What makes a better tasting beef cow? Hay or grain

[opie744]

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 [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] . 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. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[egon]

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 [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[opie744]

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. [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

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.

[opie744]

Thank you for that input, that is exactly what we needed! Happy eating!! [img]/forums/images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[Pat]

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.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[JoeR]

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

[hudr]

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. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
my .02

[DUMBDOG]

The question I have regarding this procedure is how do you keep him calm during the uninstallation of some of his private parts? [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[hudr]

"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 [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]