April 25th, 2011 Grass Fed ?

[kerosene]

I'm with ya, Nirvana. Also in the beef "industry." And I will not stop eating beef over this media frenzy, if I can help it...hormone free beef, that is. Yes, the marbling is better in corn fed beef. Speaking of corn, do you use distiller tubs?

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by kerosene

Yes, the marbling is better in corn fed beef.

I've always found this argument to be pretty irrelevant. I mean, sure, cake tastes better than broccoli too.

[sandypossum]

Originally Posted by Nirvana

Corn in one form or another is eaten by every living thing on this planet.

No, it's not. We have a small farm and our steers have never had any corn, in any form. They had milk from their mother, and then grass. (And before you ask, their mothers had the same.) Sometimes we give them hay or sileage, but mostly they just eat grass and the other stuff growing in our paddocks. They don't get food supplements. They are very healthy, and at around 2 years, a mobile butcher comes to our farm to kill them. They're not fully grown, but we don't have our own coolroom, and the mobile coolroom that he brings with him can only just fit in a 2 year old steer. Also, the front end loader we borrow from a neighbour would struggle to lift more than that, hence that age. We'd love to leave one to get bigger, but it's not an option for us. The one 2 year old steer we had killed was 350kg dressed.

Our beef is not marbled, but we don't want it or like it marbled. That doesn't mean it's tough. Our beef is neither tough, nor stringy, and the taste and texture is commented on by our friends from the city.

You said much earlier in this thread "Grass fed beef cannot be graded choice or prime. It does not taste good." But surely taste is subjective? By definition? Some prefer veal to beef, some beef to veal, some prefer mutton to lamb, blablabla. Doesn't make one better than the other. Grain fed beef was common in the USA long before it was common here in Australia. My guess is that this is why you think of it as good tasting beef - it's what you were raised on. I prefer ours. What's so hard to accept about that? You can't make a blanket statement about taste. Or are American tastes the standard now? Our local grass fed beef (sold by our prize winning local butcher) is certainly graded prime, and it does taste good.

You also stated "I have had Australian grass fed beef my opinion stands... Have you had prime American beef?" I've had SOME American beef, just as you have had SOME Australian grass fed beef. Maybe neither of us got truly quality beef when we did. The prime American beef I had didn't leave a lasting impression on me. But I do remember coming back to Australia after several years abroad; I remember the first time I ate a (grass fed) steak again and the rush of pleasure the taste gave me. Incidentally, my Dutch husband was also a convert right from the start - he said it was like a revelation.

I have no doubt your beef tastes great. But mine does, too. We just have different tastes.