Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire "Best" Beef Breed

Don't any of you fuggers break 'em to ride, before you eat 'em?......

Also rumours of a small amount of Chianna. I believe this one

I'll have to agree with Denton. The best beef I've ever had was from a Brown Swiss cow crossed to an Angus bull. Then hand-raised as a "pet" on good alfalfa hay, limited corn silage, and finally finished out with ground oats and soybeans.

Other than that, I think if the beef is growing well on a mix of good hay, some alfalfa, some corn, and especially oats or barley, that they always taste great. If they are stressed, killed when not really growing, or dehydrated due to really cold or really hot temps, that they don't taste as good.

The ranch I work on sometimes has purebred Angus cows that go 1800 pounds. They definitely are not a small breed anymore. He has selected for size for 30 years or so, and many of them seem too big to me as they are slow finishers.

Here's something that surprised me, in the early history of San Antonio by the late Eighteenth Century, longhorns which had by then established widespread feral populations, were not held in high regarded as table fare, tho surely all were grass-fed.

Their market value lay in their hides and tallow, one wonders just how much tallow (fat) was on them. In the early years cattle ranching was an iffy proposition in Spanish Texas mostly due to the mortality rate among isolated vaqueros to Indians. For the most part relations with the Indians were cordial, but all it needed per vaquero could be a single uncordial Indian at some point and the vaquero wasn't coming home. OTOH slaughtering the longhorns in place and then collecting the hides and tallow could be a group proposition, therefore less risky. The hides and tallow then being shipped by oxcarts, big two-wheeled carretas drawn by pairs of oxen (which carts could haul around 500 pounds). So many feral longhorns were slaughtered this way by groups of men acting on their own that San Antonio authorities attempted to regulate the process without much success.

Alternatively, groups of Tejanos would band together and organize annual drives to deliver the hides and tallow on the hoof. Mexico was a major market via Monterrey, 250 miles distant though drives in that direction were dependent upon whatever the annual rainfall happened to be that year. What has been mostly forgotten in popular history are the annual 500 to 600 mile cattle drives to New Orleans beginning in the year 1779, from the San Antonio area and especially further south around Goliad which became the center of the Spanish Texas cattle industry.

http://www.wtblock.com/wtblockjr/opelousa.htm

A pity these original Texas cattle drives ain't better recorded, those old-time vaqueros might have boasted a few flintlock smoothbores, and prob'ly more'n a few bows and arrows, but that was it. Must have been some epic drives. When the Americans arrived in numbers beginning in the 1820's they took up the practice and also drove cattle east, the first big Texas cattle drives.

Anyways, closer to the topic, in the winter of 1835/1836 about 500 American were waiting in the Goliad area (weren't nobody supposed to be at the Alamo) to repel an anticipated invasion by the Mexican army, a period of waiting spanning about three months. This was the Texian Army, at that time officially fighting to restore the Mexican Constitution of 1824 rather than for Texas Independence. During that time these men were armed and fed by the cabal of New Orleans merchants and Southern State governments that were financing the war. One of the supply ships sent by the merchants ran aground over by present-day Houston leaving these men critically short of supplies.

One of the biggest subsequent complaints of the Texian army around Goliad was that they were reduced to feeding on longhorns.

Meanwhile, throughout this period until at least the 1830's, buffalo robes and meat were an essential component of the annual economy of a typical Tejano household, 100 plus mile expeditions to the north and west being organized in the late fall and winter for this purpose, these expeditions centering around the ox carts used to transport the collect meat and hides home.

Birdwatcher

Of course we all know about the 1860's and '70's cattle drives heading north and the millions of longhorns involved.

I do gotta wonder about the quality of beef coming out of the big 19th Century meat packing plants in Chicago and such

A taste test done in AU called paddock to plate judged by a panel of chefs found...DEXTER... was the most tender and most flavorsome of all the standard and fringe breeds. \Wagyu fat is a completely different gene to common european breeds, as it dissolves, so you are left with just the muscle. George has it!

I've put up beef from holsteins and herefords, but my best 2 ever butchered came from a neighbors small herd of murray greys. He's got a waiting list...

I wouldn't mind raising some Dexters.

I like grass-fed better, personally. It isn't worth arguing about, though.

Save the corn for the bourbon. Though I have to admit I won't turn down a good scotch

From a producer standpoint I will say that the buyers love a nice even set of black calves. They most certainly bring a premium in the sales ring.

And from my point of view they make pretty damn good cows as well.


Our last beef was finished on a combination of alfalfa and hay barley.

It's quite edible...

I try to bring out the old western plains taste in our butchered beef. Just like a buffalo, I chase the cow with a horse until it is hot then shoot it.

laughing!


Hell, that's actually not a bad idea.

Call it Wild West Beef or whatever and the yuppies would be lining up!

Sign me up for a quarter. I'll take my quarter off the top, and some ribs. Maybe a coupla shanks and the tail for soup. And the head, to cook in a pit for tacos.

Geno

PS, Sam, how come them Herfeords of yours don't have white faces? Growing up, that was all I knew as Hereford, white faces. The again, Angus were smaller too as noted by others. Don't tell me cows are getting like GM cars? Call em what you want, they're all the same anyway.

A couple of years ago my wife and I watched a documentary on Netflix about beef and it’s production from the UK to Japan to Argentina to the US and other countries. I can’t remember the name but you might look for it; it was extremely interesting as to the different breeds, feed regimens, how they were raised, etc.

One thing among others that stood out was the incredible amount of fat the Japanese like in their choice beef.

I live in Sioux County, IA which is I believe the number one CO in the nation, or was, for the number of beef cattle in confinement’s. And, it’s kind of ironic that I get my steaks — I like ribeyes about 1.5-2” thick — from Costco and cut my own. I don’t know what breed/cross they come from or where but they are excellent.

I like beef fat, so finishing is key. It doesn't really matter what of breed you slaughter it is how it is approached.Even Longhorns are good( roping cattle) if they spend time on barley etc

Black baldies ruled for the previous 20 years here in West-Central Colorado. But the last few years I've hardly seen a one. Mostly all black. I started raising Angus in 4H in the late 60's in the middle of Hereford country. Even though it was a hard sell I did pretty well in fairs and open competition.

Geno, I was just being a wise guy. You are indeed correct on the Hereford, white face with a red hide.

You don't see too many of them around anymore. Still a few registered herds around here but somewhat rare.


My parents and I run all commercial black angus cows. They aren't all 100% black angus but close enough....

I'd say the average cow in our herd is around 1300-1400lbs.

We sold a 4 year old(?) canner bull 3 weeks ago and I believe he was 2200lbs.

We raise black angus, and a few crosses. 90% of the animals we buy for our feedlot are black Angus. We ship to the packing plant and are paid on how the steers grade. Angus do well for us. But in the future if there's some that did better maybe we'd try it.

Sam, I bet you have a bit of whitetail heaven there with those cotton wood shelter belts don’t you?

Of course the cattle look good too.