Raise Grass-Fed Beef

Image Gallery Properly pastured, grass-fed cattle can yield up to 200 pounds more meat—with less fat and at less cost-than commercial, grainfed beef . . . and your steaks will be a lot tastier, too

Every year, North Americans waste more than 18 million tons of protein by feeding livestock on grain. A steer, you see, must eat 21 pounds of grain protein in order to produce one pound of beef protein . . . so 20 pounds of the valuable nutrient is lost in the process.

It is commonly assumed, of course, that grain-fed beef is the world's best . . . and if you've ever wrestled with a chunk of elderly range cow, you may agree. However, the "fossil" you tasted then wasn't typical of real grass-fed beef, because such meat can be as tender as any touted commercial cut . . . and much tastier, as well.

So if your land produces hay—or if your climate is such that you can keep cattle on pasture for a good part of the year—you can save money by growing your own feed. Furthermore, even if you have to buy your supply of hay, you'll find such feed to be much less expensive than grain and a better nutritional buy than most folks realize: Average-to-good hay is more than half digestible nutrients, while grains—despite their high prices—are only about 80% digestible.

PRODUCTION-LINE CATTLE

When you consider all the advantages of grass-feeding, you'd think there'd be more livestock raised in such a manner . . . but beef is big business, and commercial cattle operations are huge and streamlined. Young steers are weaned early and sent to large feedlots to fatten quickly on grain. Some such "cow factories" hold more than 10,000 animals, yet they don't require much area, as compared to the amount of land needed by even a modest number of grazing cattle. Thus, the feedlot owner's investment and taxes are lower than those of a farmer who pastures his or her beasts.

Then, too, when nobody pays much attention to individual animals (as is the case in feedlots), a grain diet produces a more uniform meat product . . . especially when it's backed by hormone shots to increase the beasts' appetites. Consequently, enormous feedlots supply the gigantic packing plants, and the assembly-line steaks just keep moving right along.

But families who raise their own beef don't need such super-efficiency, and they can use the extra 200 to 300 pounds of meat usually found on an animal that's fleshed out naturally . . . particularly when that extra weight is meat, as opposed to feedlot fat.

My husband and I have raised Hereford and Angus cattle on grass for six years now, and our old-time rancher neighbors in Alberta., Canada—which is famous for its cattle—started us off in our endeavor by providing us with the answers to three key questions: How is grass-fed beef different from feedlot meat?

What is the best way to manage pasture and winter feeding? And how should carcasses be treated if they're to produce the most tender meat? The methods we learned from our friends certainly seem to work, because our customers always reorder, and they usually accompany their requests with comments about our homegrown meat's "real beef flavor".