My beef is tough!
- Thread starter GBov
- Start date
Yeah!!! I'm figuring this farm thing out!Royd Wood said:I agree CE so please come out from under the chairCESpeed said:I'm no expert by any means but i would thin that if you only have one or two cattle five acres should be plenty if it is mostly pasture.I'm positive I'll be corrected if I'm wrong.
Beekissed
Herd Master
I've only tasted grass fed beef once and these were very young steers....around 18 mo. It was possibly the worst meat I've ever tasted in my life for flavor and toughness. My other sister had some too and she agreed....it wasn't fit for human consumption. These were Highland cattle, I don't know if that had anything to do with it. The dog would barely eat the meat and he eats chicken poop.
I love deer meat and they are largely grass fed but I do know that right near and during hunting season these deer are consuming lots of mast, so this may make their meat better tasting and more tender.
If I had grass fed cattle I'd pen them a few weeks prior to processing and throw some grain in them....a few weeks of grains never hurt anyone, IMO.
I love deer meat and they are largely grass fed but I do know that right near and during hunting season these deer are consuming lots of mast, so this may make their meat better tasting and more tender.
If I had grass fed cattle I'd pen them a few weeks prior to processing and throw some grain in them....a few weeks of grains never hurt anyone, IMO.
Another factor could be a highly stressed animal before slaughter. That will destroy a good carcass.GBov said:As a stop gap between us getting our own calf to fatten up and not having any good beef - supermarket beef is nasty - I bought an 8th of a grass fed cow from a ranch the other side of the state. It has a nice flavor but OMG its like rubber bands
Having moved over here from Ireland where ALL cows are grass fed, I do know how to cook grass fed beef and its never been tough like that over there. So whats up with that? Why is Florida grass fed beef so tough that I am going to have to stew T-bone steaks?
#2 Buy Canadian grassfed. We know how to do it right!
SuburbanFarmChic
Overrun with beasties
Stress can be a big factor. We have friends that do beef and the one year a steer broke loose from the round up and ran around the pasture like an idiot for 20 min bellowing and pitching a general snit fit... well he may as well have been shoe leather. They ended up double grinding the WHOLE thing and using it to cut with venison for bologna. Nobody in the tri county area lacked for bologna that year.
Royd Wood
New Member
Here we go again - anytime grass fed beef is mentioned all the tough as leather / worst beef I've ever had posts turn up and I am aware there is some crap beef out there grass fed and grain fed.
We are a small full time strictly grass fed (mothers milk, grass and hay) beef and lamb operation and like anything else you have to have the right formula to make it work.
First thing is good pasture and hay otherwise you fail
Choose your breeds carefully - heritage breeds work well and we chose Galloway beef and Romney lamb
Patience is also part of this as the beef is prime at 28 months and lamb at 10 months
Our big problem here is trying to keep up with demand so it cant be that bad eh
We are a small full time strictly grass fed (mothers milk, grass and hay) beef and lamb operation and like anything else you have to have the right formula to make it work.
First thing is good pasture and hay otherwise you fail
Choose your breeds carefully - heritage breeds work well and we chose Galloway beef and Romney lamb
Patience is also part of this as the beef is prime at 28 months and lamb at 10 months
Our big problem here is trying to keep up with demand so it cant be that bad eh
boothcreek
Loving the herd life
We only keep our cows grassfed too and its the tender every time! Even our butcher has a good word to put in everytime when we get one back from cut and wrap.
We only keep dexters and they do great on grass only, and for a great finish we give them a couple flakes of alfalfa hay for the last month or so. Grain is only used here to get them from one pen to another lol
Good long aging is key, we insist on 20 days at least. Our butcher is good about aging, he judges the amount of time needed by the fat-cover on each animal.
We generally butcher ours around 20 months old, and always killed at home during feeding time in the middle of the herd, least stressful place there is(Which i think makes a huge difference).
Excercise is not a bad thing as long as it wasnt thru stress I think. we have 60 acres and at least once a day our herd has to gallop, buck and kick almost the entire lenght of it.
We only keep dexters and they do great on grass only, and for a great finish we give them a couple flakes of alfalfa hay for the last month or so. Grain is only used here to get them from one pen to another lol
Good long aging is key, we insist on 20 days at least. Our butcher is good about aging, he judges the amount of time needed by the fat-cover on each animal.
We generally butcher ours around 20 months old, and always killed at home during feeding time in the middle of the herd, least stressful place there is(Which i think makes a huge difference).
Excercise is not a bad thing as long as it wasnt thru stress I think. we have 60 acres and at least once a day our herd has to gallop, buck and kick almost the entire lenght of it.
SuburbanFarmChic
Overrun with beasties
Wasn't saying "grass fed = bad " was just saying that stress before butchering = toughest beef I've ever tried in my entire life. It was like beef gum, you could chew it and chew it and chew it. The other steers they did were fine. Only difference is he kicked up a ruckus for 20 min racing around and freaking out. I've had good and bad beef each type of finishing and I happen to prefer the way our guy up in PA does it. The beef we got last year was hands down the best beef I've ever had. We pick up this years order sometime in November or December and update this with this years flavor reviews.
animalfarm
Chillin' with the herd
I started selling my grass-fed beef last year.
Out of 15 customers, 2 hated the meat. In one case, they said it was so in-edible the dogs wouldn't eat it; it was like chewing wet rawhide. I asked if they still had it and could they bring me back the hamburgers they had cooked along with the uncooked meat. They did. We made up hamburgers from the meat they brought back and had a blind taste test with the neighbours between the customers cooking and our cooking. Everyone was grossed out by the ladies hamburgers. She had cut the meat with way too much filler (which she wouldn't identify) and cooked it half to death and it was every bit as bad as she claimed. Hamburgers made by us from the same meat were devoured with people taking meat home with them. I gave the old couple a refund, because the neighbours ened up eating most of their meat and I really believe they were not trying to pull a fast one. It was a problem with trying to make a dollar go further.
In the case of the 2nd customer, we had the meat processed at a butcher he really wanted. The butcher aged it 28 days instead of 21 which still should be ok. However, when we inspected the meat the customer received, we found that the butcher did not trim the aged edges off the steaks as he said there wasn't enough fat cap to remove and have the steaks look nice. So he basically delivered meat that was rancid around the edges and I get the PR for it. I truly dislike having to drop my beef off at a processor and not be allowed to see it again until I open the package. I do not think that an inspected facility is any guarantee at all of quality control but the public thinks it is and therefore my grass-fed beef takes a hit.
Grass-fed beef really does taste different from grain-fed beef. It has a much stronger beefier taste which some people find objectionable and I am ok with that. I never sell a side of beef to a new customer any more, I did learn an important lesson from the old couple, until they have tried both a hamburger and a steak first. I even sold a 4 yr. old cow with the caveat that a nice marinate should be used, and I have requests for more older cow, because the flavour is so good. Must, be because they went through 720 lbs in less then a year.
I am a bit of a purist though. If you finish your steer with some grain, I don't consider it grass-fed. It is grainfed. If a distinction isn't clearly made, customers will never know why they like one product more then another because it is falsely advertised. Both camps lose this way and, although I love my grass-fed beef, I wouldn't turn down a grain-fed steak from a reputable farm if they slapped it on my plate.
None of my customers have ever complained about toughness.
Out of 15 customers, 2 hated the meat. In one case, they said it was so in-edible the dogs wouldn't eat it; it was like chewing wet rawhide. I asked if they still had it and could they bring me back the hamburgers they had cooked along with the uncooked meat. They did. We made up hamburgers from the meat they brought back and had a blind taste test with the neighbours between the customers cooking and our cooking. Everyone was grossed out by the ladies hamburgers. She had cut the meat with way too much filler (which she wouldn't identify) and cooked it half to death and it was every bit as bad as she claimed. Hamburgers made by us from the same meat were devoured with people taking meat home with them. I gave the old couple a refund, because the neighbours ened up eating most of their meat and I really believe they were not trying to pull a fast one. It was a problem with trying to make a dollar go further.
In the case of the 2nd customer, we had the meat processed at a butcher he really wanted. The butcher aged it 28 days instead of 21 which still should be ok. However, when we inspected the meat the customer received, we found that the butcher did not trim the aged edges off the steaks as he said there wasn't enough fat cap to remove and have the steaks look nice. So he basically delivered meat that was rancid around the edges and I get the PR for it. I truly dislike having to drop my beef off at a processor and not be allowed to see it again until I open the package. I do not think that an inspected facility is any guarantee at all of quality control but the public thinks it is and therefore my grass-fed beef takes a hit.
Grass-fed beef really does taste different from grain-fed beef. It has a much stronger beefier taste which some people find objectionable and I am ok with that. I never sell a side of beef to a new customer any more, I did learn an important lesson from the old couple, until they have tried both a hamburger and a steak first. I even sold a 4 yr. old cow with the caveat that a nice marinate should be used, and I have requests for more older cow, because the flavour is so good. Must, be because they went through 720 lbs in less then a year.
I am a bit of a purist though. If you finish your steer with some grain, I don't consider it grass-fed. It is grainfed. If a distinction isn't clearly made, customers will never know why they like one product more then another because it is falsely advertised. Both camps lose this way and, although I love my grass-fed beef, I wouldn't turn down a grain-fed steak from a reputable farm if they slapped it on my plate.
None of my customers have ever complained about toughness.
SuburbanFarmChic
Overrun with beasties
So I think what we're all saying is.. Treat the animals right, cook it the right way and practice food safety and you'll probably end up with decent beef. L.
