grass fed beef, lamb, freezers

[randy41]

The guy who sells next to me at the farmers market sells grass fed beef....no grain. So we are thinking of buying a whole quarter to freeze. My wife has a coworker who raises grass fed lamb and we are also thinking about getting a half a lamb. What does everyone think about grass fed meat? The beef I've tried from my market neighbor has been very good.
And this leads me to the next area of consideration, that being purchasing a freezer. We have an older upright freezer from back in the days when we raised some broilers that I think would be expensive to operate due to its energy consumption. So we are thinking of getting a new chest freezer. Any one know what size would be suitable to hold 100 lbs of beef and maybe 25 lbs of lamb? Maybe we should get a bigger one to hold some range raised chicken too.
And brand recommendations are encouraged.

 

[tallyho8]

A small chest freezer about 10 cf can hold about 200 pounds of meat. For economy, do not get one that is frost free as they use about 3 times as much electricity and you only need to defrost one about once a year or so. As far as brands go, almost all of them are made in Asia now and they put whatever label on them that the distributor wants. You could buy 2 of them the same year from the same store with the same brand name and they could be made in different countries by different manufacturers so it is impossible to recommend a specific brand nowadays.

 

[Willl]

What does everyone think about grass fed meat?

What do you mean ?, what the heck ya been eating ?

 

[randy41]

What do you mean ?, what the heck ya been eating ?

corn fed. you?

 

[mjarrels]

Many years ago, we would recieve half a dairy cow each year as part of the pasture rent deal... alway hit or miss on the meat quality.

mark

 

[Willl]

corn fed. you?

Safeway.

 

[randy41]

Safeway.

?????

 

[Willl]

http://shop.safeway.com/

It's a major northwest grocery chain.


Question on "grain fed beef", is that all they eat ?, or just a portion of it is grain ?

 

[rox]

The guy who sells next to me at the farmers market sells grass fed beef....no grain. So we are thinking of buying a whole quarter to freeze. My wife has a coworker who raises grass fed lamb and we are also thinking about getting a half a lamb. What does everyone think about grass fed meat? The beef I've tried from my market neighbor has been very good.
And this leads me to the next area of consideration, that being purchasing a freezer. We have an older upright freezer from back in the days when we raised some broilers that I think would be expensive to operate due to its energy consumption. So we are thinking of getting a new chest freezer. Any one know what size would be suitable to hold 100 lbs of beef and maybe 25 lbs of lamb? Maybe we should get a bigger one to hold some range raised chicken too.
And brand recommendations are encouraged.

I'm sorry that I can't help you with yoru questions but I cna provide another point which may be of interest. My hsuband being a chef and buying and cooking meats for 30+ years was told that cows/beef always sleep/lay on the same side. The side that has not been the favored side of the animal to lay on is the more tender side. So when you get your 1/4 beef you mihgt ask your neighbor to watch which side the animal lays on and to please take your quarter form the opposit side. Might ask the sheep farmer if the the same thing is true about lambs.

 

[randy41]

Willl-the grain is used to finish them with some being fed to 'tame' them. there are farmers who grain feed all through the growing process too. if you are interested read Michael Pollan's Omnivores Dilemma. o...and we don't have Safeway around here...just Food Lion, Kroger, and Walmart.

rox-i appreciate what you are saying but the slaughtering is done by someone else. He just delivers his ready to be slaughtered beeves to the local processor and gets back vacuum packed frozen beef. then lets say he ends up with 4 ribeyes...then a 1/4 purchaser gets one of them.

 

[WVBill]

What does everyone think about grass fed meat? The beef I've tried from my market neighbor has been very good.

In the '70s when I was in the Navy, I was stationed in Germany. Occasionally, the commissary on base would sell locally grown beef. In Germany, beef is grass fed. We didn't like it. First time we tried it we thought it was spoiled. Second time just confirmed it wasn't spoiled, it just didn't taste the way we had become accustomed to beef tasting. The grass fed beef we ate in Germany had a distinct "grassy" flavor - and appearance too. From then on we just bought the beef the Army had shipped in.

As I recall, out "on the economy" (in German restaurants) we seldom saw "steak" on menus - beef was always heavily roasted or saute'd...

Anyway, make sure you will like the taste of grass fed beef before you buy a whole side of it....

WVBill

 

[zionview]

The only grass-fed, no grain beef I ever tasted was lean and bland. The best was fed pasture, dry hay and dry grain. We finished ours on leftovers from the dairy herd(corn silage, haylage, high-moisture corn and roasted soybeans), but the beef I get now on dry feed is definitely better! The steers seem to marble better on dry feed, and you need a little fat for flavor!!

 

[JESSE1]

At least once a year I have one of my calves butchered. I don't feed them out, they are usually about 8 months old and are ready to be weaned so they are basically grass/milk fed. The beef is lean and tender, does not have the heavy beef odor. It doesn't seem to make any difference if I butcher a heifer or bull, it has always been good beef.

 

[anojones]

I've been eating pasture fed (no grain finish) beef from a local butcher/farmer for the last couple of years. I think it's the best beef I've ever had- it does take a little getting used to as it's leaner. However, once you figure out how to not overcook it, it's great. Since they are a small producer, I don't have to worry as much about e-coli etc. It is expensive, and I think I may buy a 1/4 or 1/2 of a steer to put in the freezer- although they offer freezer space for a fee as well.

 

[dmccarty]

I read a book about nutrition/diet whose name and author are escaping me for the moment. She has a Greek name and is an MD. One of the things she talks about is the "theory" that grain fed animals create more bad cholesteral than animals eating what they would without human interaction. Eggs from chickens scratching out a meal instead of eating chicken feed do not have as much bad cholesteral if any. Same thing of grass fed red meat.

Interesting read which made a lot of sense when I read the book years ago. She was backing it up with quite a few citations. They may have been bogus but it did not strike me that they were.

The market I was going to at the time had the normal corn fattened beef and grass fed beef. The grass fed as a bit more expensive but they both were good. There was a taste difference but it was not very strong or noticable. We don't eat much red meat so its not a big deal to me healthwise. I might buy a couple packages of ribeyes a year so I wait for sales. And were we are now its all corn fattened beef though there is a coop that does sell locally grown beef but its very expensive compared to the sale price at the grocery store.

Later,
Dan

 

[vsteel]

I grew up eating grass fed. We never grained them. Just butcher one of the runts of the herd in the spring when its cool. Grain just adds fat to the meat. They get enough fat from eating grass, they don't need extra. Yes, what they can eat will flavor the meat some, so about a month before you are ready to shoot them, just make sure they are not in the pasture with all of the wild onion. Just let them eat normal grass.

Just make sure the animal is calm and relaxed when you shoot it. IE don't chase it into a new pen and rile it up. Just keep it in the pen you are going to shoot it for a couple of days where you feed and water it. Make sure there is a "buddy" in there with it. Just take another cow or yearling and put it in the same pen. After a few days the animals will be used to you coming out to feed them. One of the days when you go out and feed them you bring the rifle with you. (My father always used a .22LR) While they are eating you single shot drop the one you want. The animal drops instantly and doesn't move again, so it was nice and relaxed.

Remember, if you need a steak knife or if you have to let it hang, its not good meat.

 

[riptides]

I'm sorry that I can't help you with yoru questions but I cna provide another point which may be of interest. My hsuband being a chef and buying and cooking meats for 30+ years was told that cows/beef always sleep/lay on the same side. The side that has not been the favored side of the animal to lay on is the more tender side. So when you get your 1/4 beef you mihgt ask your neighbor to watch which side the animal lays on and to please take your quarter form the opposit side. Might ask the sheep farmer if the the same thing is true about lambs.

And make sure you get the cows out of the pasture that is North/South oriented. Warming helps the process.



GPS and Cows

 

[randy41]

This morning I picked up the quarter beef. I ended up with about 85 lbs and paid about $380. It was sold as hanging weight which came to 130 lbs. I of course had to take the farmers word for it for the hanging weight. I have steaks, roasts, and ground.
Instead of buying a new freezer I went ahead and cleaned up our old freezer which is about 13 cu ft upright. Uprights are annoying because the stuff just slides out so easily.

 

[Mickey_Fx]

Everyone is going to have their take on Grass Vs grain fed meat. One thing that needs to be taken into consideration is the kind/qlty of grass/hay being fed.

I used to raise my own beef and they were pasture raised and mostly grass hay. Some times I'd have some oat and vetch or pea hay but that wasn't the norm. Always enjoyed our beef and normally had way too much fat/marbling. I've had butchers fall all over themselves apologizing for the excessive fat ground meat. Just too much fat in with the lean. "grass" isn't the same everywhere so one can expect differences in the qlty of the meat depending upon where raised. Have an uncle from the mid-West and raises beef. He used to remark every time he came out here how fat the cattle were here Vs where is is from. Like the old saying, location, location, location.

 

[Brahmus]

We've always feed a calf after weaning. Wean at about 6 months, feed for a couple months, with hay and open pasture then butcher. We ALWAYS let them hang for a week or two. The meat is always great IMO. When we run out and my wife, mother or grandmother has to buy meat from the store, the minute it's in my plate I can tell the difference. Store bought always seems greasy and I can sometimes smell the difference. Taste is night and day. We've never had a calf that was fatty and it never mattered weither it was a bull or heifer. We don't get around to castrating much.

One thing we never do anylonger is kill the calf at the house. The bulls would always go crazy with the smell of blood.

M 2cents.