Difference in Grass Fed Beef

(Jon H ) #1

I usually get Grass Fed Beef from a store called, Natural Grocers, for about 10$ a pound. I found cheaper meat “grass-fed organic” from Sams for 5$ a pound. It cooks faster, it’s a much different color, no matter how long you sear it, it won’t get nearly as dark. Worst of all, it takes like plastic and I get sick of it fast. Are they lying somehow about their label? What factors could Sams be doing to cause this much variation? It’s bothering me that I did research and I cannot find the answer to this.

(B Creighton) #2

My wife is very picky about taste, and has never complained about their grass fed ground beef. I have also gotten grass fed ground beef from a nearby ranch in an adjoining county, and I believe it was mainly just more expensive. It did have less fat, but other than that tasted very similar, and was a little tougher. Can’t say it was worth $3 more/lb. I bought more of the Member’s Mark just this year. It could be from a different area than yours though.

#3

Easy, it’s not grass fed beef at $5/lb, no way. There are lots of loopholes when it comes to what they can say. Does it specifically say BOTH grass fed / grass finished? That’s not required to be the real deal, but when it comes to stuff like this, you’d want to see it.

Don’t forget, “Organic” doesn’t even mean that (not in the US at least), and that’s something that comes with a certification!

Look into local meat in your area / state and then look into the meat services like Good Ranchers, Butcher Box etc. It’s not “cheap”, but it’s cheaper than supermarkets and in most cases even wholesale clubs. OR, just buy leaner steaks and then don’t worry about whether it’s grass fed or not. People get all upset, but the reality is, from what we can see all the difference comes in the fat profile, not the muscle meat itself, and nitpicking the nutrient difference is trying to rationalize paying near double for meat when the small differences would have already been covered by the nutrient supplementation that everybody should be doing anyway, because nobody’s getting it all from food, that’s make believe. 50+ years ago, sure. Not now. The soils dead, which still in most cases affects the grass the cows are eating, everything in it is fortified, it’s all a multivitamin at this point.

Yes, there are some small run regenerative farms that are doing everything right and therefor they’re the real deal, and so is the price tag to get it!

(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #4

I’ve had this. I think it might be as simple as packaging. As we know, some glad wrap does leach.

Yes, for example, if it’s just had 1 week on grass then it’s been grass fed!

#5

Yup! Worst part, it’s literally cheaper to feed them grass than feed, all the cows are grass fed almost their whole lives until the end, but if farmers just took a beating (once) to keep the cattle longer on grass until they were ready to go, their cattle would be worth more because then they could send it to a slaughterhouse that kept them on it, sure it’s be a year probably , but then that’s the cycle they’d be in from that point forward.

What kills me, is that yes in any place with winter they have to stockpile for the winter, but working indirectly in agriculture I’m on a lot of farms, I see those grass bakes, most are fine, but many are plastic wrapped, open sides, not kept in good places, soaked and look moldy, I’m way more worried about that than I am the grain problem.

Place I get raw milk from puts them on feed when they have too, but they pay the premium for good feed that that cows actually like and doesn’t screw with the milk, we pay the price for that, but we’re willing and when they did that a couple years ago basically took a shareholder vote on it. (I’m in a cattle share state, which is stupid). But hey, at least we get a day!

(Doug) #6

I think it’s often a roll of the dice - I’ve had grass-fed beef that was great, and middling, and really not that good, and the same for grain-fed or whatever it was.

As I understand it, Argentina isn’t necessarily “grass-fed” beef anymore, but I visited it in 2008, and everywhere I had beef, it was truly excellent.

In the U.S., I’ve found chuck roast, filet mignon, ribeyes and hamburger that were great, at Walmart - one of the cheapest stores and one that many would consider suspect.

Sometimes I wonder if it was just a day that I was really in the mood for a steak…

(Brian) #7

I will confess, I don’t know what feedlots feed their cattle. Have only driven by a few of 'em and have never worked in or near one.

We have a LOT of cattle around where I live. They ALL eat grass. It’s their primary diet. Most farmers will feed a little grain to them at various times of the year and for somewhat different reasons but primarily, they eat grass, or hay, which is just grass that’s been baled / preserved when it’s plentiful so that they have it all year round.

I have had “organic, grass fed, grass finished, panda massaged” beef from a local grower and ended up giving a bunch of it away. (I enjoyed the advertising way more than the experience of actually eating it.) I much prefer cows grown on high quality pasture with just a little grain, primarily as they are entering their final weeks before slaughter.

Most of the time, when we hear people around here wanting “grass fed beef”, it typically gets them a funny look with the unsaid expression reacting to the internal thought of, “this person is an idiot that probably is still trying to figure out which end of the rooster the egg comes out of”. At least in these parts, the idea of a cow raised on something other than grass is ridiculous.

That said, I’m of the opinion that pasture quality matters. The healthiest cows I know of live on grass that is in better condition than most people’s lawns. Some of the most unhealthy cows I know of locally just live on whatever they can scrounge from not so great pastures that have pretty much zero care and a daily feeding of some grain and supplements in their feed trough once a day. But that’s just my personal observation, others might see it differently. Beef from the first I mentioned will run you something closer to $7/lb and is worth every penny of it. The beef from the second mentioned can probably be had for about half of that but it’ll be a lot more like what you get at Walmart.

#8

I work on a grassfed beef farm.

Lack of regulation means “grassfed” labels get misused often, sadly.

I recommend using a database like eatwild.com to find local farms to support.

Animal Welfare Approved and Certified Grassfed are the only guaranteed 100٪ grassfed.

(Bob M) #9

I used eatwild to find a local farm. I typically buy pork, but it’s mainly because buying beef typically requires a lot more money, because they’re much heavier.

(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #10

I’ve been buying beef (and venison) from a local farm called Chart Farm but wow, it’s expensive!

(Delbert Carr) #11

I may get some hate for this but, I just found butcher box and it actually appears to be pretty affordable for grass fed grass finished after the first box and really tasted great. Just did the math and it ended up 20 bucks a pound i ended up with
80 oz rib eye
60 oz ny
169 dollars all says grass fed pasture raised. That is shipping included so it’s about 18.85 per lbs

(Bean) #12

The amount of fat/ water also matters in ground meat, so worth seeing if it’s 75% or 80% or whatever.

ETA my beef is from a local farmer. It’s grass fed with some grain finish. I’m okay with that because when I render the tallow it smells fresh and grassy. The butcher at the meat locker doesn’t trim it so I get a lot of fat. Makes him crazy to leave the fat, but he’s also happy to give me all the organ meats and suet that the other buyers don’t pick up from my farmer. It makes it very cost effective for me that way. He made a small mistake in my order pick up last time, requiring a second trip, so he gave me some of his own lard, as well.

I’ve had the frozen grass fed patties from Costco, which I suspect are from the same vendor as the Member’s Mark. They don’t behave like the 80% ground meat that they are labeled. I’m not sure why. It seems like they are lower fat.

(Bean) #13

This is true. Even if you’re purchasing local. I have a choice of two farmers locally, and my grain finished beef is on much better pasture for longer than the alternative, and it really matters in the finished beef. I also like knowing that my cow was well cared for and had a good life.

#14

At the farm where I work, our 100% grassfed and finished ground beef (roughly 80/20 depending on the animal) is $13.00/lb. That’s low-mid range for Virginia. We are fortunate to have great forage and management, but I totally understand that the landscape and ag methods are different depending on region. Also, accessibility is an issue, so I say go with the best quality meat you can find and afford. I would never knock another farm’s way of doing things, or another keto’ers day to day.

I also find that ground beef from anywhere, be it grocery stores or farms, is extremely variable in texture, fat content, quality, and eating experience. I do recommend getting a $50 meat grinder, sourcing good beef fat, and blending your own burger with ground meat or venison