Grass-Fed Beef

Believe it or not, there exists an organization called the American Grassfed Association. Interestingly, they don't like the USDA's guidelines for grass-fed beef because it "leaves loopholes for cattle to spend time in confined feeding areas and to be fed [corn] silage" (Angus Beef Bulletin, Feb 2010). This is another example of why it pays to not put all of your trust in a certain label, and more importantly, to know your farmer.

The AGA has its own qualifications for grass-fed beef:

• total forage diet (excluding mother's milk)
  
• no confinement
• no non-therapeutic antibiotics
• no added hormones
  

A forage diet consists of annual and perennial grass, forbs (legumes, brassica), browse (tips of woody shrubs and trees), and cereal grain crops in the pre-grain state. While Chuck did eat his fair share of corn, he also ate literally tons of legume/grass hay.

Confinement means keeping an animal in an area where forages and crops are not grown during the growing season. Chuck did spend a lot of his life in such a described area, though it is maintained well: he was never up to his belly in mud or crowded by other animals. It wouldn't take much to open the gate to allow Chuck access to pasture year-round, but after the grass is dormant or covered by snow, we suspect he'd spend most of his time in the confinement area anyway, seeking shelter from inclement weather.

So, Chuck met one of those standards in its entirety (no hormones), and sort of met the no confinement standard. Were we to do this process again, we would think seriously about not giving Chuck any vaccinations unless absolutely needed. We would probably also omit feeding decox.

We are certainly not trying to label Chuck "grass-fed," but the fact that our club met 1.5 of these standards--and would probably have no problem meeting three of the four--again makes the case for common sense guiding us to healthy food. Common treatments between all labels and standards also begin to emerge, the big three being no confinement, antibiotics, or hormones.

Location of Different Cuts of Beef

If you are wondering which part of Chuck your rib eye, chuck roast, or sirloin came from, check out Certified Angus Beef's (CAB) website. The "Beef Cuts" section features an interactive beef cuts chart along with some helpful cooking tips. This link also resides under the "quick links" section of this blog.

Chuck In the Freezer

We finally have the last pieces of Chuck weighed, inventoried, and stored in the deep freeze. He looks a little different than he did a few months ago:


His hanging weight came in at 766 lbs (347.4 kg). If we divide that by 63%, we arrive at a slaughter weight around 1,216 lb (551.5 kg), which is about what we were aiming for.

I unofficially weighed each group of cuts to arrive at a total, take-home weight of 498 lbs (226 kg). This works out to about 65% of Chuck's hanging weight, which, according to the University of Minnesota's figures, is a yield typical between "choice, very fat" and "choice, average" for a side of beef.

If we stay with our $1,000 estimated cost of raising Chuck, add the $431 processing fee, and divide the sum by our take-home weight, our total cost of Chuck comes to $2.87 / lb. If we use an EUR conversion rate of .7156, that works out to about 4.53 EUR / kg. We tried to think of a way to assign each cut a cost per pound, but our numbers do not take into account demand. It stands to reason that the fewer the cuts, the higher the price, but there is always the exception of liver, tongue, heart, and other organs. We would probably have to survey the percentage differences at a meat counter to truly assign values, but that's more work that we are willing to put forth at the moment.

If you'd like a breakdown (Excel spreadsheet) of Chuck's numbers, please fire off an e-mail to us at npovsbeefsteer@gmail.com.

RIP Chuck

We took Chuck to the Minden Meat Market on January 4th for "processing." He went willingly, though we had to scoop snow 6 feet deep and 5 feet long that had drifted our loading chute shut. Unfortunately for Chuck, the ride up was really, really cold. Temperatures were hovering around zero degrees F, (-17.8 C), and with a 50 mph ( 80.5 kmh) wind chill, his ride was probably the most miserable part of his life.

The Minden Meat Market has three stalls, and when we got there, the other two were already occupied. All of the animals, including Chuck, were quiet. I didn't get to stay to watch Chuck meet his maker as I had hoped, but I did chat briefly with his executioner. Aside from some blood and feces on his apron, he seemed very ordinary.

Chuck is now ready to pick up, which we will be doing tomorrow barring any major difficulties. We don't know what his hanging weight is, yet, but we are very anxious to see how he looks in all of his various forms.