.agcenter.com/Images/clip_image002.jpg


The steak is represented as grass fed and was sold by Sonrise Beef, one of the largest producers of grass fed beef in southern California. Any person, knowledgeable about beef, will immediately recognize the probability is almost 99% that this is grain fed beef.

LINK

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

PART III --- THE FAMILY FARMER

Urban life can be stressful. Competition is intense. Large densities of people are crammed into small spaces and the interaction results in frequent conflict. Many of those residents have roots in rural America or rural whatever country you can name. Many of those roots are generations back but recollections of the past are buried in the folklore passed from generation to generation. Sometimes folklore turns into myth and myth into an idealized vision of how things ought to be. This nostalgia and longing for simpler times has given forth to the rebirth of the idea of OLD MACDONALD’S FARM where the cows in the meadow and the sheep are in the corn.



The real life extension of OLD MACDONALD’S FARM is today’s farmers market. No one would question the premise that fresher produce tastes better or that locally raised produce rushed to market is preferred mode as advocated by the Localvores. The urban consumer’s need for food with a story behind it, created such a marketing opportunity that it brought forth all the scams found in a local carnival. Middlemen moved into the fray and all of a sudden you had an onslaught of people representing themselves as family farmers and their products as locally grown and organic. Because the venue would change and the instant shops would come and go, regulation was difficult. Misrepresentation was rampant.



The tools of the trade are fairly simple and limited. The seller of food at the farmer’s market must:

1. Pretend to be a family farmer to the consumer whatever that means.

2. Subscribe to notion that the foods that are sold are natural or organic whatever that means. The bonafides are frequently displayed on the tables in front of the stall in the form of acceptable literature and billboards.

3. Charge at least twice as much as the food sells for at the local grocery.

A visit by this reporter to a farmer’s market in La Jolla, California illustrates the point in this photo.

So what is a family farmer? The answer is straightforward. The 200,000 families that produce 85% of the nation’s food are family farmers. Only 2% of our food is produced by corporations. Family farms come in all sizes. In the mind of urban writers, exactly when does a family farmer become a factory farmer? No one knows or can say, but chances are good that if your size is larger than a few acres, you are at risk of being called a factory farmer.



“Factory Farmer” as a descriptive term is meaningless. The processes used in production don’t vary a lot between sizes of farms. Certainly size does matter. Larger operations offer economies of scale and this is the feature of American agriculture that has pushed us to the forefront of efficiency in the world. Spreading the cost of overhead and management over 1000 acres of cropland is more efficient than over 100 acres. Looking after 1000 cows is more efficient that 100 cows. Both manpower and equipment are used more efficiently. Larger producers got to be larger because they are more efficient. A useful exercise for those who chose to label operations as factory farms would be to edit their articles or books to substitute “efficient” for “factory” in front of every farmer entry in the article or book.



The myth of the small family farm as the sole custodian of a caring, sensitive food provider is out of touch with reality. Many small farms are tended by owners with a primary job elsewhere. They are small tracts outside of town where the owner runs a few livestock or farms a few acres in their spare time. Other small farms are owned by rich people who have no understanding of production practices and often don’t really care. They are interested in a retreat and the tending to the crops whether plant or animal is never a priority.



At the core of production agriculture are the thousands of American farmers who make their living farming livestock and crops every day. They vary in size but share one common concern – the health and sustainability of the crops they produce –whether plant or animal. They fight the elements, the weather, the markets, and daily crisises of production agriculture every day of the year because it’s in their blood. They spend very little time and lose very little sleep worrying about whether they are a family farmer or a factory farmer.

I'm at work so haven't followed the link. Is this something that you've written or is it from an article written by someone else?

I guess I could have written it but my family farming keeps me too busy. ;) This is a page called the cattle report.

I am a meat-eater, but not terribly meat-knowledgeable. What makes it obvious that that chunk o' meat is grain fed? Has it to do with the amount of fat in the meat? Is that what indicates that this beef is from a cow that spent it's time just standing around a feedlot waiting for dinner rather than browsing?

The extensive marbling of fat is a clear indicator that this is corn fed beef.

Then I know more about meat than I thought.

Except that you eat steers and not queers cows ;)

"Higher" grades of beef are still considered to be the most marbled with fat.
Commercial beef comes pretty much equally from males (steers and bulls) and females (heifers and cows).

I am from the suburbs. I don't look at the undercarriage before I eat it.

It can also depend on the breed of the stock and the quality of the green feed. Maybe it was a lazy cow too. lol

Yeah I'd look at that and say grain fed, but there are some breeds that produce more marbling naturally, particularly in a nice rib fillet.

eta: of course, you know of all of this already Nirvana, so I'm not trying to refute what you're saying. I was just thinking about Wagyu or Kobe beef for instance, which is high in marbling even when grass fed.

If you are eating at fast food restaurants or buying frozen patties you are eating mostly cull dairy cows. If there is fat and marbling that is grain fed. Grass fed beef is tough and stringy. Very lean no fat.

I know a few farmers here who grass feed and a couple who grass finish. I think the latter is a marketing gimmick, but I don't know. The quality of the grass fed beef up here is all over the map flavor and texture-wise, but yeah, generally lean.

Now the pigs, that's another matter...

I like ground beef that will cook without having to drain fat but it needs some fat to taste good. Grass fed generally takes longer to finish so it more expensive for less product. I think its amusing that they can command higher prices for a mediocre product.

Gullible isn't in the locavore dictionary

That steak looks more like they were smoking the grass, and eating fritos. ;)

We raise a few steers for our own beef here in South Gippsland (Australia) and they are entirely grass fed from the time they are weaned. I can assure you that the meat is not at all tough or stringy! Most supermarket beef in Australia is grain finished, and I was once told by a local beef farmer that it is to make the fat whiter, as this is what the market wants. Our home grown beef is certainly as tasty and tender as anything I have bought from a supermarket, or even from up-market butchers and restaurants, and our dinner guests agree.

Yeah, my dad has a hereford cow that he gets AI'd each year then slaughters the calf at about 12 months, just before the new calf is born. It's all grass fed and I swear it's as tender and tasty as you'll find in any shop and he doesn't grain feed either. He does feed the cow grain when she's pregnant and still has a calf on the teat, but he loves his 'rissole' (what he named her as a weaner before he decided to breed her instead), so she gets a bit sooked up.

I have had Australian grass fed beef my opinion stands... Have you had prime American beef?

Sorry, I'm married.

lol...it's not a competition. I like red meat. I'm pretty sure Australia doesn't import US beef at the moment due to the mad cow scare a while back though.

I had a Wagyu steak last week and while it was very tender, it wasn't particularly flavoursome. I find a steak that just tastes like fat to be avoiding the issue of a good steak to be honest.

What do you think the difference between Australian grass fed and US grass fed would be?

My opinion is that there isn't much difference if that's the criteria you're looking at. I think it has a lot more to do with the breed than the feed. You could feed brahaman or santa on grain their whole life and they'd never be as tender as wagyu or kobe, but I personally love the flavour of hereford beef, and I find the texture of the rib and eye fillet to be quite tender regardless of how it's 'topped off'. eta: provided of course that it's cooked well. I think that also has a lot to do with how a cut of meat will taste. Some cuts simply can't take a lot of cooking, and some can.

Every single incidence of mad cow in the US [there were 2] was traced back to DAIRY cattle that came from Canada and Mexico.

Grass fed beef is a marketing ploy in the US. Grass fed beef cannot be graded choice or prime. It does not taste good.

Angus beef is the only beef proven to have a "tenderness gene" [ I don't raise purebreds.] I raise club calves, they are the standard for the beef industry they are composite cattle [ crossbreeds] so I don't agree with your breed theory from that stand point. You are however comparing bos tarsus to bos indicus and the cattle you speak of are a need to have in certain climates because of weather conditions and insects. The cattle raised in hotter climates are not the primary source of prime beef in the US unless they are crossbred.

I don't know anyone who chooses to eat grass-fed beef because it tastes better (and I know a lot of them.) That's not the point of grass-fed beef. Personally, I've found that the steak cuts are indeed tougher, but I actually prefer the flavor. It's beefier, is the only way I can describe it. But still, that's not why we eat it.

So what's the deal with kobe beef? I know it's expensive and desirable to some people. Why isn't there more kobe beef raised in the US? Do they not do well here?

I'm not sure if it is like champagne vs sparkling wine in terms of... I can't remember the word. I'm sure if it a Japanese invention it is probably loaded with terroir mystique and incredibly labor intensive. I read a Nat. Geo. article and they described the beefers as gettting massages daily and rations of beer. I've also read that it is nearly impossible to eat more than a few ounces of good Kobe beef in a sitting as it is so rich.

I doubt I'd turn it down, but I wouldn't go out of my way to try it.

So it's not just another breed of beef? It's about the method of raising them?

My understanding is that it's all originally based on the fact that there's just not enough land space to realistically raise cattle in Japan. So the few cows they did have were a luxury, and the ranchers played that angle as best as they could.

I don't know any American women that would stand around all day massaging steers and spitting beer on them. [yah they really spit beer on them]

So, you lost touch with former cow orkers from your earlier career?
:p:

:p: .

BTW we did not spit beer on the patrons we poured champagne off... well use your imagination ;)

per wikipedia: "Cereals, grains, or cereal grains are grasses..."

all grains are grasses.

Interesting article a friend sent me reminded me of this IotD. Read how you have never, and most likely never will, eat Kobe beef even though people are telling you that you should give them lots of money for it.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/larryolm...kobe-beef-lie/

A year or two back there was a foot-and-mouth outbreak, and once the culling stopped, there were exactly five Kobe bulls left.

In a few years time, you'll be able to recognise Kobe beef by the thick eyeglasses and funny teeth.

While interesting, I think he gets a little carried away with his indignation.
I see people trying to be pretentious by buying what other people say is good, and get snookered because they don't know shit. Anyone stupid enough to think a bottle labeled Champagne can only come from France, should be drinking Ripple. :haha:

Really?
American women don't scrub shit out of toilets for a minimum wage?
British women do.

Massaging cows and spitting beer would be a step up methinks.

ETA - didn't read the thread thoroughly.
Came very late to the beef party.

Also I suspect that the lack of reported BSE cases in America came from poor reporting.

I lol'd.

Hmmm...

Wow that pic sure has evolved. lol

Oops, I was joking about bovine inbreeding, not crossbreeding.

No No Beef in Europe is generally around 3-5 years old before its butchered because many are not grain fed so they take years to be table ready. Beef in the USA is 24months at the most with the exception of Holstein butcher cows and bulls and other breeding beef animals that are generally used for fast food, luncheon meats and hot dogs. Impossible for BSE to happen in an animal that is less than 3 years of age. So there was no under reporting. Also cattle in the USA are not fed the bone meal that was widely used in other European countries.

Just to add the only human cases of BSE in the USA or {Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease] were traced to meat products that originated in other countries.

We've taken to purchasing our meat products (beef, chicken, lamb, etc) from local farmers only. The farm we use most frequently is a grass fed operation - their beef animals recieve no corn 'enhancements' to their diet during their growing phase. It's all grass/grain feed. We've found that it's better tasting than corn fed cows, it doesn't have as much fat in it (which is a plus for us), and has more of a 'beefy' flavor - so we actually end up eating less of it.

I believe it was in one of Pollan's books that I read about how CAFO cows (confined agriculture feeding operations), which are fed corn to 'finish' them, or get them to optimum weight quickly before slaughter, actually were often sick - because the anatomy of a cow is not designed to process corn - which also explains why so many 'commercial' beef products come with the extra added antibiotics (which causes a whole other issue).

I don't think that grass fed is a 'marketing ploy'. I think it's the growth of a market for people who are starting to see exactly what 'industrial food' is doing, and how unhealthy it truly is.

Frankly I don't buy beef at the super market because it tastes awful. Our beef is not exclusively corn fed and we are a small herd, no hormones or antibiotics here. Grass fed has no where near the flavor of beef with proper (corn fed) marbling. Grass fed is a marketing ploy and you pay a premium for a cheaper way to raise cattle. They also have to be fed longer.

The real problem with beef is that its expensive, politicians think its better to use corn for making ethanol which makes the price of beef skyrocket because subsides are paid to ethanol producers which is stupid when one realizes that saw grass is a better CHEAPER alternative.

What kind of feed grains are they feeding if they don't use corn? Sorghum? Barley? Wheat?

There is a HUGE difference between cheap beef, and GOOD beef. Cheap beef = pink slime - good beef - you pay more, consume less, because it's more 'beefy'.

I can guarantee you that corn is not the biologically 'proper' way to feed cows - if it was, cows would not be ruminants, needing 4 stomachs to digest the grass that they would prefer to eat. Marbling is only considered the 'proper' way beef should be eaten because of marketing. Grass fed cows have to be fed longer because they don't put on huge quantities of weight quickly, as do corn fed cows - which results in the marbling in the meat - they can't use the extra caloric input, so it results in fatty marbling through the muscle tissue.

I've sent an email to my farmer to find out what they use to feed their cattle. One good thing about knowing the farmer, is that I have no problem asking them questions, or showing up at their farm. (Which we do frequently).

Dagney I am not disagreeing with what you do to eat beef. The person feeding out the beef you are eating is still using carbohydrates,[barley, sorghum, wheat, soy bean meal/protein} if your farmer is feeding any of these you will still have marbling. Corn in one form or another is eaten by every living thing on this planet.

A cow does not have 4 stomachs it has one with 4 compartments. As far as corn not being the proper way to feed cows all of the major feedlots feed, along with their corn,> silage , hay or other roughage including grass. A cow cannot survive on corn alone. But some AR activists take this bit of information and make it their mantra "Corn is bad" If you put corn in front of a cow and grass most will go for the corn first. I am sure there is an exception but that is not a rule.

To meet the demand of the consumer is why there are commercial feedlots. The smarter people like you know that beef tastes better when its a local farmer just like local grown veggies taste better.

Marbling is better/proper because it makes the meat tastier and more tender. Excessive marbling is undesirable. The hamburger I eat/raise can be cooked with no excess fat to drain. If some like their steak tough and stringy then pure grass fed is the way to go.

We'll just have to agree to disagree - just because most major feedlots feed their cows corn, doesn't mean they should.

I believe corn IS bad - it's a monolithic monoculture that is slowly destroying farms and farmers in this country.

Cows prefer grass. CAFO cows eat corn, because they're standing knee deep in mud and manure, with no access to green grass. And my grass fed steaks, do not get tough and stringy. Guaranteed - you're invited to join us for dinner if you'd like to put that to the test. Like anything else - you need to know how to cook what you're cooking.

Your "grass fed steaks" are not tough and stringy because you admitted that they are not really all grass fed. They get grains as well just not corn.

If you are implying I don't know how to cook, you don't know me. ;) I do however know the beef industry and I do agree with you on certain points. Eliminating corn entirely from a cow's diet is not necessary or practical for most small producers. The "Organic beef grass fed only" is a way to make beef taste so bad that the AR activists win the war on anyone owning or raising animals for food. You obviously do not own cows, know anything about feed management or you would know cows prefer corn and would if left to their own devices founder themselves to death eating it above anything else.

BTW I would be known as a "free range organic beef producer." My cows spend their days roaming 50 acres of wooded pasture. I still have to supplement their feed with shucklage/silage or they would starve to death and then I would be one of those animal abusers. ;)

Fabulous reading

The Omnivore’s Delusion: Against the Agri-intellectuals

http://www.american.com/archive/2009...-intellectuals

Like I said, we're going to agree to disagree.

I was not disagreeing with you. I was providing facts to offset your fiction.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzing.

Look, so long as you don't feed your cows on the diseased brains of other cows, I'm cool with it, okay?

Cows are like kids, left to their own devices they'll eat everything they shouldn't. Thank god they don't have credit cards.

Braaaaaaaaaainssss :yum:




Actually I'd never eat any brains. Yuk!

those two sources of ethanol have other differences besides your "CHEAPER" claim that are substantial. getting ethanol from corn (sugar) is vastly easier than getting ethanol from sawgrass (cellulose). sawgrass might be cheaper to raise (not might--IS), but turning it into fuel is way, way more complicated.

And they just found another case of BSE in a cow in the USA. But really, everything is fine. Don't worry.

They are randomly testing only something like one out of every 12,000 bovines, the last I was able to confirm. And yet they keep turning up every couple of years.

It will be very interesting to see how old this dairy cow was. If it was born in the US after 1997, when it became illegal to grind up one cow and feed it to another cow, then that's going to be very bad news for the US beef industry. It would mean that the 1997 rules aren't working.

I think the only way to be sure that US beef is safe is to test more. When you only test 1 in 12,000 animals, you don't know jack.

And here again we are talking about a dairy cow with BSE not a beef cow. It does not follow the food chain in the same way as what you typically have on your plate. I am waiting to see the origin of this cow. The type of BSE it had was NOT transmissible from animal to animal and not to humans. {atypical] It was a cow taken to a rendering plant where typically that is made into fertilizer and dog food.

This is the first line of your article: {Health officials say the diseased cow never entered the human food chain and U.S. dairy and beef products are safe. It is the first confirmed case in the U.S. since 2006.}

I always find it annoying that those that sit behind a desk with no college education in agriculture or practical experience in agriculture can say the sky is falling. This article CLEARLY explains that the system in place is working.

Officials believe it is a rare spontaneous case and not linked to contaminated food. So no it was not fed other cows.

It seems like all it takes is one or two pencil pushers to create mass delusion. You are more likely to die of a heart attack eating too much beef than you are to get mad cow disease....

Most cattle slaughtered are 24 months old and under it is IMPOSSIBLE for them to have BSE. The disease has at least a 5-7 year incubation. That's why more are not tested. They only test OLD and sick appearing animals and most OLD and sick animals are in fertilizer.

When a mommy cow and a daddy cow love each other verrrry much...

(Couldn't resist.) :D

Ain't that the truth!

http://www.13wham.com/guides/health/...Pr32YwSIg.cspx