Reprinted with permission from The Stockman Grass Farmer, April 2006 Volume 06, #4

 

 

California Grass Finishing Trial Creates Beef That Has Top Bay Area Chefs’ Full Approval

 

 

by Mark Keller 

                       

            The production and marketing of consistently tender, great tasting beef has been the focus of my career for the last 7 years. At the start of 2005 I made a decision to run a trial to produce the highest standard of beef I could achieve in my chosen environment. For four years, I have been consulting for a heritage breed producer (Long Meadow Ranch) with the intention of creating a luxury quality grass fed beef product. I wanted to understand more exactly what the Highland cattle were gaining during the finishing season and if I could get gains sufficient to finish cattle into the fall. In addition, I wanted to have the product publicly sampled to give me further understanding of the quality of product being produced.

            To create a comparison we added some other steers to the Highlander test. We selected ten Highland steers that were 30 months old (Highland physiological age at full maturity) when they were harvested, one Highland/Angus steer that was 18 months old at harvest. In addition, we entered 9 purebred Shorthorn steers that were 18 months old at harvest as well as one shorthorn steer that was 24 months old at harvest.

 

Grazing Trial Goals:

·         Finish four types of cattle at a minimum rate of gain of 1.8 lbs. per day.

·         Assess if the Highland beef has notable beef characteristics that will command a premium price to compensate for the natural slow growth of the animal

·         Explore if the Cross-bred Highland/Angus beef show extra production efficiency over the pure bred Highland, delivering a high quality beef experience.

·          Gather grass finishing performance and beef quality data on four different age and breeds of cattle in the trial.

 

Grazing Trial Production Details:

·         The grazing trial took place in Ferndale, California under the management of Jay Russ Cattle Co.

·         The Ferndale area has been described by SGF editor, Allan Nation, as America's Ireland because it lacks the hot summers common in most of North America.

·         The coastal pastures are on the alluvial soil in the Eel River flood plain in Humboldt Co.

·         The feed source was mainly ryegrass and white clover.

·         The study started on April 15th 2005 and completed with the two harvests on October 11th and 17th of 2005.

·         Shorthorn cattle were produced by the Albaugh Ranch in Fallon, Nevada.

·         All shorthorn cattle were selected by using a subjective visual and tactile test that measured hide pliability and bone flatness.

·         Long Meadow Ranch purchased the Shorthorn cattle in April of 2005.

·         The shorthorn steers arrived for the trial in May of 2005 and entered the trial immediately.

·         All Highland steers were born and raised in Ferndale under the ownership of Long Meadow Ranch.

·         Beginning in mid July the finishing pastures were irrigated with a K-line sprinkler irrigation system.

 

Grazing Trial Performance Data:

 

The table below shows the average lbs. of gain per day in the different time periods and average carcass weights.

                                     (Early: April or May to mid July Late: Mid July to mid October)

 

Grazing Trial Results:

·         The 18-month-old shorthorn steers excelled in the gaining category with an average for the season of 2.37 lbs/day.

·         The 24-month-old Shorthorn also made our goal of a minimum of 1.8 lbs/day gain.

·         The 18 month Highland/Angus cross had excellent performance in the late season. A 66% increase in performance vs. the 30 month purebred Highlands.

·         We did not have performance data on the Highland/Angus cross for the early season.

·         It seems that all cattle gained better in the late spring and early summer than the late summer and early fall period on irrigated pasture.

·         Jay Russ Cattle Co. supplemented the cattle with high quality pasture haylage from mid July to the harvest date.

·         Pasture haylage was provided to introduce fiber to the cattle while on the lush irrigated pasture.

 

Nutritional Testing:

A fresh rib eye sample from each animal was sent to the University of Utah for fatty acid analysis (Omega 6:3 ratio and CLA content).

 Omega 6:3 ratio test values for all four samples came up with a favorable 1:1 ratio of Omega 6:3. Grass fed meat has an average Omega 6:3 ratio of 1:1 to 3:1. According to Utah State grain fed beef and milk is often 14:1. Ideal Omega 6:3 ratio is less than 4 to 1.

CLA samples of the four carcasses ranged from 6.1 mg to 9.2 mg /gram of fat. According to Utah State, average grain fed beef CLA values are 3.5 - 4mg CLA/g of fat. Although this number was double the grain fed benchmark, the CLA was still lower than the grass fed bench mark supplied by the Utah State Skaggs Nutrition Laboratory.

 

The Beef Tasting Preparation:

Four individual animals were selected for two tastings. All of the animals were harvested on the same day. The carcasses were dry aged for two weeks and then broken down and vacuum packed as boneless primal and sub-primals.

            All four carcasses looked very nice from a fat covering standpoint and each ribeye contained a varying amount of marbling but the marbling was very uniform in its deposits on the ribeye area.

 

Beef Tasting Details:

Chez Panisse Restaurant - Berkeley, CA

Sue Moore, the meat forager for Chez Panisse, coordinated a blind tasting at the Chez Panisse kitchen on November 11th. A rib eye steak was selected from each animal for the event. Chef Phillip Dedlow started cooking the two inch thick ribeye steaks in the oven, moved them to a grill above a wood fire for a period and then finished them in the oven. The four steaks were then allowed to rest for approximately 10 minutes. All steaks sampled were cooked to the doneness of medium rare.

During the tasting the identity of each animal was kept hidden from the tasting panel that included approximately 6 Chez Panisse employees and me. A score card with comments was kept as busy chefs buzzed through the tasting while attending to their duties.

 

ACME Chop House - San Francisco, CA

Top sirloin, tenderloin, ribeye, and flat iron steak from all 4 test animals were selected for a tasting at ACME Chop House on November 15th. Chef Thom Fox organized the blind tasting which included chopped top sirloin served tartar, the balance of the other meats were grilled medium rare. Each muscle group from the four animals was served together and the participants took notes of what they experienced. In between the group members of the test voiced what their perception and preference was.

This beef tasting was attended by approximately 25 participants. In attendance was a mixture of local chefs, livestock producers, food lovers, and average consumers. The identity of each animal and breed was kept confidential by using a code for each specific animal. At the end of the tasting each participant voted for which animal they liked the best.

 

Taste Test Conclusions:

Chez Panisse: 

All of the four beef ribeye samples were deemed good tasting and excellent quality. Different flavor profiles were noticed by the panel among the samples. The beef that was most enjoyed by the chefs was the 24-month-old Shorthorn steer. This shorthorn beef was well marbled (my unofficial guess is that it would have graded choice). The chefs also liked the 30-month-old Highland beef because of the flavor and tenderness. I was the lone wolf in this tasting as I preferred the younger animals for their milder yet very beefy flavor. We all agreed that in judging the samples, we were splitting hairs at this point and that all the products were very acceptable and make an excellent eating experience.

           

Meats from this trial were ordered for use on the Chez Panisse menu the following week.

 

ACME Chop House:

            At the end of the event, all the tasters voted on the beef that was their favorite. By a show of hands, the 18-month Highland / Angus steer and the 18-month Shorthorn steer tied as the winner. The 24-month-old Shorthorn came in second by one vote and the 30-month-old Highland came in third trailing by 3 votes.

It was extremely interesting to see the differences in preference between trained chefs and food connoisseurs, livestock producers, and the average consumer. The trained palates went right away for the product that was rich and robust, in this case the older animals. What an average consumer may have called gamey the chef and food lover would call complex and multidimensional.

 

Trial Results:

The reason I wanted to do this project was to quantify and learn first hand what was possible within the resource base that I had access to. My take away from this process is the following:

·         Both age categories of Shorthorn steers were able to exceed the minimum goal of 1.8 lb/day avg. daily gain in the early and late finishing season.

·         The Highland/Angus cross steer was a good eating experience and improved the efficiency of production over the purebred Highland.

·         This steer had excellent average daily gain performance and only missed the mark by a fraction.

·         Older animals had a complex and robust flavor that was preferred by the culinary participants. The younger animals were milder in flavor and highly acceptable to a broad audience.

·         Although the beef did very well in the tasting, it is not conclusive that a consumer would pay an additional premium to support the economics of the slow growing purebred Highland steers.

·         Ryegrass and white clover provide a high enough energy pasture to successfully create fat in beef animals.

·         Thanks to the cool summer weather, the use of irrigation and white clover, we did not experience the summer slump in average daily gain seen in many areas.

·         The supplementation of fall pastures with wilted haylage to raise dry matter also appeared to help raise the fall gains above what were expected.

·         We learned that our finishing window under this production model extends to early fall, which will allow us the opportunity to have high quality beef without the expense of a second winter.

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