Luxury Beef

Why do we eat beef?

It occurred to me the other day while I forked some hay up for Chuck that we really don't need beef to survive anymore. Our predecessors almost certainly did, though, especially in the dead of winter when fruits, vegetables, and grain weren't readily available and the stored food was running low. In the spirit of waste not, want not, even an old milk cow was a candidate for eating.

After paying more attention to the recent grass-fed phenomena and addressing the topic in recent conversations, the general consensus seems to be that, not too long ago, grass-fed beef was cheap beef. Put another way, a family raising their own beef might fatten their animal on cheaper food stuffs (grass) over a longer time period because corn or other sources of high carb/calorie food was too expensive.

Based on consumer demand, the Iowa Beef Industry Council put together a few target traits for beef carcass. Included in that list are: slaughter age 16 months or younger and feedlot average daily gain of 3.5 lbs (1.6 kg) or higher. We suspect grass-fed beef is hard pressed to fall into either of these categories, and we can can probably agree that taste demands traditionally drive how an animal is fed and treated.

So are we, as a club, raising Chuck for luxury or necessity? We've carried out this project with a set of priorities different from commercial beef: we put the life of the animal before the taste of the beef. Are we prepared to accept lower quality beef in exchange for a better life for the animal? Or will we quit eating beef altogether if we can't have the tasty characteristics we've come to expect?

It's too late for Chuck to fall into the IBC's 16-month category, and by our estimates, he's in the 2 lb/day average daily gain category. Does this mean he'll be tougher, leaner, and perhaps a little less palatable than prime? Is a more natural way of feeding worth compromising the luxury of beef?