I think mule deer is on to something about mild.
We live in idao but spend a lot of time in the Midwest. The beef in Minnesota to me tastes like chewy butter.
My Midwest buddies never liked my Idaho grass fed 3 year old open cows that I prefer over Midwest beef.
Oklahoma state university did research and they came to a conclusion that if a calf had a period of negative energy balance during its life span it would not be as desirable a carcass.
A butcher I work for in Oregon states that if you harvest an animal when it's forage is actively growing ( hence higher in sugar) that meat will be most desirable. Clients I work for in northern Minnesota claim the best eating north wood whitetail is harvested around the Fourth of July.
In the Lemhi valley ( Idaho) where we live we are most fortunate in the amount of livestock fed over the winter. Most are fed some high quality Idaho alfalfa during the coldest part. The livestock is fed out in the open hay meadows where the resident whitetails are free to help them selves and hardly any of them it seems go a day without a full Rumen. The whitetail here in my opinion is better than any of the " corn fed" Minnesota whitetail I have harvested.
Quality mule deer 2 me tastes identical to quality elk.
But whitetail can have a big variation of flavor in Minnesota north woods versus farm land.
I also think desert high heat areas sage fed mule deer are inferior to " mountain" or farm ground mule deer.
I have a theory on antelope......if you watch them buggers and their antics chasing , running,dashing during breeding season. I suspect some have run themselves into a state of ketosis, and muscle breakdown that makes them offensive to taste. Where as most have not gone through that level of exerertion prior to harvest and taste fine.
Last edited by Angus1895; 12/14/18.
