If I want lean red meat I grill some venison. I want corn fed beef and hogs with plenty of fat too. These modern pink commercial hogs dont have the flavor of the old bred in a hog lot and finished on corn only animal.

Having said that I have a couple grandsons working for a cattle operation near Hope KS. Guy is raising and marketing grass fed beef. He pays to get it butchered but is doing his own marketing of packaged ready to cook beef. Its a niche market and marketing is the key.

Might look into the Piedmontese, for your grass fed program too. They are suppose to have a gene that makes them tender without needing the marbling.

My cousin does grass fed beef and chickens. Biggest buyers are college wrestling teams and CrossFitters

The people looking for grass finished beef aren't looking for a leaner meat as much as a fat that is not derived from corn .

Think so

That's more cooking method than the source.

Gotcha. It was my impression that was the selling point of grass fed beef or at it was at the beginning of the movement. What's the disadvantages of corn fed beef?

Wagyu are the type of cattle used to produce Kobe beef. That's the beef that has as much IMF as it does muscle. It's a product of both the breed and how it's fed.
Waygu beef finished on a "normal" finishing ration will be very marbled but nothing like the pictures you see of kobe beef you see.

Price you receive per pound. Our whole family grew up on corn fed Beef and I doubt it's any worse than grass fed, if I could make a few bucks extra doing grass fed though why not.

I was asking more from the consumers point of view than the producer's. I've ate a few corn fed beef in my time and enjoyed it also Donner

Corn isn't exactly healthy for the cows. Grass fed is usually a way to say organic without actually saying organic. Also implies GMO free.

"Grassfed" is nothing more than a catchphrase. There is no known health benefit, it's all internet conjecture. Just like "organic", "non GMO", etc....
There is also no legal definition of "grassfed", anyone can make that claim because technically all cattle are grassfed.

That is pretty much understanding and perspective but I'm trying to keep an open mind and maybe learn something

Just sold before finishing to marble

As far as my principals are concerned . Grassfed can be a old fat cow with the recomendation to ask the locker to grind into hamburger . We have sold several like this over the years . The buyers all wanted burger and took the bargain knowing it was an old cow that didn't breed and got fat . Thats what we eat ourselves . I have the top cut into steaks and the rest ground . Grass finnished denotes a young animal that is selected to fatten on good grass , a two year old heifer that didn't breed by the time they come off summer pasture qualify as such . I have not sold stiers this way they have always got grain . The heifers we sold this way have gotten excellent feedback and request for repeat purchase . I'm not the type to sell a breaker cow as grassfed beef , just not going to do it .

I think i could sell alot of calves hanging born in March weaned november summered on deep grass and sold delivered to locker in the fall . This would be a very profitable way of going about things . Breeding for intramuscular fat might make for a better product and repeat customers .

Here's a butcher comparison:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yomerhQkpSc

The more research I do the akaushi might be a better fit for just getting some intramuscular fat at a younger age on grass

I was considering a Wague bull for my 20 head of crossbred beef cows but availability and price are a problem.$ 4500-$10000.

Check into local vet clinics that might offer AI service depending on their minimum billing might be resonable enough . Most of the wagyu and akashi seman I looked into was between $25 and $50 a straw