This month we started a farm email newsletter to keep our customers up to date. Feel free to subscribe by using the form on our Contact page.
Among other items in this past email newsletter we asked the question, can cows live on grass alone?
Most cattle can live on grass alone, but the challenge is to raise healthy cattle that get to a level of “finish” (fat enough) to harvest and provide a quality eating experience. Ultimately it is about YOU, providing YOU our customer, with a healthy product. Many cattle today are no longer able to do this on grass alone.
Over the past 75 years cattle have been bred and managed to consume high starch (corn/grain) diets. If you have not yet read Michael Pollan’s NY Times 2002 POWER STEER article, you really ought to take the time to do so. This is an excellent story/explanation of how conventional beef reaches the supermarket.
In the uphill battle to find grass type cattle to start our herd, here is a review of the path we traveled:
So yes, it is possible for cows to live on grass alone. Do your research and enjoy the journey!
In our previous post we described how complex pastures create complex flavors in our beef. We discussed a number of other factors that play into the “beefy” flavor of our pasture grazed animals compared to the simple flavor of conventional beef. When people first taste grass-fed beef they usually comment that it tastes “gamey”. Around here I guess they are comparing that taste to deer.
Deer can travel wherever they like and eat whatever they like. They can select the most nutritious food that is available year round. Over the years I have shot a number of deer in this part Nebraska (still waiting for my chance at one like Jacob’s above). During the cleaning of these deer I have noted that deer being opportunistic, will also feed on corn and other grains. Yet, with over 50,000 deer harvested in Nebraska last year alone, I can’t think of a single time when someone said “that deer tasted like corn-fed beef.”
Healthy wild game tastes “gamey” for the same reason grass-fed beef tastes “gamey”. It is the complex foods consumed by these animals that makes the meat flavor complex (and healthy). They are not force fed a simple starch diet like conventional beef, with the sole purpose of getting fat.
The grain consumed by deer would be unlike the grain fed to conventional beef:
Now consider our beef herd. We do not allow the cattle to run free like the deer (this keeps our neighbors happy). We manage and control the herd movement to insure our cattle will have fresh forages year round. During the non-growing season, “fresh” means a section of pasture that has not been grazed for the previous 4+ months. Unlike deer, our cattle never receive any grain to insure that our beef has the healthy fat profile desired by our customers.
You know what nutrient dense food tastes like. Remember the last time you ate an apple and thought to yourself, WOW that tasted great. It doesn’t happen very often with a store bought apple these days, but maybe it came from a local orchard, and you just knew it was a good apple. That good flavor came from complex nutritious compounds in the fruit. Well, the next time you bite into some grass-fed beef with a noticeable flavor, just remember that flavor came from complex nutritious compounds in the meat. This nutritious beef will satisfy you on a smaller portion size compared to conventional beef and you will feel better after eating it.
If you are finding the more complex flavor of pasture grazed beef is difficult for you or your children to adjust to, try our hot dogs or brats. Consider using stew meat with vegetables or turning that pound of hamburger into meatloaf. Use your imagination and your taste buds will soon adjust to what is naturally known to us as good tasting food, that is good for us.
Folks have commented that they really like how our ground beef fries up in the pan with little “grease”. A friend said, “yeah, love grassfed beef, but still think it tastes a little ‘gamey’.” I asked, “‘Gamey’ or ‘Beefy’ flavor?” After a moment he said, “Ahhh, maybe that IS how beef should taste.” Your taste buds aren’t confused, they probably don’t know any better, let me explain…
If you have spent anytime on our website, you know we refer to our beef as Pasture Grazed rather than grassfed because our cattle consume more than just grass. Take a look at a list of known plants growing in our pasture:
In addition to the flavor from our pasture, in earlier posts we discussed the following factors that play into the flavor/taste of our Pasture Grazed Beef:
Now let’s take a look at the feed source for typical conventional beef:
Look at the above feed for the last few months of feedlot beef. Pickup some conventional hamburger at the grocery store. Now look at the above list again, these are the primary ingredients that make up the store-bought hamburger.
So enjoy some “beefy” pasture based beef! Just as folks like trying different wineries for the different flavors from each vineyard, we encourage you to try different pasture farm beef! The different makeup of each farms pasture will give a unique flavor to the beef you find there.
In the past three posts we took a close look at our Pasture Grazed beef when compared to typical beef. Thanks to the folks at Mother Earth News, we can see how our beef compares with other grassfed beef from around the country. We were fortunate enough to have DS Family Farm beef included in the recent Mother Earth News pilot Omega 6 to Omega 3 test study with other grassfed beef farms from around the USA. It is an honor to be included with the list of grass based farms that participated. From looking at the list of participating farms I am guessing many of these farms raise grassfed beef similar to our farm.
To clarify, when people ask me about our “Pasture Grazed” beef, my first point is “yes, we are 100% grassfed”. So what is the difference? Basically “grassfed” just involves what feed the animal consumes. In that sense, yes, we are 100% grassfed. When we say “Pasture Grazed” we mean that our herd spends their entire life on our pasture, never confined to a feed lot. For more information please refer to our blog post “Pasture Grazed vs Grassfed Beef“.
Here is the Data Analysis Summary for beef from the Mother Earth News, 1/11/2016, pilot study.
In the table below I take the pilot grassfed beef values from the table above and compare them against our Pasture Grazed beef findings:
This is the third and final post discussing our beef compared to “typical” beef. If nothing else, I have learned a great deal about the role of fat in my diet as I complete this summary of the laboratory analysis of our Pasture Grazed Beef. When I asked Midwest Labs to analyze our beef, I specifically requested a report of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), see our “Power Fat” blog post from April 2014 on this all important fat component. Unfortunately they were unable to analyze CLA specifically. So what is CLA and what can we tell from the data we have?
Conjugated linoleic acid is a form of rearranged omega-6 linoleic acid (LA). The rearranged LA (CLA) appears to be anti-cancer where as our earlier post pointed out omega-6 fatty acids, like LA, are inflammatory. So the more LA converted to CLA the better! This conversion is more dramatic for animals that spend a larger part of their life on green forages. For a run down of CLA and grassfed meats, refer to the CLA page at EatWild.com and this CLA document at BeefResearch.org.
So what can we deduct from the laboratory data we have for our Pasture Grazed Beef sample vs. the two “typical” beef samples for CLA?
Another note of interest is that CLA is fairly stable under most cooking and storage conditions. All of the facts and figures presented in these three posts have been on raw meat analysis. I’ll keep “what happens during cooking” for a future blog post. From what I hear, during cooking we loose more Omega 3 than Omega 6 which will raise the final Omega 6 to 3 ratio.
I think we can say, “Yes” there is a difference. From the laboratory, to the field, to the animal and to the taste, many folks will tell you, yes, there is a difference.
The question becomes, “Is the difference enough to make a difference?”
If you are interested in grassfed meat for your health, here is a 2010 study where eating grassfed meats (beef and lamb) increased the study groups blood omega 3 values. (Cambridge Press link). Note in this study there was not much CLA difference in any of the beef, but the lamb was off the charts (higher) for CLA!
If you ask for my opinion, I would have to say “I don’t know” if the difference is enough to make a difference. There appears to be some good indicators that grassfed meat does have health benefits but as my “Health Nut Highway” friend would tell me, we are all “biochemically different”. If grassfed meat makes you feel better, than yes it does make a difference!
Looking to improve your health:
The old adage applies, “if you don’t measure it you can’t manage it”. These results show that our management is headed in the right direction. Our beef definitely fits the “healthy profile” as promoted by the grassfed beef industry. We will leave you with a graphic of our beef nutrition label. Note this graphic depicts an eight ounce ribeye steak (four ounce sounds kind of small to me).
A summary of all three “Fatty Acid Analysis” posts PDF.
The previous blog post was a little heavy on charts (PDF with all charts) from the laboratory analysis of one of our pasture grazed ribeye steaks. In this post I continue the comparison of our grassfed beef to two “typical” beef samples. First of all let’s summarize some of the discussion and charts from the earlier post, then we will address polyunsaturated fats:
In Chart 1 (previous post), our grassfed beef sample had higher SFA (~60% of fat) when compared to typical beef (~40% SFA). When we looked specifically at the break down of SFAs in Chart 2:
I apologize for referring back to the charts from the previous post (as one PDF document) and multiple references to numbers through percentages etc. If this is something you are really interested in, then I have tried to give some data and sources that can help you along your way. If you are like my wife Sheila, this maybe a little more info than you are looking for.
Here are some things for you to consider up to this point:
++ Precious Yet Perilous – Weston A Price Foundation website, 2010 article.
+++ Gerrior, S., Bente, L., & Hiza, H. (2004). Nutrient Content of the U.S. Food Supply, 1909-2000. (Home Economics Research Report No. 56). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion.
I recently visited with a friend who shed some weight over the past year, when I asked how he lost the weight, he replied “improved my diet”. He obviously “gets it”, notice he didn’t say he was on some kind of “diet” he just changed to a “healthy diet”. One specific diet change he mentioned was that he was eating grassfed beef rather than conventional beef. We discussed the “known” benefits of grassfed and then he pointed out that his son, who raises conventional beef, refers to grassfed as “Voodoo Beef”!
With our first Pasture Grazed, 100% grassfed beef in the freezer, it was time to find out for ourselves, is there really a difference between a pasture grazed beef compared to typical (corn-fed) beef?
We sent in a rib steak (ribeye after removing the bone) from a 2015 harvested steer to Midwest Laboratories in Omaha Nebraska for analysis. With the results in hand I searched out some “typical” beef analysis to compare our pasture grazed beef with. It didn’t take long and I had two similar† “reference” samples from the USDA and Canada nutrient databases. Below we compare a DS Family Farm Pasture Grazed steak to some “typical beef” steaks – Canada record 6068 and USDA record 23271.
† I selected these reference samples because they were of the same part of the beef. We sent in a Rib Steak which is a Ribeye with a rib bone still attached. The bone was removed, so our sample was a ribeye when analyzed. I consider our beef lean so the selected reference samples used were identified as “lean”. We are still building our soils and forages and striving for higher fat (marbling) percentages in our beef.
Note, I am not an expert on fats nor statistical analysis. Feel free to dive into the Government data and check my calculations for the two samples listed above. If you find any discrepancies, please email me: doug@dsfamilyfarm.com. If you have comments please share them on our Facebook Page.
Omnivores, relax with real food! This was the take home message we found in last evenings PBS documentary “IN DEFENSE OF FOOD”, featuring well known food journalist Michael Pollan.
We thought the documentary was well done and echo the main point of the film, when it comes to eating, just relax and eat food, that is – real food. The stuff you find in the middle of the grocery store is what Pollan calls “edible food like substances”. Focus on the “edges” during your grocery store visits to find real food. Refer to our blog post on this topic from January 2014 “How to shop for a healthy diet”.
Other points from “IN DEFENSE OF FOOD“:
I basically started on the above described Omnivores path several years ago. I took it to the next level by incorporating the portion size advise (including fasting) this past year (described in June 2015). Six months later I am happy to report my weight and health has been maintained.
As you look forward to the new year are you considering another “Diet Resolution”? If you find yourself stuck somewhere trying to get on what our friend Danna calls the “Health-Nut Highway”, we urge you to watch this documentary.
Remember, “We are all on a diet. Be on a healthy one.” Dr. Mercola
Head ’em up, Move ’em on – RAWHIDE! I have to admit this brings back memories of the Blues Brothers more than it does of Clint Eastwood (Rowdy Yates). To be clear, we are not much for Head ’em up around here. No whips, yelling or any other commotion near our herd. Low stress = high quality beef. (music provided at end of post)
Fresh grass – MOVE – fresh grass – MOVE, is the name of the game at DS Family Farm. The way nature made the prairies is the method we use to restore and improve our pastures. Cows have legs and we believe they aren’t made for standing in lots. So what does Move ’em on look like? Here is a recent example:
In the above photo we start with the herd on November 26th near a water tank. Temporary wire fences are put up moving away from the tank. This photo on November 30th, shows the first 4 paddocks have been grazed, cattle have moved into the 5th paddock (most of the cows are just over the hill out of view). ATV tracks are visible along the future paddock lines, smashed down grass so we can install the fences. Small square bales are also visible in future paddocks. This is our non-growing season and we are supplementing the stockpiled grass with hay. If these moves were during the growing season we would prevent the herd from grazing previous paddocks after the third move (it takes grass about 3 days to start re-growing after being bitten off and we don’t want cows biting off new grass).
Paddock setup does take some time but in a few hours we are done with 3 days of moves. Here’s how automatic Batt Latch gate openers and electric poly wire technology allows the cows to do most of the work:
In the example shown above the cows have just moved into the 11/30 paddock (as you can see they are busy working). On November 30th we will setup two Batt Latch gate openers on the next two fence lines and a third fence line will stop the cattle from proceeding any further. We don’t need to show up to work again until December 3rd!
Don’t get us wrong, we love working with the cows, but this technology gives us flexibility in our schedule. This setup allows us to do a quick drive by to see if the cows have moved. Fresh grass and move, fresh grass and move, this is the key to soil health, grassland health, cattle health and ultimately your health.
We hope you have enjoyed this post and we invite you to stop by sometime to see our herd in MOTION. Always pasture grazed, never in lots for your health and ours. We leave you with some Move ’em on entertainment:
The DS Family Farm Store is up and running. We were ready for Small Business Saturday, almost. We now have a section on our website that we invite local folks to check out [Buy From Our Farm].
Why just local folks? We do not plan on shipping any product directly from our farm. We encourage everyone to shop local, even for pasture poultry and grass-fed beef.
We are now serving up pasture grazed meat products to folks in the Lincoln – Seward area. We welcome anyone in our area or anyone passing through, to stop by for direct pickup at the farm after first contacting us with your order. From past posts, you know we are fans of the Nebraska Food Coop. Look for DS Family Farm products once you are logged in to the Food Coop website. The Food Coop will give you the option to pay online and receive our Nebraska Raised product throughout the Coop delivery area.
What an appreciation we now have for small businesses everywhere! As we begin our efforts to turn product into certificates of service* ($$$), it is a good time to reflect back on our blog post Why Start? Here are some current thoughts:
Thanks for your support and we look forward to serving you in the future.