Quite a bit of marbeling is the right genetics as I remember from Animal Science 101. But if you want beef with a lot of omega 3 they need to be on pasture.

In my opinion you can make any breed of cattle into good eating beef, but it takes grain & lots of it. I have fed out several cattle & several breeds of cattle it is how & what they are fed that makes the difference. I have fed Angus, Hereford, Holstein, Jersey, Scottish Highlander, & all kinds of crossbreeds in my day. Plenty of water, grass in the summer & hay in the winter & grain everyday, that is the secret.
Had a Jersey that was fed right outsell a Hereford. The Hereford was pretty darn good, but Ol' Yellow Hammer was finished like the packers wanted.

330- I'll admit we haven't done it on our place yet, but are working on it. Below is an excerpt and link to an example of how grass finished cattle can grade choice, and even prime. It certainly is much more difficult, but it can and is being done. Again, takes the right genetics and really good management. Perhaps someday I'll have the chance to send you a few steaks

.......a lot grass-fed beef producers say their product gets the short end of the steak when it comes to grading. They’ll tell you that their grass-fed beef is leaner and healthier than grain-fed beef, but not as marbled, so for them to get a USDA Choice or Prime grade for their grass-fed beef is impossible. And frankly, for THEIR grass-fed beef, it probably is.

But it’s not impossible for our grass-fed beef to get a USDA Choice or Prime grade; we know that because ours does. In fact, Joyce Farms is one of only a few grass-fed beef producers in the country that elects to have our beef USDA quality graded.

Because we have cattle with the right genetics and we utilize superior raising and forage grazing standards, our grass-fed beef can offer the tenderness, the delicious taste and, yes, the marbling required to get a USDA Choice or Prime grade. Want proof? Just check this out...

https://joyce-farms.com/blogs/news/here-s-the-real-reason-most-grass-fed-beef-isn-t-usda-graded

About dark thirty joyce farms is probably pouring the corn to them.

I like corn fed beef and hogs both. Especially beef that gets to age 3 weeks before it gets cut up. The difference is amazing over the same grade of animals killed and cut up after twelve hours, which is what you get in grocery stores. Fat healthy animals in spite of all the crap being poured to us about them. The big processors just don't have the room to do anything beyond letting rigor run its course then go to cutting.

I sold a steer to a guy a couple of years, who was going to finish it on corn. The same guy owns a small family meat market, that claims to sell meat from their own farm. He gave me a flyer, that said they only sold grass fed beef. I asked him about how he could call the beef grass fed, when he finishes them on corn and he pointed out that corn is a grass.

Keith

"High Quality" is a very subjective term and can vary greatly from one individual to another or groups.
I do know the steer finishers near us like to finish colored "green cattle". That is they like 500-700 lbs. feeders that have been fed no grain prior to coming to their feed lot as those gain much faster daily gain than those younger cattle that have been grained earlier in their lives.

Bryce

I live in east central Ohio. I will follow up on the leads here. It seems the locals sell what their family and friends don’t want in order to pay for processing what they do want.

I would like to try some grain finished Kansas or Nebraska thick ribeye steaks - can it be really that much better than other beef? Somebody would just have to prove that to me. I challenge anyone to just try. Come on, somebody, please try. Tell me where to send the payment.

Thank you to everyone for the great discussion and the great ideas. Now I’m hungrier than ever for a great steak and a great hamburger cooked over wood coals. Best wishes. Willy

We raise grass fed for the direct to customer/restaurant/commercial market. We have a cow calf operation and also finish steers out grass fed. We sell around 50 head a year and about 25 calves a year so not too big. Our customers, mostly urban or suburban foodies or chefs only want Black Angus and and want grass fed. Anything else and they balk. Our rural customers all want corn finished but pasture grown.

We finish our personal meat and most of our family and friends meat out on non gmo corn and pasture/hay/forage. Not that you can't grow excellent beef on grass but grain, especially corn just add something we like.

We also breed and grow out 100-150 hogs a year on pasture/forage/forest and free choice non gmo corn and grains.


I like both ways but corn fed is more consistent in a number of ways.