A good argument for grass fed, pastured beef over grain fed, feed lot beef

Growing up, I remember a beef calf spending the first 12-15 months out in the pasture and the last 90 days or so in the feedlot. Don't see that too much around here anymore except for my wife and I. Did my family do it differently than others in the 60's or 70's, or is that how beef was raised at that time? With the advent of the internet, you either see stuff about grass fed or grain fed, but nothing in between. Just an observation.

Razorback21

A year old charolais in the 600 lb range is a puny critter, hard to believe he dresses out 400 lbs of meat. A yearling should be much heavier, maybe the 800 lb range.

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Some venison would sure be good too.

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ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

I raise Highland, strictly on grass and hay. I sell 1/2 to 3/4 of each steer I raise, getting $5/lb plus c&w. People get used to being turned away! I steer them to a friend who produces many, many more Highlands than I do and finishes them on grain for 60 days.
Highlands can fatten on most anything, but they are slower. Twentyeight months is about the most common age for butchering.
Grass fed has to be cooked different than grainfed, that's all that's too it. I tell my customers for steaks to cook hot and fast and never go beyond medium rare. For roasts its low and slow, stopping at medium. I prefer my beef raw to blue, so I think it has lots of flavor, but I've never had complaints about lack of flavor or toughness as long as its cooked properly.

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Nope. My Dexters are 100% grass fed and the meat is so tender you can cut it with a fork.

Here is the dirty little secret the eco-nazis don't want you to know; Almost all beef is "grass fed" at least to some extant. Most feedlot beef spend their first summer with momma (on grass), get drylotted and fed grass hay or silage their first winter, go back on grass their second summer, and then finish on grain their last 90 days.

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Libertarindependent

I was raised on pastured beef. We raise it that way cause it's the least expensive way to raise them. I get a steer every spring and keep it on pasture until it goes in the freezer each fall. I was always told that the secret to getting tender meat is to butcher it when it's gaining weight. If you butcher when it's not gaining weight you'll have tough meat. One year I couldn't get it in to be butchered during weight gain and the meat turned out tough. I think the old timers knew what they were talking about when they said to only butcher during weight gain. I usually raise a Black Angus.

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I hadn't heard that, but it's an interesting idea.

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Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
Mark Twain
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Enforced tolerance is oppression

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

Almost all beef is grass fed. It's the last 60 days that they are grain fed to get the fat marble on them. Which does make them more tender and taste better. And someone up above hit the nail on the head when they said we don't diet right. We should only eat red meat 2 or 3 times a week and in a moderate proportion. One serving, the size and thickness of the palm of your hand.

Now don't be starring at my big tummy and ask me how I know all this?

around here they calve in february or so.
the calves are left with ma in the pasture til the fall, then they're weaned and sold and get fattened that winter, then butchered for commercial processing.
mostly angus and herefords and crosses.
800# is about right for one, for a family, steaks, hamburger the whole deal and maybe fattened for a month or two, but not necessarily even that.
when i was the scale lady at a big farm/feedlot, they'd fatten old, broke-mouth cows and sell them at about 1000# ave. to excel and monfort...
bulls went too....
those are the critters that end up on walmart shelves...
bleeecchhhhhhh
btw, if you ever have nebraska beef, you'll notice the difference in the better quality of taste!

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So what is the best steakhouse on the Western half of I80?

There's lots of em, but Dude's in Sidney has really really good steaks.

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Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
Mark Twain
______________________________________________

Enforced tolerance is oppression

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

I ate one of the best steaks I ever had down on main street of Nashville. I can't remember the name of the place but it was a small bar that was somewhat famous. Before the grand ole' opry moved from down town out to where it is now all the famous and not so famous singers would head out to this little bar after the Grand Ole Opry show was over. While there eating this huge steak (which I would call a roast) we saw all kinds of autographed pictures on the walls.

Well anyway about the steak. We were told to stop by there and try their steaks and so we did. I ordered one and my wife ordered one. When they brought the steaks out to us our eyes about popped out of our face. We had never seen steaks that big and thick. We could have just ordered one and shared it. I don't know what they marinated them in but they were absoulutly delicious. That's the only time I got rolled out of a bar and wasn't even drunk!

How is Ole's?

I'd have to imagine that the overwhelming majority of all cattle slaughtered are grass fed. More than likely, the one's that are grain fed are predominantly raised by small homesteaders, that overfeed grain.

All cattle are raised on grass, and the ones entering the commercial markets are finished at feedlots for a couple months, to 'marble' them up. Anyone near a feedlot can probably tell you there are no cow/calf pairs there... No bulls breeding cows... No cows having calves... No calves being raised...

They're raised out on a farm or ranch, and they eat grass or hay... and if lucky, they'll get some cubes in the winter (to go along with hay).

Having been raised on venison and wild hog, any beef was a treat, and for that matter, still is. I'm still chewing on the grass fed beef I put in the freezer last year... and like CF said, it's just like chewing leather... If I don't tenderize it to the max, slicing hundreds of crisscrossing strips in the meat on both sides, it's inedible.

Healthy is as healthy does. If one sits in a cubicle and gets zero exercise, eating more than a rice cake a day is an extravangance.

If I buy beef, I want it to be a juicy fatty marbled piece, well aged! For the last couple a years, I buy one brisket, and maybe two t-bones... hard to justify it, when there's wild meat in the freezer.

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Casper, Wyoming. The Fire Rock. You get what you pay for..........yum.

Do they serve lunch. I'll be going through Casper next August. Anything in Gillette?

I really like Nebraska. We spent time in Chicago entertaining clients at fine steakhouses and get a chance to actually relax when we get to a down home steak place. I swear my blood pressure drop 40 points between Chicago and Cornland.

Perhaps Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, which was near Rhimmer (sp?) Auditorium in Nashville.

Even Alan Nation says it is mostly in how the meat is cooked. You throw a grass-only fed steak on a hot grill and you are likely not to be satisified with the taste.

For those who butcher their own beef; do any of you leave the carcasses to hang in a cool-room for any length of time before cutting up, and if so, for how long do you leave it hanging?

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BIDADISNDAT: Aiming to Live a Good Life of Near Self Sufficiency on a Permaculture Based Organic Home Farm

Ah something else that is probably shortened: Aging. Aging is real important to tenderness and flavor also. Of course, the longer they hang, the less they yield......