Question on grass fed beef

The best beef I have ever had, I did go to the butchers and examine his operation and you could have eaten off the floor in the bathroom, he had a hanging walk in freezer and a prepared walk in freezer. We picked up our beef and it was all ready and packed, the butcher explained how good the animal looked and cut every cut precise, asked how do you want your hamburger packaged in one or two pound bags, every cut was double wraped. he charged me 50.00 to shoot the bull and .35 cents a pound to cut. check your butchers operation out.

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There are entirely too many generalizations in this thread. Not all grass fed beef is the same, nor is all grain fed beef the same. Grain fed doesn't necessarily taste better than grass fed, nor vice versa.

Some breeds of beef finish well on quality grass while others don't. In addition, not all pastures are the same. Quality of hay in the winter plays a role. The amount of hay fed in the winter plays a role, plenty of fresh water, free choice minerals, etc. etc. etc..

In general, when you take a breed that finishes well on grass, put him/her on quality pasture and feed quality hay in the wintertime in adequate quantity, then slaughter in a stress free environment, properly age, cut and cook, grass fed beef can taste as good, or better, as grain fed. I've had awesome grain fed beef, awesome grass fed, horrible grain fed and horrible grass fed. In my opinion, too many people purchase a side of beef from a friend or neighbor without really doing much homework and then get disappointed if the quality isn't what they'd like. In the end, they end up blaming it on the fact that the animal was "grass fed" without considering any other factors.

In my experience, grass fed does taste different than grain finished cattle but I certainly wouldn't say that one tastes better or worse. And, as for getting beef that was like shoe leather, I seriously doubt that grass feeding/finishing would have been the culprit there. Several things impact the tenderness of a cut of beef and the most important one is likely genetics. Never allowing an animal to lose condition and slaughtering when the animal is on the gain also plays a role.

I have a group of Highland cattle here on the farm and feel confident that the quality of each and every one will be very high when their time comes.

:banana02:

My last steer was 1/2 Jersey, 3/8 Guernsey, 1/8 Angus and fed orchard grass from pasture and mostly Timothy grass hay during the winter months. Born July '06, and slaughtered @ 10.5 months, wt. 750#. He was on his mother's milk all that time. He had an occasional treat of COB with alfalfa pellets and never seemed to mind not having any.

He'd gotten mean...always was feisty...is why he was so young, and had horns, too.

EXCELLENT eating, though...very tender and tasty. His fat wasn't as yellow as I thought it might have been. He was dry hung for two weeks.

Perhaps the steer that you had was not slaughtered in the field with his head down? Had stress hormones in him?

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Thanks everyone for your insight. Unless you are raising it yourself it is hard to know. I know these guys feed purely grass, no grain, no other additives. Not sure if they were shot at home then taken to the slaughterhouse. Maybe they were hauled there and the stress of shipping affected the meat. Not sure how long it is hung. We still have some beef left so we will continue to try. We have always cooked all the meat slow except the steaks that we grill on high for 4 min. a side or so and eat them medium rare. Hmmm....