Beef diversification
- Thread starter Ysgythan
- Start date
livestock 1
Member
Monday’s catalogue
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
It definitely is, but do you think there is better meat eating quality in a dairy x native beast, reared on well managed forage, or a chewy Lim x BB with a huge arse?
Supermarket retailers base their needs on profits, but also on focus tasting groups.
- Location
- Cheshire
x3
livestock 1
Member
That’s the biggest load of rubbish I’ve ever read on here.
Supermarket beef is the chewyest most tasteless beef I’ve ever had.
They must have managed to persuade thousands of keen beef eaters not to eat it with these expert taste groups.
Big arsed cattle aren’t chewy
Mine certainly aren’t
no maggots .
Do remember BTB hassle as mentioned above (depends a bit where you are ) biggest reason imo for a no no. especially if in a hot spot area
.To the op , could be Brexit wont make so much difference , other parts of the World, China
I dare say will have morx bearing as they might have been in recently ? ?
Yeah Less manual labour with cattle. sheep are fine when they're out in the field
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
‘Good’ shapely cattle aren’t necessarily better eating, just higher yielding in the hindquarters.
Don’t tell @Hilly
but an AA is hardly a high yielding beast, but it does do well on eating quality on the basis of it’s generally better imf/marbling. EUROP grading doesn’t make any allowance for that!Jerseys are God-awful carcasses, but supposedly some of the best eating beef you can get, due to the imf level.
I wouldn’t ever suggest that supermarket beef is great quality, but that’s down to the lack of hanging (money pressures), rather than the breeding. Could there be an argument that native x (higher imf) beef stands their handling abuse better than leaner continental crossses?
livestock 1
Member
Possibly. We get a few killed here to eat/sell and I always think it’s the hanging that’s the issue. What a shame to bugger up all that work and time in a day or two. Possibly most folk don’t know the difference or that shortcut wouldn’t be as profitable.‘Good’ shapely cattle aren’t necessarily better eating, just higher yielding in the hindquarters.
Don’t tell @Hilly
Jerseys are God-awful carcasses, but supposedly some of the best eating beef you can get, due to the imf level.
I wouldn’t ever suggest that supermarket beef is great quality, but that’s down to the lack of hanging (money pressures), rather than the breeding. Could there be an argument that native x (higher imf) beef stands their handling abuse better than leaner continental crossses?
BB cattle can be dry tasteless things to be fair Some of my expert tasters (customers) tell me it’s the best beef they’ve ever had
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
The best beef I’ve ever eaten was a Blonde x Holstein heifer we reared alongside our dairy followers at home, so reared steadily on forage before killing just under 30 months and hanging for a couple of weeks.
On paper it should have just been an ‘ordinary’ carcass I suppose, but reared and hung well.
Hilly
Member
- Location
- Scottish Borders.
A blond x Holstein, bet they are bundle of fun to finish not .The best beef I’ve ever eaten was a Blonde x Holstein heifer we reared alongside our dairy followers at home, so reared steadily on forage before killing just under 30 months and hanging for a couple of weeks.
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
She never saw any hard feed and had plenty of cover when she went, probably too much for the market tbh, like most ‘farmer’s freezer beasts’ I suspect. Rough grass over summer and plenty of second quality/‘heifer’ silage all winter. Just the job.
Some Holsteins are also stronger than others, and those narrow ‘blow over in the wind’ types wouldn’t last long in a high yielding herd running 250 milkers in one mob.
Hilly
Member
- Location
- Scottish Borders.
Gosh I must get some do they come with majic beans as well !! You be telling me next you can milk bullocks .She never saw any hard feed and had plenty of cover when she went, probably too much for the market tbh, like most ‘farmer’s freezer beasts’ I suspect. Rough grass over summer and plenty of second quality/‘heifer’ silage all winter. Just the job.
Some Holsteins are also stronger than others, and those narrow ‘blow over in the wind’ types wouldn’t last long in a high yielding herd running 250 milkers in one mob.
livestock 1
Member
What I’m trying to get at here is the new chase for these dairy types and this feeling that we are being told that they are the best thing since sliced bread is purely money driven. This makes a mockery of the current prices for carcass conformation and finish on the grid.
As a suckler farmer I feel that I have an obligation to the processor to the finisher and to myself to aim for what the market demands and to give every cow the best chance of breeding the best she can.
As a suckler farmer I feel that I have an obligation to the processor to the finisher and to myself to aim for what the market demands and to give every cow the best chance of breeding the best she can.
Why wouldn't they push dairy bred beef, the supermarkets have spent the last few years forcing dairy farmers to stop shooting bull calves (kind of fair enough) they are now pushing for everything to live for at least 8 weeks or something. Lots more calves coming to market so there's an opportunity there.
Get some consultants together and give them some cash and they'll run round telling as many people as they can that the only way to do it is graze dairy bred bulls year round, supermarkets might even garuantee a contract price for a few years (provided you hit the exact spec of course).
Lots of cattle finished out of spec or going overage? Not to worry sir we'll still take them but obviously the deductions are exceptionally high as you haven't hit the spec on your contract.
Cheap beef, garuanteed supply for long enough to drive off an amount of farmers producing cattle that supermarkets actually have to pay for.
Maybe I'm a cynic...
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
The current grid grading for confirmation and subcutaneous fat level doesn’t mean anything when it comes to eating quality, hence the move to viascan grading in many places around the world, rewarding imf and meat yield instead. Like it or not, it will come here too, sooner or later.
The Aberdeen Angus certainly doesn’t receive a premium on account of it’s shape!
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
Not cynical at all imo, the retailers operate on a ruthless business model and would stab their grannies in the back for a quid.
However, if you sign a contract to deliver x number of cattle at a certain spec, then fail to do so, then you should be penalised. If you can’t do that then don’t sign up for it (which is probably most of us if we’re honest).
If you agreed to buy 28t of fertiliser in 600 kg bags, but it was 3 bags short and 10 bags were only 400kg, would you still pay full whack for it?
If as a young new entrant keen on grazing and looking for a way in, a consultant with a fancy gilet tells you that if you do X y and z then all your jersey X calves will hit that spec then it's probably quite an attractive way in.
Experience is very expensive, in this case to the whole industry.
28t of fertiliser would do us for about 5 years here if i agreed to pay for that much at once itd have to be cheap enough that I wasn't worried about a few missing kgs
I get your point though
- Location
- Cheshire
Sounds like you’ve got clean spectacles too me!!
davidroberts30
Member
- Location
- pembrokeshire
Taste is more to do with a stress free time in the slaughterhouse and the hanging of the carcaseShe never saw any hard feed and had plenty of cover when she went, probably too much for the market tbh, like most ‘farmer’s freezer beasts’ I suspect. Rough grass over summer and plenty of second quality/‘heifer’ silage all winter. Just the job.
Some Holsteins are also stronger than others, and those narrow ‘blow over in the wind’ types wouldn’t last long in a high yielding herd running 250 milkers in one mob.