A question for a dairy farmer

[MossRoad]

I'm bored tonight, so more interesting reading...

The Trend Towards Eating Dairy Cow Meat | FoodPrint

 

[MossRoad]

One more....

Dry-aged beef from 12-year-old cows a tender hit with high-end chefs - ABC News

 

[ultrarunner]

Tyrol Grey, Brown Swiss for dairy, Holstein Friesian for milk, Simmental, Fleckvieh and Pinzgauer originally for draft, milk and meat and now more for veal.

Did some checking to see what the extended family raises and came up with the above.

It would seem the choice is what's available locally that best suits the environment and end use...

Hard to imagine and alpine breed doing well in extreme heat...

My brother was raising Dexters... small and mostly look after themselves... also good around kids.

Dexter cattle - Wikipedia

 

[LouNY]

Meat from dairy cattle will never taste as good as meat from beef cattle at any age!

Now, if all you ever eat is meat from dairy cattle, then you won't know any better and your plan will work

Bull,
The meat from a holstein steer can taste as good as any angus steer

 

[Streetcar]

Bull,
The meat from a holstein steer can taste as good as any angus steer

Each breed has different flavor characteristics .had beef and dairy growing up, both were good eating

 

[EddieWalker]

As long as it tastes better then Walmart steak, I'll be a happy camper!!!

 

[Bearsixty7]

Bull,
The meat from a holstein steer can taste as good as any angus steer

"can" but rarely will! I have had both and very different to my palate. I'll take the beef cattle meat (I prefer Hereford or Angus, want to try Wagyu someday) and you can have all the holstein meat you want.

Each breed has different flavor characteristics .had beef and dairy growing up, both were good eating

I'd agree with the first part. However, Herford and Angus were the best to me consistently. Simmental, Charolais, Limousine were good but not as good. Holstein below them.

 

[aczlan]

Small farms have been disappearing because it's too hard to pay the bills on a small scale farm.
Property taxes are out of control nearly every where nationwide, Feed prices are double or triple, fuel prices to operate up 3-4x (I remember 60-70cent/gallon gas), medical and insurance is 5-8x higher if they even have any.

A gallon of milk back in the 70's was under $2. Today, 50 years later, you can still get milk for around $2 a gallon some places but much is closer to $3-4 gallon and most of that increase in price goes to the dairy that collects and distributes the milk and to the stores that sell it. Dairy farms barely see a 50 cent per gallon increase in 50 years. Do the math. No one today wants to work so hard for so little pay.

Exactly, around here the only dairy farms that are still around are those who are big enough to raise all their own feed except for minerals and other suppliments.

Interesting article Eddie on the Waldo Farm - it's takes a quality product, marketing and then the organic/fresh/raw momentum helps make it successful.

Your thought on getting several calves is a good idea for your own meat, but you would be better off with an Angus/Charolais cross or Herford calf/steer as they yield a more meat (15-20% more typical) than the Holstein / dairy cows or steers as dairy cows/steers have a very large bone frame which is good to produce milk but less so for beef.

If you are going to feed something for two years assuming 60-70% grass fed, then rest in purchased grain and hay you want to maximize the yield and also if you plan to trade/barter the angus or simllar beef is a better choice.

Exactly. We raised a Holstine to 36 months and there was a lot of cow, but not a lot of meat that came off of it (lots of bone)
We have had 4 Angus/Hereford crosses go to the butcher at 18 months and one cow go at about 4 years. All have had a much better bone to meat ratio (which is important as the butcher charges by the pound hanging weight (carcass dressed out and ready to cut up), not by the weight of the cuts of meat that you end up with).
The other difference was that the Holstine was lean (to the point where the butcher had to add fat to the ground beef) whereas the Angus/Herford crosses have not had that problem and have had much better flavor for the steaks and other meat.

Aaron Z