Grass fed vs. Corn fed beef

[Macloney]

I've had some killer grass fed from Kansas. It was finished with a sweet grass. My cousin finishes with corn, and his parents used some sorghum mixed in before him but I think he finds that to be fake magic.

The way I see it, corn fed more fat, larger in general. I think you have to dry age it get the 'beefier' flavor OP is referencing from the YouTube video.

I've eaten steak everywhere except but on the west coast. It's good everywhere, but I will say when I came back to Iowa from DC, I almost fainted at how much better the beef was.
I think they're both good personally, but it's hard to beat my cousin's corn finished Iowa beef. Best hamburger I've ever eaten.

We buy local grass fed where I live in Kansas and it it close to the best I have ever had. Not the best, but close.

The ground grass fed that we buy is actually the best burger meat I have ever had and it isn't even close. Everyone who I have cooked a burger for can't believe that it is only salt, pepper and walnut oil.

 

[DeereClone]

I will defer to you based on your moniker, but my little pasture has required 0 fertilizer in 7 years to support my small number of animals. I HAVE overseeded AND for the first two years in did use spot weed treatment to keep weeds down. But I would say that my animals and light mechanical manure "breaking" has been enough to raise the animals I raise. Great ground though, and I am in Iowa, it's hard to mess that up. I think I could harvest head per year on my 4 acre pasture, that is 8 head total with little need to even rotate.

You can choose to raise corn without fertilizer as well.

The science says per pound of feed removed, corn uses less nutrients.

 

[CYDJ]

I've seen a lot of discussion on this topic of late and even watched a video by some butcher brothers comparing the two. Nearly everyone seems to think grass fed beef is the best, even the two butcher brothers, who said grass fed beef has a stronger beef taste than corn fed, whatever that means. I vehemently disagree. Corn fed beef, the kind you find in Iowa, is most definitely better than any beef you find outside Iowa. Move away from Iowa and you'll see what I mean. We get free range or grass fed beef from Texas where I live and it is stringy, tough and nearly inedible at times depending on the cut you get. I long for good old well-marbled Iowa beef. Corn fed beef is more fatty and fat is where the flavor is in most meat cuts. Am I wrong here? Grass fed cuts are smaller, mostly because they don't have the marbling that corn fed beef has.

Anyway, I just wondered if I'm alone in thinking corn fed beef is far superior to grass fed because most of the discussion I've seen says just the opposite.

No, but most people who have your point of view haven't had good grass fed beef OR more likely none at all. I've had people tell me how awful it is right before they tell me they'd "never put the that sh-- in their mouth." It's funny how sure people can be about something without any experience.

My grandmother used to say that the beef nowdays (in the 80s) tasted "sweet". She grew up on grass fed beef, like everyone else before the late 1950's and she said it didn't taste the same.

You are used to a different beef, that's ok, but cows did not evolve eating a diet of corn and the beef you get from corn fed beef is artificial, it's not "natural", but it is now the "norm". Hardly anything we eat is "natural" anymore, so eat what you like and leave others who want or like something different to their preferences, like they should do to you.

 

[swiacy]

The grass fed beef I have had was not good but I have read in many old writings that the best beef was from steers that were over two years old that weighed close to 1800 lbs when coming off grass. That indicates accumulated fat, which is where flavor comes from. The other component of a good steak is aging. Steaks need a minimum of two weeks & I prefer a month of aging. I buy a whole loin frozen still in cryovac and leave it untouched for a month, then I cut it 3/4” thick after thaw. Two things make a good steak: marbling (fat) & aging. Whether it is corn or grass that makes the fat doesn’t matter.

 

[swiacy]

Oops. Should have stated that the cryovac loin is NOT frozen & fresh from the packer in the box. I age for a month unfrozen. Then cut steaks & freeze. Melt in your month. Same process that companies like Omaha Steaks & other premium steak retailers use.

 

[CYDJ]

It's just leaner.

Typically, but fed beef is often over fed to sure that the group gets the minimum intramuscular and back fat required to get enough at market. You will see a lot of waste in the form of fat if you track enough beef through the system. Getting great grass fed beef is harder, but it is possible. And I'm sure youknow, ALL the crappy select prepackaged, tough, stringy, off flavor beef you get in the grocery store is corn fed. It's just the low end of the grade that is separated through a commercial process. There are levels of grass fed just the same, there just isn't the quantity or system to stratify the beef like with corn fed.

 

[CYDJ]

The Kildee Hall boys are wondering why this is even a question on an Iowa State board.

You're right, that IS a problem.

 

[TitanClone]

Grasses require fertilizer just like corn does.

A 3 ton/yr grass crop would require/remove 108 lbs of nitrogen, 39 pounds of phosphate, and 162 lbs of potassium.

A 200 bushel (5.6 tons) corn crop requires/removes 134N/70P/50K.

Per ton the corn is a more efficient use of nutrients.

Does this account for corn being artificially planted vs grass being organically? I won't pretend to be an expert amd will happily take a loss.

 

[CYDJ]

The grass fed beef I have had was not good but I have read in many old writings that the best beef was from steers that were over two years old that weighed close to 1800 lbs when coming off grass. That indicates accumulated fat, which is where flavor comes from. The other component of a good steak is aging. Steaks need a minimum of two weeks & I prefer a month of aging. I buy a whole loin frozen still in cryovac and leave it untouched for a month, then I cut it 3/4” thick after thaw. Two things make a good steak: marbling (fat) & aging. Whether it is corn or grass that makes the fat doesn’t matter.

I wet aged my grass finished 5 weeks. It makes all the difference. Sweetening the meat on spring grass and harvesting at the right time is another key point IMHO.

 

[RedDog]

Field turf fed has a more robust flavor.

 

[jdcyclone19]

Grass fed beef is called venison. At least that’s what grass fed beef taste like to me. Definitely tastes more gamey.

 

[CYDJ]

They taste completely different. Grass fed is better for the environment (not sure on the health side) but grain fed tastes many times better.

I guess that depends on what YOU consider to be good. I'm not a culinary expert, but I've had many of the people that I have provided my grass finished beef samples to suggest it was the best steak / roast they have had, marbling, taste, tenderness wise. When I started down this path I was really looking for the difference. I was told grass fed beef tasted like broccoli, or grass or cow manure. Who knows what that tastes like anyway? In actuality, it is very subtle. To me it tastes an little more beefy, maybe a little more iron tinge? Some people treat it like they are going to be eating beef vs. sand. It's not really that different at all.

 

[CYDJ]

Grass fed beef is called venison. At least that’s what grass fed beef taste like to me. Defiantly tastes more gamey.

You haven't had good grass fed beef then. Gamey maybe, but venison is a significantly different taste AND texture.

 

[BCClone]

Could you tell me where the gas comes from? Is it from the grass that the cows digest? Can you then tell me what happens to the grass when it grows and decomposes. And please tell me what it outgasses when it decomposes.

This is very comparable to the fact that ethanol produces carbon dioxide when you burn it. That is how fossil fuel people claim it is just as bad, when they as comparing burning million year old sequestered carbon to surface carbon cycle carbon. We're a science based school, let's look a little deeper, shall we.

Not sure why you drug ethanol into this conversation.....several of your posts are fairly incoherent so it’s difficult.

I can break down the digestive system of a cow if you’d like me to to explain how a cow generates methane gas but please tell me and I can DM it since most here probably know this basic knowledge and don’t want me to make that long of a post.

 

[AuH2O]

As long as the my are finished on defect skittles I am happy.

 

[BCClone]

As long as the my are finished on defect skittles I am happy.

There are quite a few large hog producers that have cookie dough in their feed mixes as fillers.

 

[Al_4_State]

Every time I hear Joe Rogan prattle on about grass fed beef, I just want to feed him some rare Iowa venison back straps and scream “THIS IS THE POWER OF CORN” into his block head face

 

[AuH2O]

There are quite a few large hog producers that have cookie dough in their feed mixes as fillers.

Consider me shocked.

 

[CNECloneFan]

Grade of beef and cut are more important than grass vs. corn.

But all things being equal, I prefer corn fed.

 

[jdcyclone19]

You haven't had good grass fed beef then. Gamey maybe, but venison is a significantly different taste AND texture.

Its been a few years since I wasn’t impressed. I’ll take our home raised grain fed, pasture raised beef any day.