What’s the difference between grass- and grain-fed beef?
Anyone who learned music will know the mnemonic, ‘All cows eat grass’. But this doesn’t make all beef ‘grassfed’. Knowing the differences between grass- and grain-fed beef can help you make better choices as a consumer.
So what is the difference? Grass-fed beef is from cattle that’s eaten grass its whole life. It may have a diet supplemented with grain in times of bad weather, but mostly it’s free to roam and munch on grass all day. You’ll find that grass-fed beef has a creamy, yellow hue to the fat. Grain-fed beef comes from cattle that’s been ‘finished’ on grain for at least 60 days. Some are finished for 100 days or more (premium beef like wagyu can be finished for up to 400 days). “This helps to finish the animal fast, so it gets to size at a younger age,” explains Mark Brancatisano of Torello Farm who, with his wife Sophie O’Neill, won a 2023 delicious. Harvey Norman Produce Award for their grass-fed Belted Galloway beef. “It also provides a more consistent appearance, with whiter fat and more marbling.”
Does one taste better than the other? “To me, grass-fed beef has a cleaner, purer flavour, whereas grain-fed is always going to be more tender, and has a fattier mouthfeel,” says chef and farmer Matt Moran. O’Neill says that the flavour of grass-fed beef is more complex: “It’s a more intense ‘beef’ flavour. We find that with our beef, a little goes a long way.” Butcher Darren O’Rourke says that the taste of grain-fed is sweeter, but the flavour doesn’t last as long. “It’s a big hit to the palate, but then it disappears,” he says. “Whereas generally with grass-fed, it won’t be as sweet, but it lasts a lot longer. And it just tastes more like beef.”
What about the ethics? For those who consider animal welfare, grass-fed may be preferable, as the animal has been free to roam for longer. “A big thing for us is that we know our animals live at least three years in a lovely paddock, living their best life, versus being in a feedlot,” O’Neill says. Sustainability is also a consideration. “Grass-fed beef is always going to be more sustainable, because it’s from cattle that’s just eating grass,” Moran says. ‘With grain-fed, there’s growing and harvesting the crop, and then obviously, the animal is eating a lot.”
“With anything that we grow or produce, we’re always really concerned with the taste and the ethics. That was the motivation behind the farming model we chose.”
— Sophie O’Neill