This article is interesting. In this day of trying to reduce fat in America's diet, it's about how ranchers can increase fat in beef cattle. Grass fed beef is popular because it's supposed to be healthier due to reduced fat. Yet, America's taste buds want fattier beef because it's juicier and tastes better.

This article is how ranchers can increase marbling in beef by castrating earlier and weaning 2 months earlier and putting the calves on high energy diets to grow additional fat cells between the muscle fibers. It's about how to pack as much fat as possible into beef.
Michelle would be horrified if she read this.


Marbling Matters as Weaning Time Approaches
ED GLAZAR � TIMES-NEWS

Marbling in cattle � the taste fat � was long considered the feedlot�s responsibility, until research pointed to opportunities all the way back to the ranch.

Genetic potential is a key, and deposition of this intramuscular fat links to management decisions much earlier than those final months on feed.

In one of those critical points, a 60-day window before and after weaning, fat cells undergo a transition from increasing in number to growing in size.

Decisions can affect both number and size.

Jason Ahola, Colorado State University animal scientist delves into the details in his recent whitepaper, �Effects of the 60-day Window Around the Time of Weaning on Subsequent Quality Grade and Eating Quality of Beef,� available at www.cabpartners.com/news/research.php .

The full-scale analysis found marbling deposition can be influenced by diet and management during the window from pre-weaning through about 250 days of age. As a known time when fat deposition processes may be altered, those 60 days represent an opportunity.

�It appears if we can influence the number of cells, we can influence the amount of fat or marbling cattle put into those cells,� Ahola says. �This differentiation that occurs around the time of weaning is somewhat dependent on what kind of feed the cattle are on, their energy balance and the amount of stress they are under.�

The fact that weaning is the most stressful event in a calf�s life underscores this period�s critical nature for marbling deposition. Ahola�s paper covers a wide scope of influences from nutrition to low-stress weaning, creep feeding, mineral supplements, castration, implants and weaning time.

He found two main practices with a proven positive impact: early castration and weaning early onto a high-energy diet.

Nearly all producers castrate male calves, but not all may realize research shows the earlier calves are cut, the better their carcass quality and value in grid marketing.

Those who wean early may not think about enhancing calf value or carcass quality, but weaning at 100 to 150 days of age (compared to the industry norm of 205 days) has been shown to improve marbling if weaned onto a high-energy ration.

In turn, the probability of reaching Premium Choice or Prime is greater in early-weaned cattle according to several studies, but overall profitability of this practice over conventional weaning has not been studied says Ahola.

At any rate, the apparent advantages do not consistently hold true for normal weaned calves, for which starting on a high-energy ration has no impact on later carcass merit. However, they do perform better than late-weaned cattle.

Studies have shown quality grade and back fat are not affected by late weaning age and data does not suggest a negative impact on carcass quality. However, cattle placed on feed earlier such as early weaned or normally weaned calves have greater marbling than those placed on feed as yearlings.

In addition to early weaning, placing calves onto a high-energy diet immediately after weaning allows favorable marbling changes to occur, the research says. Providing high-energy diets to calves at a young, less than typical weaning age, enhances deposition of intramuscular fat, more so that simply weaning at an early age.

To harness the marbling genetic potential of the Angus breed, Ahola points to a combination of practices at the cow-calf level that create a low-stress environment for calves.

His recipe includes tactics proven to enhance marbling as well as strategies that have at least some evidence of a positive impact through reduction of stress.

Beyond prompt castration and early weaning onto a high-energy diet, Ahola found low-stress management such as fence-line weaning or use of a self-weaning nose flap, in combination with a vaccination program, worming, and mineral supplementation can help with marbling.

While not all of these practices have proven scientific links to marbling, several large studies have shown a link between treatment rates for illness and quality grade or marbling. The more times an animal must be treated, the more detrimental it is to intramuscular fat deposition.

�Set cattle up in such a way that they are considered to be low-risk cattle at weaning,� Ahola recommends.

Regarding growth technologies around the time of weaning or branding, research shows implants do not influence marbling deposition. However, giving a steer more than two implants over its lifetime has had negative impacts on end product quality.

The industry continually struggles to meet a growing demand for highly marbled beef, but Ahola suggests one answer is an increased management focus on promoting intramuscular fat deposition prior to the feedlot phase.

�Our industry currently is under-supplying highly marbled beef to consumers,� he says. �If we are going to be more profitable and if we are going to provide our consumers with a better product, we need to increase the average marbling of our cattle.�

Research shows the way to cow-calf producers, through a marbling window to higher profitability

I'm not a fan of marbling myself but a lot of people obviously like it.

LOL, fat or not matters none, all commercial beef is steroided, hormoned and iradiated, it's all trash, just some of the trash will make you fatter.

Grass fed unfu-ked with beef and wild game is all that's consumed here.

Not just reduced, but different fat, more omega-3, less omega-6.

If I pay for a steak, I want it tender...

If I wanted a tough piece of meat, I'd just go shoot a scrawny jackrabbit.

There's an old saying that still holds true.

"No bone, no fat, no taste." True enough.

Grass fed beef is all well and good. But, there are things to consider with that too. The fat will taste like what the animal is eating, so the time of year the animal is fattened and killed makes a difference. A calf eating green vegetation and perhaps a few stronger weeds will have a more gamey taste. One that is eating and fattening on grass that is cured on the stem in the fall will not taste as gamey. Still has the yellow fat, but a better taste.

We eat very little beef. An elk in the freezer along with several of our meat goats and chickens/ducks/geese and we're good for the year.
Goats are browsers, like deer. If they have their preferred diet, the meat tastes very much like venison. Most of them, however, are raised on grass so the meat is milder. It doesn't marble at all so if you trim the fat off the outside, the meat has close to zero fat. It's like eating pasture grown deer.

Best meat I ever had was a young buck I shot that was eating pinon nuts for the past while, as they were plentiful, and the deer love them.

Cut it with a fork, and was heavenly. I sure hated to see the last package of that buck cooked...

This. Grass and wild forage is the natural diet of ungulates. Loads them up with omega 3 fats. That's also why eggs from hens that spend their days on a wild pasture have three times the omega 3 than typical grocery store eggs. Feedlot finished cattle lose all that by the time they're slaughtered. I must admit, though, that beef from feedlot finished cattle sure tastes better than from grass finished cattle.

The OP article is about how to wean younger and get the calves on high energy feed sooner. That should reduce the omega-3's even more.

Yup, have a custom order buyer from Ks that comes down and buys straight from my farm, no new sickness from running them through a sale barn either.

I have found that it is hard to beat a fed out calf, if the calf is fed out by the person at the right time of year, to be killed on cooler weather, and fed at home. Not a feedlot. No injections, no vaccinations. Just beef and a good feed.

I prefer a heifer over a steer too.

With our goats, I find that bucks are better than wethers (steers). They grow faster and have a higher ratio of meat to fat. As long as they're butchered young enough, there's no hormonal flavoring.

There's no finer beef than what is raised in Argentina.

It is all grass-fed, free range. They do not lot-feed cattle

Been there twice and that is what was told to me. The beef is unbelievably tender and flavorful. It is definitely different because it isn't loaded with fat. It is not as rich. You can eat more of it without feeling like you did.

BTW, I don't think there is even one person in Argentina that is overweight or even close to "obese". It's easy to tell you are back in an American airport by the fat slobs you see.

Quite a shock to the eyes once they get used to hot women in Argentina!

Yessir, I have one old man neighbor that buys a 5/600 weight steer from me each year, he wants it rounded out on straight corn for 60 days before slaughter, guess he likes em butter fat.

Said he eats and distributes meat to his family members throughout the year.

Agreed on all counts RC.

rcamuglia

Odd you mention the fat people and hotties in Argentina.

I was there hunting stag in 2013 and noticed the exact same thing. NO fat people and the amount of hot chicks is staggering.

Come to think of it, of all the places I have travelled in the world, only in the US is there any amount of fat people. I'e been to all 6 inhabitable continents and the US (maybe Canada too) is the only place like that.

Hey now!

The two things most important things in life: incredible food and stunning women.

Argentina baby!

That's saying nothing about millions of birds, big game, trout. Unbelievable country with everything a guy could want. I'd like to go to Patagonia

The political situation leaves something to be desired... LOL

Pacifico beer is good stuff. The Mesicans take credit for it but some Germans brewed it first.

It's the high starch, and high processed food, diets Americans eat.

It's just another corn adjunct fizz water.

We feed beef cattle in two categories, main group for sale barn and the other for home consumption.

I suspect there is a good reason so many Nazis fled to South America after Germany's surrender. Subtropical South America, especially Argentina is stable, off the radar and a NICE place with high quality living.

Hypothetically (or maybe not) if the time comes to leave the US, you'll either find me in either Cordoba or La Pampa Provinces, or possibly the South Island of New Zealand.

Sorry for the tangent. Back to the beef please.

Argentina is a socialist nightmare.

Their gov does suck ass, no doubt.

me neither, guess im just used to our local beef....a steak from a feedlot tastes horribly greasy to me.....but i was raised on the local grass fed beef like Sam....

I love grass fed beef as well. Definitely different, but tasty in its own right!

Sammo- That steak looks GREAT! You sell beeves to the common man?

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.

You must not have been to Germany or the UK then. I'm in Germany right now and saw plenty of fat people walking around today. The UK has their share also.

When we have a calf to eat,we put him/her on the Kline grass pasture and when they have been there a while you can see the weight gain.

They get a no.10 can of cracked corn in the AM.and in the PM.
For about 30 days or so.
After eating home grown it's a sad day when you have to get some from the store.

just spent 3 weeks in Adelaide Australia.....after lots of people watching while wandering around downtown and the college ild say the average Aussie is packing just as much extra weight as the average American....if not more.....actually was a bit disappointed after hearing all the stuff bout all the gorgeous Aussie women...on a per cap basis the college towns in Montana are better....

MM, we always end up butchering something that isn't 'fit' for the sales ring. Current beef had a bad hoof(froze when born) and walked with limp. Of course the meat is fine but they'd steal him at market.

He did get barley cake last winter and is fairly marbled(a little too much IMO), not finished on 100% grass. Kept him with a bull and an old cow we were babying through winter so he got fat.

Pretty much standard practice for anyone raising beef to butcher the oddball critter. We have a couple more steers that also have a little hitch in their get-a-long, start making room in your freezer....grin


We don't use any hormones/steroids/weird growth chit and very little antibiotics. The usual vaccinations is about it.

There is actual a little premium paid by the buyers for 'organic' calves but we can't call ours 'organic'.


As for foreign beef I have no idea how strict Argentina is on their cattle/processing. It's bad enough here in the states with canner cows, can't imagine they are any 'cleaner' and probably a lot worse when it comes to the overall quality of the product.

Of course I am biased, maybe they only butcher healthy animals and give the old cancer eyes to the dogs......yeah right. Guessing the USDA is way tighter on regulating that any South American country.

Right on Sam!

Our "poorest" beef is a treat for a king.

Richard, the current beef was nicknamed "The Cripster".

I guess our experiences differ, or my definition of fat is different.

Europe definitely has over weight people, no doubt. I did not mirror Rattler's observations in Australia though. I didn't get to wander much though to the "normal areas as I was on a military base while there. That may very well have been the difference.

In any event, I MUCH prefer the taste of a marbled steak, but there is no doubt grass fed is healthier.

Yep. No parasites in those free range Argentine critters. They're the best.

There are no pastures in NA......

We only have wild game. Any beef must be grass fed with no steroids or hormones with my hx of cancer. I eat a "regular" cheeseburger about 3-4x's a year.

dont get me wrong, there were plenty of good looking women but after everyone talking up how many gorgeous women are in Oz it was interesting to find out that unless your into all shapes of Asian women per cap your gonna see higher percentages on an average college campus here in the states....and Aussies on average are no more fit than those in the states, hell ive even seen an actual study saying they are less so....

but i am a sucker for a good looking brunette with an Aussie accent so do want to go back before long

Beef finished with corn is the way to go.

Ditto.

I can't stand the "flavor" of a store bought steak or restaurant beef. We buy 1/3 of a steer per year (minimum) from a local rancher that does it RIGHT. Other than that, it's deer, elk, and, when possible, bear.

I do need to find a local source for chicken and pork, though.

Now I am amused.

A fellow will not eat American commercial beef, but he will eat a bear?????

Man, have you ever followed a bear, (or a wild hog) through the woods and actually watched what they eat???? Can you say Trichinosis, just for starts.

Now, I have eaten a lot of bear, and the best young bear in no way is comparable to the worst beef to come off a feedlot.

Rick,

Actually, there are beef feed-lots in Argentina. When I was there in April of last year we shot doves one day all around one.

Toward the end of the shooting we got into a conversation with one of the feed-lot workers, through one of our guides, who translated for us. We asked about the corn-fed steers, and the worker said, "This schidt goes to American McDonalds!" And I know just enough Spanish to know that is exactly what he said....

Don't think our country's unhealthy society is caused by cornfed beef.

We have a raise our cattle in a feedlot. The cattle are on a diet of grass and corn. We sell our beef directly to a packing plant. They like them to have plenty of marbling, and pay a fair price for it. The steers we use for our owner freezer are butchered earlier and aren't as large or fat.

It's mostly the fries.

Best beef I ever had was a crippled up heifer my BIL had. She had badly curled over hoof-toes from(probably) getting frozen her first winter, and could only hobble from water tank to feed trough (hay and grain) and back. No steroids, etc. Never did let her out in the pasture, and of course the buyer would only pay pennies/'lb. So we ate her ourselves.

As to the "no bone, no fat, no taste" that's the biggest bunch of BS I've ever read. I put no bone from game animals into the freezer.

Every species of game animal has a unique species taste, with a variety of differences in taste between individuals within the species, depending on a number of factors. Store-bought beef flavor is pretty much standardized (with the exception of grass-fed), due to mass production, as is chicken, pork,tomatoes, and other produce.

If you can't appreciate the differences, you may have been gelded .... Preferencesin taste/health are your own business, and no one else's.

I appreciate the occaisional beef meal for the flavor. The greasy part not so much. Probably an acquired peculiarity in my lifetime, as we are genetically pre -disposed (going back a couple million years) to get and taste-appreciate fat, for survival reasons. Can't remember the last time I cracked a bone open for the morrow, if I ever did, tho many of the locals up here (white and Native) still do - and that's as much cultural as anything any more, I think. Certainly not environmentally required.

I eat no beef or pork, only venison and chicken or turkey.

i feel sorry for you.....properly raised beef and pork is great eats i like wild game as much as the next guy but good beef and pork is top notch eats

I'm not disagreeing with your opinion at all. I had my gall bladder removed and have gastric stenosis from agent orange. Any kind of animal fat or grease will give me moderate to severe pain as it passes through my system. I try to stay away from all food with grease or oils in them.

Ditto ^

I eat more chicken, fish, and wild game than anything else these days but it'll be a cold day when I give up beef or pork,,,,,, especially bacon.

oh chit, did not realize that....that would suck....one of the interns we had in the paper had some sort of issue where he lacked something in his system and couldnt digest animal protein without pain and such....he was a vegetarian though not by choice....

I've been cutting meat for a living for 36 years now.
Screw grass fed, it's for foodies and hippies and tastes like a rutted buck.
For my final meal, give me a marbled, grain finished rib eye that's red and white, not purple and yellow, a baked spud with a big pad of butter, sour cream and chives, a ceasar salad with fat croutons and extra dressing, a double scotch & water on ice and a passionate piece of ass and I'll die a happy man.

I absolutely need a good T-bone about once a week. Despised the flavor of fat as a kid. Now it's the best part of a charcoaled steak. During the times when people worked hard, and among civilizations where it's feast or famine, the fattest portions are extremely valued and consumed first.

Flavor all the way.

A big plus 1!

Have you ever really considered the beef of the 19th century when they were herded 1000 miles to a railhead then shipped to Chicago for slaughter? I'll bet it took good teeth to chew those things. Or how about the ranchers who sold beef to the army? Some of those things had to be leather on the hoof the way they were handled prior to slaughter.

Plus, throw in the fact that the vast majority were longhorns, and not European breed cattle.

You'd need a chainsaw and pitchfork...

Not beef, but the BEST venison I ever ate was a young buck that had been eating apples from my trees for a cupple weeks.

He had to "pay" for all them apples!

Virgil B.

My steer for the year was just put on alfalfa, and will be ready in November. I don't care what Salmonella says, give me a good alfalfa finished animal over corn finished, anytime. Two bites of a feed lot steak and the grease covers your tongue and you can't taste anything anymore.

The best mule deer I ever ate was a buck I just off an alfalfa field. He was heavenly. Ditto with elk, ditto with antelope. Flavor to die for.

When I ran out of elk a couple of years ago, I made stew with store bought beef. Kids wouldn't even eat it, while they'll come for seconds and thirds for elk, grass fed beef or deer stew.

Darla and i used to by burger from a guy that had some longhorns....he didnt steak any of it, whole animal went to burger with no additional added....was as lean as any venison....great for making tacos and chili and casseroles and anything you didnt want a bunch of grease....

That's about all Holsteins are good for as well...

At least the steers.

A Holstein steer finished on corn still looks like a bag of bones with no cover. I'm sure their great if you don't want any marbling in your steak...grin

I think you need the best of both worlds. No one wants to chew on a work boot, or eat a greasey ass fat heifer either.

Nothing beats a medium rare tender steak.