Searching for ‘ better’ grass-fed beef

Over the past decade the demand for grass-fed beef has increased dramatically, and that is great news for Georgia’s cattle farmers.

Because of the state’s long growing season, Georgia farmers are uniquely positioned to allow their cattle to graze all year round. University of Georgia forage and cattle experts are now looking for forages that will produce the best quality beef in Georgia’s climate, so that Georgia’s grass-fed beef will be as tasty as possible.

“Forage-fed or grass-fed beef is growing in popularity among consumers, and several producers in the state are trying to adjust their production systems to meet the is niche market,” said Lawton Stewart, an Extension Beef Specialist in the University of Georgia Collage of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

Many consumers are willing to pay a premium for this product, so there is an incentive to produce beef in this way. But that isn’t a simple task.

Stewart is working with UGA meat quality researcher Alex Stelzleni and UGA Extension Forage Specialist Dennis Hancock to conduct a fouryear study to determine which summer forages produce the best meat quality in grass-fed beef.

One of the issues with grass-fed beef in the South is that it is hard to finish beef on pasture during the summer. During the hot summer months, Georgia’s go-to perennial forage - Bermuda grass - isn’t quite digestible or nutritious enough to finish beef cattle.

Cattle finished on summer Bermuda grass will be leaner, taste slightly lamby and have a yellow tinge to their fat from accumulated beta carotene.

Leaner, less-marbled beef isn’t a bad thing in itself but it does limit the market for the farmers’ beef.

Not being able to finish cattle to the same quality during summer means the farmer has to interrupt the supply of beef to steady customers who depend on a consistent supply, like restaurants and small markets.

When this grass-fed beef study is complete in 2016, Stelzleni, Hancock and Stewart will have researchbased information to help farmers who want to break in to the potentially lucrative grass-fed beef market and produce beef throughout the year.

Their study involves 32 Angus and Hereford mix steers housed on pasture at the UGA Eatonton Beef Research Unit.

Four summer annual forage systems were tested. Each planting has higher nutritional content and is more easily digestible than the standard pasture grass that would typically be available in Georgia pastures.

Sets of up to eight steers were rotated around pastures that contained sorghum and Sudan grass hybrid, brown midrib sorghum and Sudan grass hybrid, pearl millet or a mix of pearl millet and crabgrass.

These forages have to be planted every year, but they allow for greater animal gains than the pastures that Georgia farmers usually depend upon to feed their cattle during the dry summer, Hancock said.

The team harvested the cattle in September, and Stelzleni is now pulling samples from the 32 carcasses so that he can test composition and meat quality.