Grass fed Holstein for beef?

So your opinion is based on experience with just one cow?

We've raised totally grass fed holstien steers for slaughter and they've been fine. Really like Jersey and Dexter more, they seem to finish on grass a little better.

Our tastes change according to what we're used to eating. I can't eat feedlot beef now, what used to seem like tenderness now just seems to be extreme greasiness, which I guess is really what it is. Blech.

My husband grew up on a dairy farm where they first raised Jersy's, then Guernesy's and in the 1970's switched to Holstiens. Bulls were casterated young and raised for meat.

Here in Nova Scotia all animals are mostly grass raised because we have really good pasture land.Wintered animals eat haylage or hay.I don't know any farms that feed mainly corn silage but I am sure there must be in other parts of the province..

I have had Holstien meat and found it no different than any other beef except it was less fatty. That said, we didn't barbeque but used it for roasts, steaks etc.. We have found with either cows or goats what the animals eats and how it is finished before slaughter both affect the tenderness and flavor of the meat.

We have had both young and old beef which were tender. Age or gender didn't seem to make a difference.Same with the goats and deer that feed here. Neighbors who kill deer that fed on our farm gave us some meat to try. It tasted very much like our goat meat.

Animals, deer, goats or cows fed grass in fields that are kept up makes for good tasting meat. Pastures that are let go might not produce the same quality meat.

Just to underline what others have said, the Holstein is a dairy breed, and will not marble much if at all on grass. Marbling is where the juiciness and tenderness and flavor come in when cooked.
If you like your meat well done, you are likely going to need strong jaw muscles for steaks and prime cuts!
You can mitigate this by getting your butcher to hang the carcass as long as he is willing to hang it - 2 weeks is good. This gives the muscle fibers time to relax. Yes, he should be able to cube it or tenderize at least some of the cuts for you, definitely talk to him about that. See if he is able to take a good look at your beef and advise you after noting fat cover, etc if you should try some steaks or have most of it ground, etc. He may be willing to do that.

The trick to cooking grass finished beef and not turning it to shoe leather is LOW and SLOW. DON'T put it on a very hot grill, like you might do with a thick, tender steak. If you grill, make a cooler fire. Cook it indirectly if possible. Other cooking techniques that include liquid are good, like stews, braising, etc.

Not only is there less fat in grass finished, but the fat itself is different, contains healthier compounds in it than corn fed beef. It will taste different. Not bad, just different. Personally, I was raised eating corn fed beef, and I still like it and prefer it to grass finished. But if you are essentially getting a free beef, you may be willing to put up with some inconveniences for a years' worth of meat in the freezer.

8 percent of beef in the U.S. market comes from dairy breeds, either bull calves raised to slaughter or worn-out dairy cows.

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But virtually none of that beef in supermarkets is actually "grass finished", which his steer is. Any grain or silage in the diet changes the quality of the meat and fat. Grass fed is one thing - grass finished is entirely different. One means the cow ate grass during it's life. The other means it finished on grass, with no grain at all. Grass fed beef producers will tell you that even a few weeks on grain at the end of an animal's life will substantially change the amount of fat and marbling in the carcass.

When the butcher hangs the carcass, make sure it is "tender hooked". This means the hooks are put through a specific place on the legs, stretching the muscles properly. Most butchers only use a tender hook, but make sure. You can google tender hook. Also, you have to cook differently, as others have said. Although I have grilled steaks that were fantastic. Cook your roasts with moist heat.

Whether a steer is grown on grass or grain is dependent upon what is cheaper. Where I live, it is cheaper to feed corn than to feed hay, hence most farmers feed corn. In fact, my neighbor feeds only corn and his Holstein steers are huge.

What's all this talk about health and leaness? It may kill me before I live to a ripe old age, but I prefer any steak I'm eating to have a big ol' ring of fat wrapped around it! Seems to give it a juicer taste! Lol......

If I wanted lean I'd go to the WM store and buy some of their brand beef jerky. Add water to rehydrate and wallah! Shoe leather already cooked!

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Maybe you should try again? We routinely grill grass-fed beef steaks and have never found them to be tough unless they are overcooked.

I'm not a relapsed vegetarian; but sure am happy to have the option of grass-fed beef v. feed lot beef. Talk about inedible.

Wayne, my opinion is that it just needs to hang a while and it will be fine. Pan fry it or grill it...whatever you like. You can always try a few different ways of cooking and see how you like it best.
Trisha

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I talked with the butcher and he said there is no problem hanging it for 14 days but he will not go beyond 14 days. He usually hangs the beef for 10 days. I don't know how much difference 4 days will make.

One other thing that came up during the discussion. This is a multi-animal order and on one of the animals we are going to have him cut and wrap only the best steaks and roasts, then cut the balance into 1" chunks for us to can. He said there will be some left over material that by itself is not suitable for ground beef. Said there were three options for this material: mix it in with the ground beef from one or more of the other 3 animals, grind it into pet food, or discard it. I told him I was leary about mixing it in with the other ground beef as most of the people were very happy with the ground beef from the previous run and don't want any fat added to their animal from this run. He said he could not tell how much if any fat content the material would add until he gets into the animals.

How does it work when made into pet food? Does it come in packages just like ground beef? Do any of you use this for pet food? I assume mostly for dog food? In our case our dog is on a strict low-fat diet so I doubt we would use any of it but everybody else in the family has one or more dogs that would probably like it.

Did you offer to pay them extra to hang for an additional week?

I finally found of a used paperback copy of Jean Auel's book The Shelters of Stone, 4th in her Earth Children series with Ayla. Now I realize it is all fiction, even if based on extensive research. Mentions the groups moving from their winter cliff side dwellings to summer camp. Meat obtained there was stored by digging down to permafrost and then insulation above it. Book said some people liked it fresh, some aged and some even gamey. Now I suspect back then you likely had lost most of your teeth in your 30s, so perhaps being a bit spoiled may have made it more gum-able.

Saw one program which implied that is how pulled pork came to be. Those in the Colonial Era had bad teeth and thus had to have the pork cooked until it fell off the bone and apart.

Grass-fed beef (and the milk of grass-fed dairy cows) will have more conjugated linoliec acid (CLA).

Here is some interesting information on that:

http://www.eatwild.com/cla.html

Yes I did. He will not go beyond 14 days as a matter of policy, saying that after two weeks the accelerated degradation of the beef, the bacteria and such has the potential to put the other customers beef in his locker at risk.

Four days in the aging will make a lot of difference. Honestly, 14 days is the absolute minimum I would want my beef aged.... 21 days is about right -- longer if possible.

HOWEVER, if the deal is that the price is only what it costs to cut and wrap, and the abattoir is only willing to hang it for a short period, don't be picky. Grass fed beef is gorgeous, SO LONG as it's a young animal. Grass fed and older than 24 months, I'd probably grind the whole darned thing into mince, because it would be tougher than shoe leather.

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Yes, looks like the healthy way to go. We will have to experiment with different cooking methods.

Do not let them mix an offal into the ground beef. Heart, liver, kidneys, are only safe eaten very fresh. I would expect 2 year old holstein to be good for little but hamburger....

When I would visit my mother a dish I typically asked for once or twice a year was liver and onions. I was reading Storeis and Recipes of the Great Depression of the 1930s by Rita Van Amber and one contributor noted marinating the liver in milk took away much of the iodine taste.

One thing to be prepared for that I have not seen mentioned yet is dress out percentage...our experience is your holstein steer will dress out lighter for two reasons:

1. Holsteins have a larger bone mass than beef breeds
2. Grass Fed lends itself to lower dress out percentages due to the low fat content.

The veteran cattlemen know this, but thought I better bring it up since it sounds like you have not grass fed a calf before.

We grass feed the animal throughout its entire life with about a pound of corn per day for the last 60 days or so.

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Pet food made from the parts that aren't suitable for you, can easily be canned as well. In my experience, any meat that is pressure canned turns out incredibly good, very tender and with good flavor. Depending on how many pounds of this cubed meat you will be getting, would govern what size package it should come in.

I am thinking that a wide mouth pint jar holds about three quarters of a pound? Maybe two pounds plus in a quart? Not sure, but someone here probably has the answer.

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