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[William Russell <woodmanrussell AT gmail.com>]

Grass or Corn makes no difference, the animal has to start
depositing intramuscular fat in order for it to become more tender& higher
grade. I have told my beef customers, since the 80's that a young beef is
like a teenager, they build body first then start to put on the fat that
the meat inspector/grader looks for.After raising at least 5 different
breeds & finishing some on grain & some on grass, they can all be tender if
finished properly . My last breed has been the Scot Hilander breed & they
have been the best. They were raised totally on 10 year old Alfalfa fields,
intensive rotational grazed, which I believe  is the only way to raise
cattle that will preform at their best. Those cattle finished out at 1000#
live weight & about 1/2'" of back fat. Also I have my meat hung for 12 days
in the cooler at the slaughter house before finishing, which has been shown
to be the optimum time for enzyme breakdown of tissue. My customers & my
wife have raved about how good this meat is & that it really turns out
(fork tender)!!


On Fri, Jan 4, 2013 at 1:53 PM, <lurine AT com-pair.net> wrote:

> Depends on your grass.  Back in the day, when we had our butcher
> shop, our steers grade choice straight off grass.  We seeded orchard
> grass, perrenial rye, wild oat, bur clover and another grass I don't
> remember.  Now, they were dairy calves but the guy used Hereford
> bulls.  We also ran some Holstein cows and had our own horned
> Hereford bull (Sir Redwood Reginald III, where do people get these
> names <g>).
>
> We sold almost all the steers out of our butcher shop (cut out the
> middle man) but would occasionally sell one privately.  I always
> required 50% upfront with no refunds, so the non-serious or inclined
> to change their minds folks didn't even bother.
>
> Lynda
>
> ---- Original Message ----
> From: franksfarm AT aol.com
>
> >Re Grass Fed Beef
> >
> >Hi Rob:)
> >
> >That's one of the real dangers: Customers canceling at last minute!
> >Happened to me ,too, and I had little room in my freezer. Several
> >hundred lbs of beef take up a lot of space.
> >
> >Folks don't realize just how long, and how much you have in that
> >beef.
> >
> >You need to educate your customers, and get FIRM, non cancelable
> >orders.
> >
> >Even at $3.25 margins are not that great. With bottle calves you do
> >have much lower costs than most grass fed beef producers.
> >
> >Also from my experience grass fed beef needs to be cooked more
> >slowly, and with moisture -else it seems a bit tougher. My Angus
> >cattle tend to be in Yield Grade # 1 because they are so lean. So
> >it's healthier for you.
> >
> >I'm hoping to sell directly to a larger outfit at a premium price
> >since it's hard to scale up in a rural area. Selling a handful of
> >animals a year is not much of a business. Frank in KY -----Original
>
>
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