What Makes "Good" Grass-Fed Beef?
What makes the best beef? As with so many things, the answer is that it depends. We should probably think and talk about locally raised meat the way we think about beer from local breweries. The “best” beer depends on personal preferences, the meal your eating with it, the temperature outside, and any number of other factors. In a similar way, the “best” beef depends on many factors. Different people may prefer the stronger flavor of more mature animals, or the more mild flavor of younger animals. For some people, tenderness is the ultimate measure of a good steak, others put more weight on flavor. Some prefer lean, others want well marbled. All of these factors of course differ from breed to breed, animal to animal, cut to cut, and person to person.
However that being said, many people have had less than ideal experiences with grass-fed beef. It can have a reputation for being lean, dry, and tough compared to beef people are used to. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Grass-fed beef, when done well, can be tender, juicy, and incredibly flavorful. There is no single recipe for raising great tasting beef, but below are some of the things we think matter.
Factors that affect the quality of Grass-fed beef
Good genetics - For a high quality eating experience, it helps to have cattle that are well adapted to your environment and production system. Many cattle that have been bred to gain the fastest and grow the largest on a grain based diet aren’t able to add marbling and fat cover on the lower energy grass-based diet. We think the highest quality grass-fed beef comes from smaller framed, deep bodied animals that can thrive on pasture without inputs of harvested feeds.
Good grazing management - careful grazing management can keep animals on a higher plane of nutrition by keeping fresh pastures in front of them, entering pastures at optimal levels of regrowth that are higher in protein and energy, and preventing forages from becoming over mature. We’ve found it also helps to have them on an increasing plane of nutrition, going from high quality (Irrigated pastures) to our highest quality (our best improved dryland pastures) as they get closer to finishing. Good managers balance this with grazing management that leads to healthy soil, diverse pastures, and low animal stress. (more on these below)
Optimal levels of fat cover, or “finish”. While grass-finished beef does tend to be a little leaner than grain-finished beef, we think that the poor eating experience some people have had with grass-fed beef is due to animals that were slaughtered too early and too lean. This can lead to tough and dry beef. It is possible to produce marbled, tender, and juicy grass-finished beef if they are given enough time, and grazed on high enough quality pasture. We think the sweet spot in our area for finishing beef is between 24 and 36 months of age. (in our system, because we go to the butcher every 2 weeks, we are able to hand-select animals that have reached optimal levels of finish, and don’t just rely on an age or weight cut off to have them slaughtered)
Diverse forages and healthy soil. Diverse plants growing in healthy, biologically active soil are able to take up more essential nutrients. In turn, animals that eat a wide range of diverse forages on pasture get more nutrient density in their diet, and pass that nutrient density on to their meat and milk. We still think that meat, regardless of the finishing model, is a healthy part of the diet, with high levels of many essential nutrients. However, the added nutrient density in grass-fed animals is a great bonus!
Low stress environments - cattle that are managed with lower stress tend to gain better and marble better over time. They tend to get sick less, and need less veterinary interventions. Also, if an animal is severely stressed at the end of its life stress hormones can affect the taste of the meat.
A talented butcher -From slaughtering in as low stress a manner as possible, to a good dry-aging process, to small tricks such as which direction steaks are cut from (with or against the grain), to how quickly the meat is frozen, to just the appearance of the meat, butchers can have a significant impact on the eating experience as well.
Of course there is more to the story, but these are some of what we’ve found to be most important factors. These are the things we are always working on here at the Mannix ranch to consistently produce marbled, tender, juicy beef, and a good eating experience. In another post, we’ll share our production system from birth to butcher in more detail, but feel free to reach out with any questions.
And If you’ve had a bad experience before, especially with store bought grass-fed beef, give us a try! We’d love to try to change your mind about grass-fed beef.
Beef and Burger Cows grazing one of our higher quality dryland pastures.