When I first became involved in the cattle business, which has only been since 2000, I ran across articles and comments about the higher nutritional plane of grass fed beef and grass fed dairy products. Since that beginning which piqued my interest, the Omega Plus eggs have come to market, organizations like US Wellness Meats cut their ribbon and began a successful growing and marketing plan for grass fed animal products. More and more small ranchers have paid attention and are focusing their breeding efforts on producing a steer that will fatten well and eat well on a diet solely based on grass and legumes. There is no question that grain fed beef has unnaturally high Omega 6 Fatty Acids, and very low levels of Omega 3 Fatty Acids, Conjugated Linoleic Acids (CLA's), Beta Carotene, and Vitamin E - several of the more important components contributing to the optimal function and maintenance of the human body. The Omega 3 Fatty Acids and the CLA's are of particular importance as beef and bovine dairy products are (or once were) major sources of these nutrients in the human diet.
As I've finally decided to actually harvest one of my steers, I want to fatten him up in such a way as to optimize the nutrition of the beef that I'll be putting in the freezer. (I'm a seedstock producer of British White cattle, and it's taken me since 2000 to get over the idea that these beautiful, gentle cattle couldn't find a place on my plate.) For all that I've read here and there about the benefits of grass fed beef, I found I was still uncertain as to what protocol was really required to produce grass fed meat with optimum nutrition.
Most of the really in-depth, reader friendly articles and narratives (of which there are many extremely well done and informative works) are written by those who have a grass fed product to sell and naturally they would be expected to promote their protocol as the 'the one' that is best. Pretty much across the board, all producers of grass fed beef indicate that the beef must be 100% grass fed. As my steer received grain last winter, I had to wonder if it was possible to overcome that effect by grass 'finishing'. I should mention that early this past summer of 2004 I began feeding dairy quality alfalfa hay to all my cattle, and intend to continue on this regimen as long as I'm raising cattle and can get the hay. I'm most definitely a convert to grass based production.
Based on the research data I've explored, I'm of the opinion that supplementing a growing steers diet with a grain product for a short period of time doesn't severely impact the nutritional quality of the meat. What is most important is that the final period of finishing be 100% grass and legumes. The final period of finishing would likely need to be a minimum of 60 days (though obviously the longer the better) to clear out the high Omega 6 levels in the fat of the animal and replace them with Omega 3's and CLA's, get the beta carotene levels (Vitamin A) in the fat of the animal up and raise the Vitamin E level in the muscle of the animal. No doubt I will be disagreed with vociferously by purists of grass fed beef production. I welcome that, as well as direction to the research that will prove otherwise.
When we humans eat, the vitamins and minerals are broken down in our gut and make it to our blood stream where they go where they're supposed to go - some are water soluble, like Vitamin C, and our bodies use what we need and excrete the rest. Other's are fat soluble, like beta carotene, and the amounts we consume in excess are stored in our fat and used by our body as needed. Apparently, the same is true for Omega 6's - no doubt most of us have entirely too much stored in our body fat due to the grain fed meat and milk we consume, but Omega 6 isn't stored in our body fat forever; it's there to be used by our bodies, like the beta carotene that is stored in our fat, and we use it up. If we know that consuming high Omega 3 foods, like grass fed beef, works to restore the recommended optimal balance of Omega 6 to Omega 3 in our own bodies, then surely we can get the Omega 6 levels reduced and Omega 3's raised in a beef steer. Same goes for beta carotene, vitamin E, and CLA's.
Now obviously I'm not a scientist, and my opinion is just that, an opinion, or rather an educated guess based on simple logic and review of some of the various research articles cited on this web site which explore the opposite side of this argument, i.e. the change in the nutritional plane of a grass fed animal once it is placed on grain feed.
I'm going to finish my steer on spring grass and alfalfa, and hopefully harvest him around May of 2005. Once I have a look at the beef, I'm guessing he will have nicely yellowed fat (beta carotene), bright red color (Vitamin E), sweet gamey taste (my crimson clover and coastal bermuda and the CLA's), 1/4 inch backfat (trait of the British White breed), and the steaks will be lean and finely marbled (trait of the British White breed). (Note: Will update here shortly, the exellent results upon final harvest of "Dinner", the name my little sister gave him one Thanksgiving when we were working the herd!)
I should also add a highly interesting bit of information regarding the very final phase of preparing a grass fed animal for slaughter. It seems that beef animals, like we humans, store glycogen from the carbohydrates in their diet. A grass based diet is naturally low in carbohydrates; a grain based diet is high in carbohydrates. As the grass fed beef animal has low stores of glycogen, it's seems to be fairly easy to deplete those glycogen stores in a matter of hours under stress or exercise. Depletion of glycogen causes dark-cutting meat; thus it is very important that the grass fed animal be handled as humanely as possible in the hours leading up to kill. Harvesting the animal in sync with lush seasonal grasses will give you the highest glycogen level at harvest as well as providing optimal nutrition in the end product.
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