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opie744
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What makes a better tasting beef cow? Hay or grain
02/28/06 07:30 AM
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I had read that if you want the best tasting beef not to let them graze at all, grain only, I wondered if others had this experience too. I hadn't heard that. Also our last cow the butcher said cow was tall but not very fat, he wouldn't give much info on how to make the cow fatter. Can you tell me? He needed more marbling  . He was our first one. We only raise them for our family and we raise one at a time. We have horses that they can see for companionship. Last thing, I heard the females are supposed to be called the cows, but what are the beef males called? Thank you. 
its 5 o'clock somewhere
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egon
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Re: What makes a better tasting beef cow? Hay or grain
[re: opie744]
02/28/06 10:04 AM
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You have cows and bulls which produce calves. The female calves are called heifers till they have their first calve. The male calves are called steers if they are nuetered. The results from nutering are often refered to as prairie oysters. Otherwise they grow up to become bulls.
Feeding straight grain, no roughage, will probably destroy the animals liver function.
Egon
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opie744
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Re: What makes a better tasting beef cow? Hay or grain
[re: egon]
02/28/06 10:35 AM
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Good thing I asked about that grain thing.....
This was a neutered boy I had and will be the next one too, just interested in meat, for now. It always seems that the hobbies the hubby and I take on grow. 
its 5 o'clock somewhere
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cowboydoc
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Re: What makes a better tasting beef cow? Hay or grain
[re: opie744]
02/28/06 01:31 PM
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Egon is right you do need roughage. However, your best marbling will come with a very high grain diet. We usually finish them out on full feed grain. We have a mix that we do with the primary staple of it being ground corn, protein supplement, and some other family secrets. You want to feed a little hay to get the roughage in them. We will start them on about 10 lbs./day and then work up to full feed after a month. At that time they have grain in front of them 24/7. This will give you your best marbling.
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JoeR
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Re: What makes a better tasting beef cow? Hay or grain
[re: opie744]
02/28/06 02:13 PM
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Take note of what Cowboydoc stated. He finishes them out on grain. Most of the 4-H market steer kids will graze them for 8 months (depends on breed on how fast they grow), and the last 30 days they go to a high grain diet. I just took a 4-H class on market steer with my daughter... Great information, but I am still too green to attempt it yet. I have nothing but praise for the 4-H groups.
Joe
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opie744
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Re: What makes a better tasting beef cow? Hay or grain
[re: cowboydoc]
02/28/06 07:13 PM
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Thank you for that input, that is exactly what we needed! Happy eating!! 
its 5 o'clock somewhere
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Pat
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Re: What makes a better tasting beef cow? Hay or g
[re: opie744]
03/02/06 10:12 PM
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We heard the FACTS regarding how to increase marbling though grain finishing. There are dissenting oppinions regarding grain marbled beef being a superior taste. There is a growing specialty market for grass raised beef.
Argentine beef has traditionally (historically) been grass fed and considered leaner and tougher but properly cooked appeared in plenty of US consumed products, just not a lot of grilled steaks.
Now there is considerable effort to genetically select for good carcass characteristics on grass fed beef. Many consumers prefer the taste of grass fed beef over corn finished. I still have most of my own teeth and although I notice it when I can cut an inch and a half thick prime rib with my fork, I'd gladly pick up my knife and also apply a little masticatorial (chewing) effort in order to get more flavor. There is a limit to the desireability of marbling. After all, marblng is FAT. If you want a truly tender piece of beef, eat a big chunk of nicely cooked fat.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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rfawkes
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Re: What makes a better tasting beef cow? Hay or g
[re: Pat]
03/03/06 06:09 AM
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If that steak is not marbled with fat to flavor the meat, then that steak is just flat nasty, you might as well be a vegan.
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opie744
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Re: What makes a better tasting beef cow? Hay or g
[re: Pat]
03/03/06 08:51 AM
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Nah, I'm watching my weight. 
WE are newbies at this, the butcher made the comment so we were wondering, I guess really, if we were making the best beef cow we can. We want to raise our own and I wanted to have the best favor along w/ healthly meat for our family. Just looking for tips to help us.
its 5 o'clock somewhere
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Pat
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Re: What makes a better tasting beef cow? Hay or g
[re: opie744]
03/03/06 11:08 PM
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opie, Watching your weight? I've been watching mine for years... mostly it goes up.
But seriously, if you want leaner healthier eating, consider grass fed beef. I recently had alligator, both battered and fried as well as Cajun style over rice and it didn't taste like chicken either (the fried had a nice texture but was essentially bland.) I strongly prefer beef to gator.
Something all the dieters should know is that ounce for ounce chicken (including skinless breast) is only one gram of fat leaner than 29 different beef cuts (per serving.) How many ways can you do chicken breast? There are 29 different cuts of beef with no more fat per serving but one lousy gram.
Beef, it's what's for dinner. Oh, and it is one of the things that doesn't taste like chicken. Oh, and did I mention there are 29 different cuts of beef that are nearly as lean as chicken, within a gram of fat per serving?
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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opie744
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Re: What makes a better tasting beef cow? Hay or g
[re: Pat]
03/03/06 11:13 PM
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That is a great fact to know about beef, the hubby will be so thrilled. Anyway we are feeding the animals, we have found that our own raised chickens, pork and beef is much better tasting than what came from the store. Seems like less fat in the pan afterwards too. So maybe I AM watching my weight.
Thank you.
its 5 o'clock somewhere
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twstanley
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Re: What makes a better tasting beef cow? Hay or g
[re: opie744]
03/05/06 05:49 PM
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For me, watching my weight means watching the sugar intake, deserts, candy, sweet tea, etc.
I can regulate my weight pretty well just by adding or taking those from my diet. Which is a good thing as I like to eat fairly hearty meals normally.
I read an article in the sunday paper here ( Kansas City Star ) regarding scientists were discovering that a huge factor in people gaining weight was sugar in sodas and other beverages.
( Sorry to drift the thread further, but .... ahh well. )
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cowboydoc
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Re: What makes a better tasting beef cow? Hay or g
[re: Pat]
03/06/06 01:41 PM
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Flavoring comes primarily from marbling. Like it or not it's the fat that gives beef alot of it's taste. It's like eating bread plain or with butter. Completely different taste. Also the marbling is an indicator of the tenderness of the meat. Thank you very kindly but I'll take a juicy tender steak over a dry less tender one anyday. It's the marbling that does all of this. Yes you can get good beef, but not great beef, with grass fed, but you won't see your 100% grass fed beef in your 5 star restaurants. What you see primarily when you hear about good beef raised on grass is cattle on pasture that are fed more than their fair share of diet in some sort of grain or protein supplement. Even the most indiscriminate beef eater will notice a signficant difference between cattle finished out on 100% grass and cattle finished out with a grain/roughage diet.
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Pat
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Re: What makes a better tasting beef cow? Hay or g
[re: cowboydoc]
03/06/06 04:03 PM
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Cowboydoc, I never said Argentine beef fed exclusively on grass in the pampas was or would ever be a majority favorite. In fact I am only personally acquainted with canned Argentine beef (already cooked of course, maybe pressure cooked at several milliion atmospheres for all I know) but it is good stuff.
If you want to overcook a cut of beef on the grill and be able to eat it without the use of power tools then you better have significant marble fat. The last prime rib I had, just about 10 days to 2 weeks ago showed very little visible fat within the "lean" portion of the cut. Most visible fat was "rind" and I could literally cut any of the central portion of the serving with my fork. It was somewhere between medium and medium rare.
Unless a carcass is virtually skeletal (body condition of 3 or less) there should be enough fat in the tissues to spread "BEEF" flavor. Of course if your expectations require significant marble fat it is more likely not a purely taste issue but involves texture or "mouth" if you will and maybe a little psychology.
Psychology becomes a factor like the folks who demand white meat of the turkey but unanimously select dark turkey meat in a blindfold test, claiming it is the white meat because it tastes better.
Luckily there are 29 cuts of beef to choose from that have only about 1 gram of fat more than skinless boneless chicken breast (per serving) and they are not dry tough unpalatable fare. Au contraire amigo, they can be most tasty.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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hudr
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Re: What makes a better tasting beef cow? Hay or grain
[re: opie744]
03/06/06 09:11 PM
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Best beef we have fed out lately was LonghornXAngus. Fairly lean with enough marbling for our taste. I will take something I have fed myself over anything served in a 5 star restaurant (sorry, cowboydoc). I think a lot of that preference is mental(have to agree w/ Pat on that). I KNOW what the animal has been eating. What we do: get a young bull (yearling size), uninstall his testicles, feed him out for about 6 weeks on grain and provide free choice hay and plenty of water. Keeping him calm seems to help the flavor as well. I think adrenaline and what-not does strange things to meat flavor. We also keep them separated from all other animals to prevent accidents and bruising. He needs to be well-fed, well hydrated and stupidly calm right up to the point where he gets knocked in the head.
my .02
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DUMBDOG
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Re: What makes a better tasting beef cow? Hay or grain
[re: hudr]
03/07/06 10:22 PM
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The question I have regarding this procedure is how do you keep him calm during the uninstallation of some of his private parts?
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hudr
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Re: What makes a better tasting beef cow? Hay or grain
[re: DUMBDOG]
03/08/06 05:39 PM
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"The question I have regarding this procedure is how do you keep him calm during the uninstallation of some of his private parts?"
Wellllll, that takes a little doing. Candle light, some wine......
No really you just have to hope he lets by gonads be by gones
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egon
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Re: What makes a better tasting beef cow? Hay or grain
[re: hudr]
03/09/06 10:55 AM
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web page
Most people use one of these.
Egon
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cowboydoc
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Re: What makes a better tasting beef cow? Hay or grain
[re: DUMBDOG]
03/09/06 01:51 PM
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Best and easiest method on cattle today is banding. Basically you put a rubberband over the base of the scrotum and in 2-4 weeks the scrotum and testicles fall off. No loss of weight, soreness, going off feed, trauma, etc. Makes for nice easy transitions.
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egon
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Re: What makes a better tasting beef cow? Hay or grain
[re: cowboydoc]
03/09/06 01:55 PM
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If I can recall we used to do this within a few days of birth. It made handling much easier.
Egon
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cowboydoc
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Re: What makes a better tasting beef cow? Hay or grain
[re: egon]
03/09/06 03:18 PM
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Egon,
Recent studies have shown if you wait until 6 months you get better gains and more muscle than castrating right away. But before you lost weight due to castrating late. Now with the banding system you get the benefits of delayed castration without any stress to the animal.
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cowboydoc
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Re: What makes a better tasting beef cow? Hay or grain
[re: hudr]
03/09/06 03:23 PM
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I think a lot of that preference is mental Actually no it isn't mental in the slightest. All tests for quality of beef is done as carcass before it ever even goes anywhere. There are about 42 tests that are done to scientifically show the results. Angus breeding and marketing leaves nothing to "mental" it's all in black and white facts.
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hudr
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Re: What makes a better tasting beef cow? Hay or grain
[re: cowboydoc]
03/09/06 03:40 PM
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Cowboydoc, When I said it was mental, I meant that the meat I raised was superior in my mind, but I have no sonograms or lab testing to back it up.
I am not knocking all the tests done to prove superiority of one breed's meat over another. I meant that I am predisposed to prefer meat raised in my backyard over that raised in a cowlot. Could I pick it out in a blind taste test? Probably not. But it makes ME feel better knowing I fed the beef out myself, testing and marketing aside.
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egon
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Re: What makes a better tasting beef cow? Hay or grain
[re: cowboydoc]
03/09/06 03:45 PM
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Doc:
Sounds like I'm really out of date.
Egon
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gsganzer
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Re: What makes a better tasting beef cow? Hay or grain
[re: opie744]
03/09/06 05:21 PM
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Talking about healthy, the wife and I are almost 100% venison now. I don't know the last time we cooked a beef steak. We use ground venison in lasagna; bacon wrapped filets; peppercorn tenderloins with cognac sauce; slow cooked venison roast with new potato's, artichokes and capers; chipped venison for chili etc. etc.
Man, this is making me hungry. 
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