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Grass Fed Allows Some to Bypass Packer System

Econ101

Well-known member
Alabama star shares unique cow herd approach



By Mark Parker

Farm Talk (Parsons, Kan.)

November 1, 2006

via The Norman Transcript



PIERCE CITY, Mo. — The song Teddy Gentry is singing these days may never make it to the top of the country music charts but it was a big hit in Pierce City, Mo.



That’s where the bass player and songwriter from the legendary band Alabama spoke recently, sharing his experiences as a cattleman and doing a little crusading for grass-fed beef and the family farm.



Speaking at a customer appreciation dinner sponsored by Main Street Feeds and Joplin Regional Stockyards, Gentry provided a look at a progressive and unique cattle operation.



Bent Tree Farms began in 1980 as a hobby on his grandfather’s farm, said the Country Music Hall of Fame musician. Gentry’s passion for the industry, however, quickly led to a quest to develop a breed of cattle adapted to the hot and humid conditions of Fort Payne, Ala.



“Cattle have to be adapted to their environment first,” Gentry told the crowd. “That’s where you have to start.”



By the mid-’80s, Gentry was selecting cattle genetically adapted to thrive on grass and by the end of the decade he began putting together breeds of maternal-oriented Bos Taurus cattle to form a new composite breed.



In 1990, by crossing F1 Barzona-Polled Herefords with F1 Red Angus-Senepols, the South Poll breed was born.



In addition to producing slick-haired cattle capable of thriving in the Southeast, Gentry set his sights on moderate to small frame cows that were easy keepers, highly fertile and offered good longevity.



Gentry stressed that Bent Tree is data driven. His preference for cows with a frame score of about 2.5 and weighing 1,000 pounds comes from research indicating that he can run more cows and produce more beef per acre than he could with larger cows.



Additionally, he said, research shows that reproductive efficiency and longevity can decrease as cows become larger.



Gentry has mountains of data to back up his management choices.



With the help of analysis from Mississippi State University as well as other land grant colleges and private beef genetic firms, Bent Tree Farms has a reputation for having one of the most complete ranch data sets.



Gentry’s cattle primarily graze fescue-clover pastures, moving onto crabgrass for the hot summer months. He advocates a minimum of supplemental feed and pharmaceutical use, explaining that animals well adapted to their environment require less of each.



Highly efficient cattle utilizing forage resources leads to another Gentry passion - grass-fed beef. With the establishment of Burt’s Beef - named for Gentry’s grandfather - Bent Tree Farms is now marketing its own brand of grass-finished beef.



That, too, Gentry said, requires a certain type of beef animal. Selecting for the ability to produce tender beef has been another criterion in the development of South Poll cattle.



Today, with the help of a network of cooperators, Burt’s Beef is widely distributed and with the recent addition of 3,000 Tree of Life natural food stores as distributors, the company is taking a giant step into the marketplace.



Gentry feels strongly about the superiority of grass-fed beef. Grass-fed beef has up to 10 times the level of Omega-3 when compared with grain fed beef, he said. Diets rich in Omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to help reduce the risk of heart disease.



Meat from Burt's Beef cattle is sent to Iowa State University to have the nutrients and fatty acids evaluated. In addition to Omega-3 fatty acids, grass-finished beef contains higher levels of Conjugated Linoleic Acid, beta-carotene and vitamin A, Gentry said.



“You can have beef that is good tasting and good for you,” he said.



Currently, grass-fed beef represents only about 1 percent of the beef consumed in the United States. That fact, coupled with increasing consumer demand, paints a promising picture for the niche market, Gentry said.



It is also a way for family farmers to claim a bigger share of the value of the beef they produce, he said.



Gentry firmly believes in value-added activities. Whether it’s free-range chickens, which he also produces, or direct-marketed crops, adding value to farm products offers a means of preserving small, family-based agriculture, he said.





Mark Parker writes for Farm Talk in Parsons, Kan.



normantranscript.com
 

PORKER

Well-known member
Zogby defines the new American consumer (Wednesday, October 18, 2006)


There is an emerging American consumer, according to pollster John Zogby, and their changing outlook on the world and their place in it will have lasting implications for cattlemen.

Speaking at a joint meeting of Texas’ two major cattle organizations, Zogby told cattlemen that consumers are going through a fundamental reorientation of the American character, “which is moving away from our traditional definition as a people of plenty and toward a new American consumer who is living in a world of limited resources.” Zogby, CEO of the polling firm Zogby International, spoke to members of the Texas Cattle Feeders Association at their annual convention in Amarillo and the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association attending their fall board and committee meetings.

Zogby detailed four major consumer groups that emerged from his extensive research of Americans. “The first group is the new American spiritualists,” he told cattlemen. “They are 46-48% of us.” These people identify the American dream in spiritual rather than material terms.

However, Zogby told cattlemen not to define “spiritualist” in religious terms, but rather in how this group defines their lives. “They are defining their spiritual lives more in terms of personal fulfillment,” he said. “Interestingly, material acquisition means less and less to this group.”

Instead, they are defining success more in terms of self-actualization, such as doing volunteer work after retirement, and redefining their priorities more in terms of fulfilling modest goals for themselves and their lives.

The second group Zogby found are those he calls the new investor class, which are 52-54% of Americans who have some form of stock market investment. “That not only includes those who make six figures and beyond, but it also includes those of modest means and modest salaries.”

These people also have modest goals. “Members of this new investor class say I’m not dreaming of the second house, the exotic vacation, the big boat. Rather, I want to be out of debt, I want to be able to put my kids through school and I want to live my live in retirement as comfortably as I’m living my life now. That is a whole new set of expectations in American life.”

The third group is what he calls frequent Wal-Mart shoppers. He points out that Wal-Mart has risen above a level of just being a retail store. “Wal-Mart is a religion. It is a set of cultural and traditional values.” Wal-Mart shoppers, he said, are people who live within modest means and who want to have an enjoyable life. Like the new investors, they are generally conservative in their political leanings and have modest expectations and modest goals.

The fourth group he identified is what he calls the working-for-less Americans. “Twenty-seven percent of American adults today work at a job that pays less than a previous job they had,” he said. “That has tremendous implications for Americans in their outlook, tremendous implications for Americans in how they spend, tremendous implications for how Americans define their lives.”

The common thread in all these groups, he told TCFA and TSCRA members, is a tendency away from the big dream and a tendency toward affordable and simple pleasures.

“These are people who are in the process of redefining their lives. These are people who place a special emphasis on the simple pleasures like dining out once or twice a week. And since 9-11, these are people who place a greater value than at any other time in the past two decades on the family meal.”
 

RobertMac

Well-known member
Teddy is a good spokesman for grassfed...and Grandpa Burt's farm is a beautiful place.

Teddy said:
“Cattle have to be adapted to their environment first,” Gentry told the crowd. “That’s where you have to start.”

Everyone should really think long and hard about this. The decline in Prime and Choice and inconsistencies in beef go straight to this. Cattle are produced over such varied environments that adaptation of the cow herd to their particular environment is the only thing that can be consistent...and therefore produce consistent beef. As Kit says...quality has to be bred in, not fed in! Example...the past two years for me have been very tough grazing because of drought. This was reflected in carcass weights being 200-300 pounds lighter than normal...but every customer has remarked about how tender the beef is and that it has more fat(which they understand to be a good thing)! My half brother bought a Prime steak from a steak shop and complained that it was tougher than my grassfed steaks...and he isn't a big fan of my steaks!

One word about the 'new American consumer'...The vast majority of my customers are young, Christian conservatives that worry about what they are feeding their children!
 
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