Grass Fed & Finished versus Grain Finished Beef

[jfmorris]

So, over the past couple of weeks I've been working my way through the book "Real Food/Fake Food" on my Kindle, after someone here posted a link to it on sale for $1.99 on Amazon. It's been pretty darned eye opening, and it sure seems that those of us in the US are kinda living in a wild Wild West of food fakery and fraud. It seems Europe, South and Central America, Canada, and almost everywhere I've read about aside from Asia respects geographically originated foods - stuff like Parmigiano Reggiano, various wines, olive oil, and many other food products. And the fake fish just totally freaks me out.

Anyway, just finished the chapter on beef, and reading about the differences between grass fed, grain fed, silage fed, feedlots, all that crap. And how even with MUCH MUCH higher per capita beef consumption than the US, countries like Argentina have much much lower rates of heart disease and such. You have to wonder if there really is a tie. Basically, the way the book reads (I'm not done), the fat in grain finished beef is not nearly so healthy for you as the fat in beef that has been fed nothing but grass.

Got me to wondering, and I've looked at a lot of the online places where many of us shop, and while many places like Click Akashi, Porter Road and so on claim to use farms that let the cattle roam free, they also are up front about it being grain finished. Which would negate a lot of the health benefits that are mentioned in the book.

And you cannot just walk into The Fresh Market, Whole Foods, Kroger, wherever, and go by a "Grass Fed" label anymore, as the FDA/USDA/whatever allows it to be labeled like that if it ate a blade of grass at any time in its life.

I guess I am wondering if any of you have come across places to buy quality grass fed beef, which is truly 100% grass fed. I've not seen one here in Huntsville Alabama that I trust to be the real deal. And of course, the cost is always higher if marked grass fed at all it seems.

[Attjack]

I see stuff like this in certain markets like Zupan's.

https://www.zupans.com/100-grass-fed-beef/

[CaptainMike]

I can't help you with sourcing, other than to suggest you head to the countryside and local source your own, but I've had local raised grass fed and local raised grass fed/grain finished and I far prefer the latter. In that scenario I doubt there is much difference in the "healthier beef" aspect to truly matter. With feedlots and large operations there are myriad variables. I know jamming livestock together in close quarters can bear some rotten fruit. We rarely ever doctored cattle or sheep in the field, but when we jammed them all into pens for more than a few days they started getting sick, mostly respiratory stuff. Cattle, and especially sheep, don't do well in stressful environments, regardless of what they're being fed. That has to have a factor on the overall quality of the product. But, that's just practical experience, I don't have a degree in nutrition nor have I written a book on the subject.

We are going to start raising our own next year, but we do have the luxury of land and associated services. I'm planning on being a cattle baron until I'm broke!

[Oak Smoke]

My granddaddy said if he had a million dollars he’d keep farming until it was gone.

[Troutman]

I don’t care, I dislike grass finished beef. Stick with American Wagyu and it’s monounsaturated fat.

[jfmorris]

I hear you. I have actually never purchased grass fed beef myself, before now anyway. A good friend bought a side of grass fed black angus from a local farm here in North Alabama, and got burned. How you ask? Apparently the grass that particular cow grazed on included lots and lots of wild onions. He said the beef was almost inedible, and he had a freezer full of it.

[texastweeter]

Most of the local ranchers that raise grass fed gras finished beef don't eat their own product. Just sayin.

[Murdy]

I worked for a local butcher, and we had a deal with a local farmer the raised grass fed beef and aged it, that we'd cut it up and sell it. Do to logistics, we could only sell it as sides. Some folks liked it, but a quite a few complained and brought it back. Perhaps its an acquired taste.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

My wife being from SD loves grass fed... I was so sad when she went to Gordan Ramsays place in London and paid a stupid high price for SD grass fed lol. Anyway, there are a few suppliers in SD that ship. I think one is Blackhills I forget the other big one.

Personally I just like good meat, never really noticed the difference myself. Though the Spanish (Spain) beef we got while in the UK was constant quality (and way overpriced) vs the better priced but inconsistent quality we get here in the US in my opinion.

[jfmorris]

I probably need to pick up two similar sized steaks at the meat counter one day, one grass fed and one grain finished, and cook them up for a comparison.

Wish I could get that Mexican beef here CaptainMike. Pretty sure that is grass fed.

[Sdell]

Fyi-a lot of "Mexican" beef is imported from the US. I work in export finance and we finance tons (literally) of US meat to Mexico. Mostly from the big producers but often sold through middlemen.

Also, I have been to Argentina and Brazil several times, and had good and bad grass fed beef. I did not find it to be uniformly different than US beef. I think how it is aged and cooked makes much more of a difference.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

Sdell the stuff I was getting in the UK from Spain was consistently good, but maybe just the importers I was getting it from were consistent in vetting the product I guess.

[wrgilb]

I don't care for the taste of grass finished beef either. I've finished the book and it was eye opening about all the fraud around us. From now on all the shrimp I buy will be from the gulf coast, currently buying from Biloxi Shrimp.

[jfmorris]

I'm still plugging through it - just wanted to bring up this subject for discussion. I can't say I've tasted grass fed beef, but I know what I've seen was not very well marbled. I just found a lot of the stuff in the book concerning, especially when it seems it is just the US and probably China that allow this kind of fraud.

[realdocBBQ]

Having traveled some of the world - I would seriously doubt that to be the case. But there are plenty of folks out there who want to paint the US as the worst in everything in the world. I've seen a lot of places where there are laws 'on the books' that are completely ignored.

[DavidNorcross]

Great read here Jim. I have to echo others and say I am just not a fan of the grass fed beef. Why? Well in my opinion there is just not enough fat. I have purchased multiple grass fed local raised beef and my conclusions are always the same. Great flavor but tough as shoe leather. From a medical perspective, I have talked to my doctor and gotten other opinions as well as read alot online especially with noted phsysicians like Dr. Ken Berry and bottom line, I believe good fat is healthy!

[jfmorris]

I think a lot of it is related to breed too. There are breeds that are probably more marbled on grass than others, but likely not conducive to fast production i.e. time to get the cow to market.

[Oak Smoke]

There’s a reason grain fed beef tastes so good, it’s not as good for you. There’s some kind of law that the better something tastes the worse it is for you. The examples are numerous, turnips vs potatoes, bacon vs turkey bacon, sherbet vs Blue bell ice cream, a smoothie vs 3 fingers of really good old scotch…………..etc.

[bbqLuv]

Oh yea, 3 fingers of Bourbon. Scotch is good too.

[jfmorris]

Too true!

[texastweeter]

We raise grass fed grass finished beef...but eat corn fed prime lol.

[Jerod Broussard]

I avoid the bad fat beef of the US, oh wait, my corn dogs are all beef. So much for that health kick post.

[CaptainMike]

I got a box of those babies last week! And you know I'm gonna deep fry at least a couple of them, like anyone else.

[bbqLuv]

Corn dogs, love them. Time for a corn dog thread? Just what AR needs!

[DaveD]

For many beef cuts, Crowdcow has options you can choose, in many cases "pasture raised, grain-finished" vs "100% grass fed". Many of the latter are from Australian and New Zealand ranches. We've had several such cuts lately and all have been top-notch. Our Xmas prime rib was from one of these, and was the best beef we've ever eaten. But we have only a few datapoints thus far. Being a good scientist, more data are needed, and I'm on it with all deliberate speed.

[Mark V]

I like corn fed over grass fed. Personal preference. Haven't searched out local though. I don't eat a 16 ounce steak for every meal, though, so I don't worry too much about health benefits of one over the other.

[jerrybell]

I suppose if I really want to make a health choice concerning beef it should be to give it up all together. I'd guess the relative health difference between grass and grain finished pales in comparison to just not eating beef.

[Attjack]

Moderation makes more sense to me. I don't want to be a quitter.

[texastweeter]

You want grass fed grass finished beef. Lots of purveyors around here carry it...we raise a small quantity of it ourselves.

[CaptainMike]

Maybe the health benefits of grass finished beef is the cardio workout you get from chewing it up enough to swallow safely.

[realdocBBQ]

I'll pass. That's all we could get in Ireland and I'd rather eat chicken.

[JoeSousa]

Crowd Cow sells grass fed beef. Not everything they have is grass fed but that is pretty much what they got their start with: https://www.crowdcow.com/collections/grass-fed-beef. Crowd Cow also put out a book a couple years back called Craft Beef that was a pretty good look at small farms and how they raise their cattle.

Grass Roots Co-op is another place I have had grass fed beef from: https://grassrootscoop.com/collections/beef-1 It has been a couple years but IIRC it was pretty solid.

All grass fed beef is not created equal though. Some of it is amazing but I have had some that tastes like eating a hay bale or eating swamp grass. If you find a ranch or source you like stick with it.

[Mosca]

I did some research last year, and some buying and comparisons. What I found was that, to me, properly raised grass fed/finished was different, but I liked it the same. It’s like getting double the umami at the cost of half the tenderness.

BUT. Lots of it isn’t properly raised. And generally speaking, it costs more and you have to search it out. And I’m not willing to search out and pay more for something that might not be all that good. So I’ll stick with whatever it is that I’m getting now, which is pretty damn good.