Is it Finished Yet?
On a beautiful grazing day here in Central New York, I had the good fortune of touring William Lipsey’s Farm. Like most farm visits and agricultural environmental management assessment plans, concerns generally center around barnyards, infrastructure needs and grazing management. With that said, it’s awfully hard as a 20 yr. grazing veteran myself, not to enjoy the sight of good quality animals on pasture. Standing there admiring the herd, Bill pointed out a nice plump Highlander heifer that he was finishing on grass and wondered out loud if it was truly finished. It looked to me that it was. How did I know to give that comment with any sort of confidence? One word, experience.
That experience has come from custom grazing other cattlemen’s animals. Specifically speaking, our farm has been part of a team for the last 4 years that finishes around 50 beeves, solely on 100% native pastures. We also graze about 150 up and coming stocker calves for the next year. It has been very enlightening to see the differences in animals from one batch to another. The animal’s genetics to fully utilize pastures and on-farm forages, and to finish in a timely manner is critical for success. Typically, a smaller framed, early maturing animal has been working best in an all grass system. Taking that one step further, I have had the good fortune of working with Dr. Allen Williams of the Jacob Alliance and Gerald Fry of the Bakewell Reproductive Center on using ultrasound technology to measure carcass quality. As a grazier, this knowledge is beneficial in training the eye to look at the “working end” of the animal. Animals I thought were finished still needed another 30 to 60 days. “Filling in the tail head” and pins with good cover is a good sign your getting close to the proper finish. Beware, once you have achieved the finish, they need to be harvested. The only thing that can happen once their finished is they go backwards, which we have painfully found out trying to hold animals while the marketing catches up.
Good quality pastures that can provide in excess of 2 pounds of gain per day are an essential part of finishing. The smorgasbord we provide our animals usually consists of cool-season grasses, native forbs and a good share of legumes grazed down to a 3 inch residual. Over the last few years, we have grazed at higher heights and left more residual for our finishing stock, trying to get maximum dry matter intakes for high performance of the animal and the pasture. It’s certainly a fine line and comes with a lot of practice and observation. We really appreciate the diversity in the pasture plants as the driver for all that happens at the farm, from the taste of the beef to the abundance of grassland birds and soil organisms. I like it because it’s native to our place. No special exotic foo-foo grass, no fancy fertilizers and limited machinery use. The key in all of this is management and the time to develop the skill that makes a profit from what you have and not what you truck in or out. We also can identify with those that practice low stress handling techniques in the paddocks and in the loading facilities as an intangible factor in meat quality. A “bad” experience can ruin 2 years worth of hard work and resources.
I am confident that good grass-based genetics, well-managed pastures and experience in both will take us far into a regenerative future. I urge everyone to take advantage of learning opportunities by attending pasture walks, looking at a lot of cattle, using a mentor, taste testing and getting feedback from processors and customers.
I will concede however, that meeting the consumer’s and chef’s desires may be the most difficult challenge. Finishing beef means different things to just about everybody. Is it corn-fed, grass-fed, grass-finished, natural, organic or something in between? What about how the soils, forages, weather and the abattoir facilities figure into the equation? Lots of variables and no two answers or recipes will be the same. I have taken quite an exception to downstate chefs wanting the same beef taste year after year. They educate themselves on fine wine differences but not their meat. The celebration of regional tastes has been crowded out by the commodity mindset, that everything should be “cookiecutter”. With all due respect to the animals, environment and the family farm, I don’t subscribe to this way of thinking.
William informed me, as of this writing, the heifer was harvested at just about 24 months and had a 685 lb. carcass weight and was dry aged 21 days. In his opinion the meat was tender and flavorful and he was very pleased with the grass-finished system for this particular animal. His main concern is about how to conform to a grass-fed feeding regime when they don’t finish on pasture alone, by fall. Do you use some corn, beet pulp, alfalfa cubes, silages, hay or a combination? How will this effect what the eating quality will be and what your customers want? Does it really matter? The marketing folks that I visit with tell the story of “no two people are alike” in their preferences. Some like their beef flavor strong vs. bland while others like it very lean, up to more marbled. Some prefer corn-fed to grass-finished. Others just like that it’s local, environmentally friendly or humanely raised and aren’t too concerned about the flavor differences. So what are William and you other folks out there to do? Maybe do what our ancestors did, start small, produce locally grown and when you have filled up that consumer base, expand to other areas. Oh, I forgot one more piece to the puzzle. Educate, educate, and educate some more to your local consumers and legislators on the value of having profitable family farms producing high quality food for rural and urban communities. I’m not ready to have my family or my pets fed from China yet. Please remember, “local meat tastes 1500 miles fresher”.