how long to get the cornfed out

IMHO, grass fed beef is a fad. Kroger uses those savings cards to track purchases. A few years ago, they got wind of the coming grass fed beef "movement". They stocked grass fed beef for a while. They sold a lot of it, once. Nearly every sale of grass fed beef from Kroger's was a one time sale. People tried it and people didn't buy it again. THey dropped it. That is the only large "study" I know of. Friends and neighbors that have tried to cut costs and feed pasture only have ended up with tough meat. The experiences of others will vary.
I'd hate for a new person to cattle to drive off their first customers right off the bat. From the reports on HT, everyone loves it and comes back for more. But I'm skeptical.

I have seen a few upscale stores use deceptive titles on meats that are meaningless, humanely raised, Pasture Raised , anti biotic free. Those things are true but meaningless. Same for cage free eggs or pastured chickens. On a commercial scale, the reality doesn't match the imagined.

When a producer says their beef is antibiotic free, there is the perception that all other meat must therefore contain antibiotics, something most thinking people do not want. As we encourage the buy-local idea, we are in a place to educate, not raise fears about things the public doesn't understand.

Raising fears about the food system that aren't factual, just to scare people into your products is unfair, but too common, IMHO.
It isn't that Im threatened by it, I just hate to see a one sided discussion talk someone into something that ends up a setback or financial disaster.
But hey, it you really have a market, with repeat business, good for you.

Gotta disagree with you here, Haypoint.

Grass fed is for the educated, health conscious consumer, and it doesn't belong in a supermarket. People who buy corn fed meat are used to the soft, tender meat, that has lots of fat in it. Totally different ball game from grass fed, they are going to try it, and you're right, they won't buy it again. They don't know what to expect, and when they get it they'll be really disappointed.

Grass fed should be marketed to:

1) Health conscious people, who
A. Want high Omega-3 fat meats
B. Want to eat all of the animal for all of its parts (bones for broth, liver, thymus, kidneys, oxtail, etc.
C. Want to know exactly where that one cow comes from and not that they are eating ground beef from 1,000 different cows all in one batch.
D. Who simply are a smarter bear about nutrition than the normal American (think Twinkie eater).

2)Animal Welfare people, who
A. Want an animal raised naturally and humanely
B. Want to know that if they have an animal killed, it's all going to be used and not wasted and that single animal will be going to benefit their family's well being.

Lots of times those two kinds of attitudes are in the same person.

People have to know that grass fed is not necessarily tender, that it has a lot of flavour but you can't cook the living daylights out of it, that it is not going to be the same as what you've grown up eating from the store. If they don't know that, or don't care that much once they've tasted it, you're right, they aren't coming back.

IMO, grass fed should be reserved for small farmers to sell off the farm and market in the correct way to get those two groups of consumers. This keeps it more exclusive and keeps the price up for those farmers.

And for those who grow their own, more power to us that we know we are eating right.

I don't think it's a fad any more than Farmer's Markets and organic foods are a fad, it's simply taken that idea from the plant world and moved it into animal agriculture.

I think it's a great thing for small farmers.

__________________
-Northern NYS

If there is a sustained demand for pasture raised beef, how can you protect that market from Big Ag taking over? Perhaps Kroger did a poor job of marketing, perhaps they were a bit too far ahead of the curve.
If Homesteadingtoday is an example of the average small farm, I'd say there are a lot of people new to farming. "Fencing that field I just bought and running a few cattle" is a common goal. But the reality is that if you are going to grow cattle without concentrated proteins found in grain and soybeans, you need to get both your pastures and hayfields to superior quality and be prepared to feed a lot.

We all know that when asked, half the consumers say they would buy organic, even if it cost more. But, when those same consumers shop, most just buy the cheapest. Just look at the produce in any local grocery store. Organic takes up a fraction of the space.

Demand for the thymus or even the tail is small. The large slaughter facilities often do a better job of using all the cow than the down home butcher. A big operation has contracts for lungs, blood and bones and everything else goes to be rendered.

Inform your customers, ahead of time that it may be dry and tough. Feed high quality hay with lots of alfalfa in it. Get your pastures up to top performance levels. Be ready to modify your plan to suit the customers.

We have all seen health food fads come and go. I hope buy local is here to stay.

i keep reading about this so called Kroger "research study". Im not sure if there is more than one Kroger grocery chain but the one Kroger chain i found online sells grass-fed beef. it is expensive ($7 a lb. hamburg) so i could understand why nobody would buy it but they do sell it.

Probably the same chain you are familiar with. Not exactly a study. Just they use customer data to track trends, buying habits, etc. The grass bed beef thing was a few years ago. Perhaps they are trying it again.

A few years back, Buffalo meat was the latest healthy meat. Then Beefalo, then Ostrich. There have been attempts to get "healthier than beef" venison, Elk and goat meat into general acceptance with mixed results. Highland cattle were going to be the next greatest thing, with their limited amount of fat.

Myers Natural Beef, red Angus, based in Montana, is gaining ground by appealing to the mainstream consumer's interest in humanely raised, pastured and humanely slaughtered.

Some people are doing well with the organic\pasture raised meats.

http://www.organicprairie.com/

Did I miss something? Am I seeing this right? Is the only grass fed beef they sell hamburger? If folks love the flavor and just need to cook it correctly, why don't they sell a few New York Strips with that amazing flavor? Grass fed beef is so popular, they ship it from Australia? I thought part of this was the Buy Local movement?

Every business has their ups and downs, happy buyers and angry buyers. Check out these consumer reviews:

"I bought Organic Prairie assortment through Costco.com and received the package with products that are ONE YEAR OLD.I called the company and instead of trying to replace my order with somewhat fresh meat, they insisted that I should be fine eating this 12-month old meat.
I couldn't believe it! The product was also NOT from the US farms, it came from another company in Australia even though their website indicates that their products come from Wisconsin. At the end, I ended up spending $130 and threw the meat into the garbage.
Not only that I wouldn't buy their products ever again, but I would advise anyone thinking about purchasing their products to STAY AWAY from this company.Their mission statement is a complete lie and they are extremely unprofessional."

Another review: "Received 8 lbs of grassfed ground beef from Organic Prairie through Costco.
OP says all of its meat is from organic small farms/ranches in Wisconsin.
That is not true as the beef they sent me was a product of Australia. I guess the FTC made them labe their product, but they did not let anyone know in its description on their website, www.organicprairie.com.
Also, I just received in on Feb 15, but it was packed on 10/24/2011. 3.5 months old!!!!!
I complained to customer service, and they admitted it was from Australia, and their is no notice on the website.
They also told me that the other beef is grain finished for the last 90 days. That ruins the fat profile of the beef to that of the usual stuff you can find at the grocery store."

There is a lot of imported meat sold in this country. Apparently, their organic is finished on grain. An important distinction. If that matters, be sure to find out before you buy. For over 50 years, Australian Bull meat has been shipped in boxes to the US to add to hamburger. Older bulls have very little fat and blended with beef scraps make a less greasy burger. If you've had a Big Mac, you have eaten some Australian Bull meat. Bon Appetite.

http://www.costco.com/Organic-Grass-...100053873.html You can also get grass fed beef from Uruguay.

I've tried the "grass fed" beef from several stores, and it is crap, frankly. Very little marbling. There is a difference between grass fed, and grass finished. And grass finished beef is far superior of a product. The problem is that it is only possible for many of us to finish during a certain part of the grazing season. In Michigan I can grass finish in early October, or possibly early July. This year was exceptional all year, but I had nothing at the correct age to finish. So our customers will have to wait. Chain stores don't accept that, so our sales are all private sales.

We move our cows (and steers in a different pasture) 3 and sometimes 4 times per day, onto grass at its prime stage as much as the weather permits. And it shows in the beef. This is a grass finished Dexter, 27 months old in mid-October when he was processed, 460 lbs. hanging weight. This particular Dexter was a non-carrier of chondrodysplasia, but our personal choice for grass finishing are the chondro positive steers. They are much easier to gain and get good marbling of the beef. They usually hang at a lower weight, but because they have less bone you'll get close to the same finished product by the time all the cuts are made.



This is a 8 month old Dexter chondro positive steer we have selected for grass finishing next fall:

Grass raised, pasture raised, grass finished are all terms that most consumers don't understand. The upscale stores that sell with such labels are misleading the public. Seller in the direct sales business are sometimes guilty of this too. Hormone free, antibiotic free, humanely raised all conger up the belief that everything else is toxic.

Home raised grain finished beef is far superior to the grain finished beef you buy in the store. I think everyone agrees. Therefore, I can understand that home raised, properly (plenty of lush grass) raised grass finished beef would be better than grass finished store bought.
Keep in mind, this country will soon be receiving grass finished beef from Uruguay. I have seen their pastures and they are special! I imagine that beef would be superior to a local Highlander raised on brush, briars and acorns, as some expect them to thrive on.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...09174013004944

There is a measurable difference in the type of fat deposited depending on feed. There is not a lot of research on this though, I've never seen any studies about animals weaned on grain and finished on grass. They're still working on getting enough people to look into this to get repeatable results on the existing studies. Much is still unknown.

The paleo diet folks have a belief that Omega-6 fatty acids don't "accumulate" in beef, but if there is a difference in amount between grass and grain finished Omega 6 levels, how long does it take that to change? Do they have to lose weight and burn off that fat and put on fresh? I really have no idea.

Since there is no certification organization for grass finished beef, you have to set your own standard and communicate that standard to your customers. Maybe you can have two different price points for "grass raised & finished" and "grass finished"? You might test pilot a few, and then ask a customer that renders their tallow if they notice any difference. If the melting point is satisfactorily high, and the flavor is good, most customers won't care. I'm not at all sure that it will correlate directly to the lab results, but it is the most sophisticated test your consumers will do. I personally would want to see the lab tests before paying more for it. If you do a high enough volume you might send a sample to the lab and get results to show your customers.

You can't. At some point they will pick up the marketing angle, put enough of an organization together to have a certification label and the customers will buy. The little guy will have to keep being inventive. There are more of us, with more ideas, and we have lower risk in trying new ideas than the big guys. If 100 of us try a new idea and bomb out, the rest of us learn from it and move on, and another successful idea comes up and spreads and carries small farming through another decade.

I think you really need the full package to market this kind of meat. You have to appeal to Buy Local as well as health benefits and humane raising (butterflies and rainbows, etc.). Big Ag will never be able to do that. It can be a niche market for a small grower, but a profitable one.

__________________
-Northern NYS

I've had both grass fed and corn raised black Angus. I am a proponent of grass fed, but it is hard to beat corn fed Angus. The biggest difference is the flavor of the fat. Grass fed can be as tender and marbled if done right. Corn fed is almost sweet grass finished is stronger and more of a sour flavor. There are people out there selling dried up cows as grass fed beef getting a premium, usually ends up a one time sale. On one hand it makes me smile to see the local yuppies pay a premium for something that should be dog food.
On the other it seems deceitful and unethical because regardless of the actual words used people think they are buying a premium product and they are not getting it. Not correcting your customers is as bad as lying to them if you know that they think your product is something that it is not. Kinda a fine line to walk.