Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Eating beef: flavor or health?

I am with Sam on this subject. That is a fine looking meal.

A cow's digestive system is perfectly tuned to run on young tender grass. The most efficient use of pasture ground is to rotates the pastures and even clip them with a mower after grazing to keep the cattle on young tender grass.

In the real world of ranching, such is seldom possible. The pastures get tall and tough, and even go to seed while the cows are out on range land.

With my small property, I can keep the pastures short.

I usually castrate a bull calf the day it hits the ground. Less stressful on the calf and on me.

I keep the steer on a diet of sweet tender short grass w/ white clover in the summer and alfalfa/orchard grass hay through the winter and never let him get a taste of grain.

I like to start with a good Angus or Hereford steer, or crossbreed of the two, and raise them in this manner.

IMHO, the only improvement possible to this regimen would be if a guy could run the steer up and down the side of a five thousand foot mountain for the first year of its life to give it some muscle tone.