corn feed vrs grass fed

[rio_grande]

I can truly say I learned this lesson the hard way. As a kid we sold our corn,,, no way give it to cows, they got the cobs theyscavanged from the fields after harvest....
The meat back then was what we ate and that was just what beef tasted like,,,, Later in life when we really didnt meet the defination of dirt poor :) Dad read something i a book somewhere and out of the same group of herford steers he fed 1 grain for 2 months before the butcher and the second just came in the day before from the field. The diffrence was very noticable. To this day dad brings them in gradually starting 4 months out. by last week they are all, grain... They are great,,, Best we ever had were lemosine holstine cross big meaty and heavily marbled. We had alot of calving problems though that caused dad to go back to herford. We havent had a steer with any form of antibiotic or medicine of ANY type in my freezer for years, No growth hormones or artificial sterioids either. Dad raises a dozen or so a year and if one of them has to be doctored for anything greater than fly spray then he ear tag it and it goes to the sale, the no tag ones go in our freezers...

Love my Christmas preasant..

 

[stircrazy]

ok, I never called corn a grain in my live.. always called it a vegtible so this thread is screing me up. doesn anyone in the US use grains other than corn? we have a large corn crop in the southren part of the provence but nothing like you guys do, so we would never dream of feeding corn to cattle as it is way to expensive.. when I say grain fed I am talking about oats, wheat, barley ect..

has anyone tried both what I concider grain and then corn and compared the differance?

Steve

 

[oneeye]

My wife raises dumb, black cattle strictly on grass - pasture for 3 seasons, hay in the winter. She gives them no antibiotics or hormones. They are slaughtered at 18 months and dry aged for a time (I forget how long). Best beef that I have ever eaten! She also has a long list of satisfied customers that feel the same way.

 

[davidmcg]

The grains we feed our cows is all grown on our property or leased property, same with the hay and pastures. These grains are strict field corn not sweet, soybeans and some oats. We grind mix blend them all ourselves. Out of our corn fields we hold on to roughly 5000 bushels each year just for the cattle and as barter for other things. Beans we hold back about 2800 bushels and the oats 2000 bushels. Only got 3.18 a bushel last for corn, down from the 6.80 in 2008. We know and trust what we grow to be free of junk and plan on keeping it that way. What I left out is that we also have 5 herefords and 5 charlois cows for a specific group of customers who are very picky of what they have on their plate. I have had meat that they produced and it is nice and marbely also. But what these people pay for it makes me tend to leave it alone unless they toss back a few steaks. This year is not trending to well on any ag products at this time. Grains seem to be in fair abundance worldwide. Some say Russia, China and Brazil are dumping on the market forcing prices down to hurt us. Meat is going up in the stores, but what we get is still looking flat as it has for the last 2 years. Even with so many people selling and getting out, it still isn't looking good. Brome hay has been a great grower here the last 4 years, has to be about at its peak. These things all run in cycles, just like the weather. One thing for sure, as goes the ag markets, so goes the rest of the country. The USA is still strongly and firmly based in agriculture, its all we got left. If this industry tanks too much more, you can kiss your city jobs, regardless of what they are goodbye. That corn and other grains I sell doesn't all go just to food. Its in everything you touch everyday, even your particle board furniture that your sitting on or looking at right now to the that car which is roughly 80% corn based. In your car almost all the plastic, vinyl, rubber, paint and fuel is made mostly from corn and not oil.