Questions on an old "rule of thumb"

[bigtiller]

An old saying around here is; a cow and a calf to an acre and a half.

 

[brin]

" Rule Of Thumb " The saying originated centuries ago in England...The law allowed men to beat their wives with a stick no larger than their thumb....hence...Rule of Thumb was born...I just read that his morning...You all can thank me later...

 

[dmccarty]

Just for the record...I ate grass fed beef once. I could have saved some money by buying cardboard and shaping them into steaks...the flavor would have been the same. Flavor in beef comes from fat...you don't have to eat it but I think you need it to cook it (most people I know don't want to touch it but can't help eating "a little bit" when the hot steak hits the plate).

I've tried it a few times, and the taste was good, but the tenderness wasn't there at all.. When you have to chew a bite of filet mignon a hundred times it leaves a little to be desired... My gramps used to put a steer in the pen inside the barn for the last 60 days or so of it's life and fatten it up on corn.. THAT was good beef !!

When grass fed beef first came into our market I did a taste test. :licking::laughing: I bought corn and grass fed beef from the same store that sells really good meat and seafood. I picked steaks that looked the same, i.e., had similar marbling, weighed about the same, and were the same cut of meat. I cut up the steaks so I could cook them at the same time and have a meal that contained both types. The grass fed steak did have a subtle difference in taste and was just as tender as the corn fed meat. I repeated this test a few times and always got the same result.

Supposedly, grass fed meat is much better for you than corn fed due to the balance in Omega 3 and 6, but grass fed is more expensive.

I liked the grass fed meat but the wifey eats very little meat and then only pork. I will eat red meat steak, at most, a few times a year, so the health issue and expense is not an issue. The last steak I had was bought from a local rancher a few years ago and it was the best steak I have ever eaten. Twas expensive but twas excellent. From the marbling, I would guess it was prime. I had a long talk with the woman selling the meat but I did not think, DUH, to ask if the cattle had been fattened on corn or not.

Later,
Dan

 

[SPIKER]

Grass and Grain fed both are good but the real difference comes in when grass fed is pasture raised where they can move about and run around basically are more lean and tougher because of it.

The grass fed is a bit better for you with above reasons when out in pasture as less fat develops in them. again not as tasty as the FAT is what makes the marbling soo good tasting

I have heard the acre & half for cow and calf in past as well as the rule of thumb for stick on the woman... If you are feeding grains and hay from outside the pasture the space can be less however.

Mark

 

[teejk]

My experience with grass-fed was a long time ago so maybe the flavor is better now. Kansas City used to (and I think still does) have the big "feed lots" where the steers were "finished" on a high corn diet (heart of the corn belt so probably cheaper). Rumor has it that they keep the best beef for themselves (their steak houses are known around the world) and shipped the rest to other locations like the NY steak houses. As for the health benefits??? Steak is not a weekly treat for us (we have moved to mostly chicken, pork and fish) so I don't care!!! Further to that, I have lived through the egg scare, the butter scare, the salt scare and lately a whole bunch of other scares that have convinced me to ignore the scares and do what my mom told me decades ago...balanced diet with a little bit of everything (emphasis on the little).

 

[kenmac]

when I was a kid. My dad bought a cow and put it out in my uncle's farm. It ate nothing but grass in the pasture. When it was killed for us to eat , it was the toughest meat I had ever eaten. My uncle left his in the pasture, but before it was killed (can't remember for how long) he put it up and fed it corn and the meat was tender. I've always heard, before you kill the cow , put it up and feed it corn

 

[powerpace]

The meat will taste similar to what the animal is eating. A cow that eats wild onions or other aromatics will produce milk that is unaccepatable at the processing plant. A steer that is kept in a enclosed area that is constantly muddy and smells will have a different taste than a steer kept on clean pasture.
I raise steers for my friends consumption, grass and hay that comes from a field that has no aromatics. Mint and wild onion is a big problem in this area.
Grass fed with no antibiotics or hormones take longer to feed out and that is part of the extra cost to the consumer.
We have a farm kill butcher come when it's time for processing. More than once he has told me that the meat will be tender just by the feel of the partial processing done at the farm. We let the meat hang as long as possible for aging. Meat sold commercially will not age properly before being cut and sold to the public. A thirty day age as opposed to cut and freeze is uncomparable; grass or grain fed.
We have a waiting list of customers.
As far as the "rule of thumb" selling two makes the other nearly free. It depends if you are buying your calves or breeding your own. Raising your own feed or buying. Disease and vector control costs. Then there is always the unexpected loss of a animal.