Raising a beef for prime meat?

Holsteins make great beef.All holsteins not kept as breeding stock are fed out and butchered.There are plants in our area that only process holsteins----thousands of them.

When my parents raised our own beef, our preference was baby beef. Tender and full of flavor. In another year or two, I want to raise a couple for us, and it'll be baby beef, only! Milk, grass, and hay...no grain. And we preferred it from dairy lines, although dad would occasionally get his dairy cows bred to a beef bull.

Everyone has such different tastebuds!

Meg

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So feeding corn the last couple of months will help with marbeling the beef? Can you achieve the same with cattle feed which has corn or do you feed straight shelled/cracked corn? I've heard some say to pen it up and feed it, anyone try it?

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If you feed primarily corn, you have to add something for protein as corn is poor in protein. I ground soybean meal into the corn, but there's lots of products out there for protein. They also have to have some hay. If you slowly bring them up on the corn, eventually they can "self-feed"...you give them all the corn mix they want and ration out the hay.

Jena

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Well, we raise Angus cattle. But the best beef we have ever had on our farm is Waygu. It's the American version of Japanese Kobe Beef. We went to Ohio probably over 10-12 years ago and met up with a fellow whom raised Waygu. We ended up buying a couple Waygu steers off of him, and he gave us several straws of Waygu semen. We normally put a steer on grain for approximately 90 to 120 days plus hay. Then butcher out. We have also tried grass fed only, no grain. Both ways were acceptable and good. We like the marbling for taste and tenderness that grain gives it. It's really whatever suits your fancy. Take Care.

I'm most likely going to stick with a standard breed, most likely a beef breed mix as that's what's readily, cost effectively, available locally to me. What grain, grains, feed exactly are you feeding? Is it your own mix that you mill or are you buying pre mixed grain?

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"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence"
Robert Frost

I'm sure everyone has their own way of finishing out their beefs. I think everyone has to do what is best for their own situation. We aren't real scientific about it, just use what we grow ourselves/have readily available.

In the Fall of each year, after they have spent a year on pasture, we take a couple of our Angus/Waygu steer, or how many we are going to feed out, and separate them from the rest. We put them in a barn, plus they can access an outside paddock. We grind up our own ration on an old Artsway grinder/mixer. We grow our own field corn, so we grind the ear corn up, add soybean meal for protein and trace minerals. The first few weeks, we add some dried molasses for palatability, then reduce the molasses, until none at all.

In the beginning, we generally feed enough of this ration that they can consume in about 20 minutes or so twice a day. They have all the hay given they want (free choice). We gradually increase the amount of grain given, while reducing the amount of hay. We just watch them, keeping the bowels tight. We most generally will feed them out for 120 days or so. Our's generally finish around 1200 lbs. or so. What we do may be right or wrong, but that's what we do.

We don't massage, but I have on occasion sang a Love Ballad to them!
Take care.

As an extension to Beemans question, I've always wondered how much if any the butchering process has to do with final quality of the meat cuts? For example I hear about "hanging" or "aging" the beef for X amount of time. Does this really improve the final product?

Yes it does effect the end result. By aging beef or any meat for that matter your doing 2 main things.
One of the main ones is drying out the extra water in the meat. As blood is mainly water if you take that water out your left with a stronger flavor. Just use a soup as a example, If you boil it for a while it will become stronger and stronger.
Also as the meat ages the tendons and such will become weaker, Resulting in a less tough meat.

I seen some place that way back when they would hang game birds up by their necks and when the body fell off it was time to eat them. I am not sure I would go that far but you see the point.

You can even age meat you buy at the store. Just put it in the fridge in something that the are can get into (not open but something with some holes in it) and let it sit for a few days. It will look bad but just cut off the bad looking spots and you left with some good eating.

We just put up one of the best steers ever -- he was a Holstein crosses, and was over 800# live weight at almost 8 months old. No kidding. Of course, he was drinking 15 gallons of goat milk a day!

It's like big veal -- incredibly tender and tasty.

Tracy

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Soldier Mountain Alpines
Southcentral Idaho
http://soldiermountainalpines.com

Walmart=Holstein meat, enjoy.

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TOPSIDE FARMS

So's just about any processed meat product, any restaurant steak in a steak dinner that costs less than about $20 (including the certified Angus ones), any marinated steaks, most ground beef, stew beef, and pot roasts.

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