• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Grass finished steer.

H

hillsdown

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 5, 2007
Messages
1,669
Location
Central Alberta,Canada
I had posted about this earlier and thought I would update. I picked the steer up on Thursday. Finally got a chance to try the meat, we wanted to BBQ but with this weather ,no can do, so I did a sirloin tip roast.

The meat is fabulous ,a little leaner, but well marbled and very very tender. Also very flavorful, if I am in the same situation again in the future I will not hesitate to do it the same way..

I will let you know how the rib steaks are when the weather lets up.. :D

I am not switching over from grain fed , but grass fed is very good too. Which means beef is fabulous no matter which way you choose to finish them.. :wink:
 
i'm glad to hear you are satisified with your beef. :D i picked up our grass finished steer from the locker a couple weeks ago.......pretty good stuff :D
 
To me, the key word is FINISHED! :D Grain or grass, where folks get sideways is when the beef isn't finished or over finished. I get a kick out of a local classified ad website. People from town with 1 acre are selling "fat beef" for sale and claiming the calf is "ready" at 600 pounds! :o If that works for them, who am I to correct them, but a moderate framed calf on my place finished weighs around 1050. I just took in a big steer that weighed 693 on the rail. That is more carcass weight than the town beef weighed live! And over finished is just lots of fat and waste to cut off. Glad your roast was tasty Hillsdown! :D
 
The beef I took in last month should be ready to pick up. The steer was about 1600 lbs at 30 months of age off grass. Gotta finish cleaning out my deep freeze and do some defrosting before I bring him home. :wink:
 
Our purebred Galloways will finish anywhere from 1000-1200lbs off grass, between 22-26 months of age. Galloway sired out of our cross bred cows (Angus x Tarentaise x Shorthorn) will go 1200 and up. The carcasses vary like the weights of course, but the key for us is trying to get a live weight before we take them in, so we can track carcass yields and identify the higher cutting bloodlines.

As for meat quality, like Leanin H said, if they're finished, there's never a problem with the meat. Especially if you're grass finishing on high energy pasture, with a diverse mix, including legumes or even annuals.
 
I took two open young cows that ran dry all summer, one was four and one was five years old, to the sale last week. They were sold together weighing 3200 pounds, averaging 1600 pounds each. One would probably have weighed 1700 and the other 1500. I told the buyer these were as close to finished grass cattle as I knew how to make. His plan was to take them to the Hot Springs, SD feedlot and feed them corn for another 60-90 days. It is unclear in my mind how these cows could possibly become any fatter, but he assured me they would at least be tastier. They brought 47 cents per pound, which was $752 each.
 
His hanging weight was 852 and he was 25 months old. I didn't throw him on the scale beofre he left as it was just for us.

I think we will be good for beef now for at least a couple of years .. :lol:
 
H, he was a Holstein. He actually did pretty good for us. I got him free from the neighbors when he was 1 week old to graft on a cow whose calf was born still, the cow got very sick two months later and had to be put down. The calf wouldn't take a bottle so he was weened at two months old .
 
Soapweed said:
I took two open young cows that ran dry all summer, one was four and one was five years old, to the sale last week. They were sold together weighing 3200 pounds, averaging 1600 pounds each. One would probably have weighed 1700 and the other 1500. I told the buyer these were as close to finished grass cattle as I knew how to make. His plan was to take them to the Hot Springs, SD feedlot and feed them corn for another 60-90 days. It is unclear in my mind how these cows could possibly become any fatter, but he assured me they would at least be tastier. They brought 47 cents per pound, which was $752 each.
Click to expand...

While at the sale barn the other day selling our yrlg steers and cull cows, there happened through the sale ring a large pair of steers. They looked to be finished, and they averaged I think about 1500 lbs. They looked quite delicious actually, despite the fact that one was Hereford and one was Black Angus :lol:
Anyway, because they did not show up with their birth certificates the buyers got to steal them for 42 cents per pound with the excuse that these animals were too close to 30 months of age to take a chance on :?
So in light of that, 47 cents for your cows is really quite fantastic.
 
Silver said:
Soapweed said:
I took two open young cows that ran dry all summer, one was four and one was five years old, to the sale last week. They were sold together weighing 3200 pounds, averaging 1600 pounds each. One would probably have weighed 1700 and the other 1500. I told the buyer these were as close to finished grass cattle as I knew how to make. His plan was to take them to the Hot Springs, SD feedlot and feed them corn for another 60-90 days. It is unclear in my mind how these cows could possibly become any fatter, but he assured me they would at least be tastier. They brought 47 cents per pound, which was $752 each.
Click to expand...

While at the sale barn the other day selling our yrlg steers and cull cows, there happened through the sale ring a large pair of steers. They looked to be finished, and they averaged I think about 1500 lbs. They looked quite delicious actually, despite the fact that one was Hereford and one was Black Angus :lol:
Anyway, because they did not show up with their birth certificates the buyers got to steal them for 42 cents per pound with the excuse that these animals were too close to 30 months of age to take a chance on :?
So in light of that, 47 cents for your cows is really quite fantastic.
Click to expand...

Birth certificates or not they will find a way to steal them. With our mandatory age verification now in Alberta the packers are still allowed to use dentition to trump the age certificate. What an absolute travesty after making producers age verify. It's a handy way for the packer to steal a few more animals out of every load. :mad: Folks we need to be protesting this stuff - it is criminal.
 
I brought a load to the USDA inspected slaughterhouse recently, I guess the birth date doesn't matter anymore, they're looking at the teeth.
 
One of my favorite 4 year olds came up open this spring ( tested pregnant last fall ) and I was sure she would bring next to nothing at the sale barn so I had her butchered.

Angus, very gentle, in very good flesh ( not to fat ) went across the scales at 1460#.

Came back with the ground beef being slightly lean but good and the steaks and roasts are great. She will feed my family for quite a while. I would have loved to keep her around for several more years but around here everything must pull their own weight ( if I slow down the wife would re-place me in about 30 seconds.)

Grass fed can be good - - - it just takes a little longer to get to the same level of finish.
 
An old drunk in Nebraska told me 'Time is time-money is money-I ain't got enough of both and love is bulls...t' not the most positive guy I evrer talked to lol.
 
Ben H said:
I brought a load to the USDA inspected slaughterhouse recently, I guess the birth date doesn't matter anymore, they're looking at the teeth.
Click to expand...

Here ,at the time of slaughter, even with a an age verification cert or a registration cert, the inspector still looks at the teeth. If they think the animal looks over 30 months regardless of the age on the certs they will still mark the carcass with a long red marker down the spine to ensure that all SRM is removed.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top