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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 2:01 pm
by marcus
The best way to improve the Dexter and it,s fortunes is to get more people eating it.
Personally I think that if the society had spent the genetics project money on promoting this instead, it would have been of more use to the members.
Fire away!.
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 5:26 pm
by stew
dead right the dcs could have acted on behalf of all members and tryed to make roads into supermarkets so we could have sold through the dcs to the supermarkets some may not want to sell thats understandable but if folk want to eat top dex beef lets give it to who ever can sell it and raise the whole profile of these cattle
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 6:34 pm
by AlisonKirk
Stew - Why don't you approach a supermarket & see what response you get? There just wouldn't be enough Dexter beef to keep up with supply and demand and there's no way they would pay the price which Dexter beef deserves. Having been commercial farmers for many years before concentrating on Dexters, we would much rather know what we're getting for our beef than being told by a supermarket that's what this week's price is!
However much promoting the DCS do, the fact is you will still need to promote your own beef and feel confident enough to approach whoever to buy your beef, whether it be a restaurant, commercial business, farmers' market, etc. We've done just that along with many other producers.
Clive and Caroline Taylor have done a brilliant job with media coverage and heightened people's awareness of Dexter beef.
Dexter owners are all individuals and there are so many ways they are successfully marketing their Dexter beef.
Alison Kirk
Boram Dexters
Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2008 12:18 am
by stew
both morrisans and sainsbury are saurcing local beef and i would be happy to deal with them if i could keep up with demand
you seem to think you can charge more for a ped reg dex than you will for limy cross
or a angus or a short horn is it warm in your world
its all beef it just takes a bit longer to finish
sadley i think the people who want to know what there eating are in the minority still and the cheaper end of the market will allways be the best selling
what a buyer at market does with it is up to him once its sold if he sells it a dex beef and gets a premium i cant go ask for my cut
if i sell to a local butcher i know hes going to make some easy money but once its sold its sold
best thing to do is have top stock that will do its self justice in the sale ring a forget what other people are gonna make on it
or open a butchers !!
Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2008 11:04 am
by Broomcroft
Stew - Are you saying you think Dexter beef is the same as other general beef? It can be if not finished properly, but it should be on another level altogether and quite a different taste, and not stringy. If what you've had is just like any other beef, then there's something wrong either with the beef, with your taste buds or the cooking. It should be very distinctive, usually quite a powerful flavour. There is bad Dexter Beef around because I've eaten some. It has to be right.
Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2008 3:37 pm
by Rutherford
marcus wrote:The best way to improve the Dexter and it,s fortunes is to get more people eating it.
Personally I think that if the society had spent the genetics project money on promoting this instead, it would have been of more use to the members.
Fire away!.
Stew are you sure you have picked the right breed, never mind breeding the right sort of animal. You refer to the late maturing, one of the breed advantages is that it will finish on grass providing a better quality meat, such animals don’t respond well to being early finished on corn
The real penalty for the breed is the cost of slaughter, and for that you require the premium that the quality of the Dexter deserves. If you are intending to deal with supermarkets you should choose a breed that provides quantity not quality.
Marcus, as a charity, the Society has to be in the business of benefiting the breed and not its members. None could have done a better job of promoting the Dexter meat than Clive, and the breed is now benefiting from it, haven’t you been watching television? As a result of the Cardiff project, we at least know that there is no immediate possibility of providing a DNA profile as some other breeds have for identification purposes.
Beryl (Woodmagic)
Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2008 6:45 pm
by stew
Broomcroft wrote:Stew - Are you saying you think Dexter beef is the same as other general beef? It can be if not finished properly, but it should be on another level altogether and quite a different taste, and not stringy. If what you've had is just like any other beef, then there's something wrong either with the beef, with your taste buds or the cooking. It should be very distinctive, usually quite a powerful flavour. There is bad Dexter Beef around because I've eaten some. It has to be right.
Stew - Are you saying you think Dexter beef is the same as other general beef? It can be if not finished properly
im all for the little cows but
what im trying to get at that some ped reg dex beef is poor
but the sellers still want the same preimium price for it and that leaves a bad taste in the mouth of the buyers and genral public who are using it and brings the price down of everyones dex meat if the costermors get a bad lump there not gonna retun to dex again theyll might as well have any old beef
thats why i like stock to be right and not just another cow but thats down to all members to select good breeding stock
think alot of dex owners arnt botherd about this side of keeping cattle
i might be wrong !!??
ive pick the right breed just i understand that it has a price at market an its less then other cattle because of the killing fee
but they wouldnt be the same if the weighed like a bell blue
Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 3:51 am
by wagra
Clive, on early indication, 48 Dexters over a wide gene-pool base, DNA tested for meat attributes, it seems as though the tendency to marbling is not genetically strong in the breed, but we know they do marble given time.
According to local conventional commercial meat producers, tenderness is affected by speed of weight gain, and they have made good livings believing so.
It would seem that stock management must play a huge roll in the excellence of meat production.
One of the sons-in-law who had an $85 Wagyu steak at a company function recently told me, "Dexter's better, Grandma."
Margaret
Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 8:16 am
by Broomcroft
Margaret - One of the best chefs in the world said on the television last week that our beef was the very finest you could get, he was clearly overcome by the quality and flavour and you have to see him describe it to understand how impressed he was. As I say, he is one of the top 5 in the world apparently, and guess what, he's Japanese :;):. The beef he ate was 100% clover/grass-reared/finished. It had medium marbling and it was fillet.
My readings on meat production are that tenderness is mainly due to intra-muscular fat, that is fat that is invisible to the eye and is in tiny globules on the muscle fibres. Then there is inter-muscular fat, which is the visible marbling that we are all aware of. This also adds greatly to the juiciness of the meat. My understanding is also that the animal should be gaining weight when slaughtered for best results. Intra-muscular fat is now being tested for actually on live cattle using ultra-sound I read.
So Dexters must presumably have a good underlying intra-muscular fat content because we know that some people do finish early and many (not all maybe) still get tender meat.
Edited By Broomcroft on 1213946349
Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 1:28 pm
by marcus
Beryl,
I have,nt got a telly!.
Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 1:42 pm
by Peter thornton
I think that the quality of Dexter beef is due to both genetics and the way that most Dexter keepers rear, i.e.grass fed and given time to mature rather than being pushed.
I've suggested that the Society could help with a couple of things:
1. A Dexter Beef brand and strapline into which can be incorporated individual names of breeders. Some are big enough not to need this but a lot of us produce 2 or 3 animals a year.
2. A small (say A5 8 pages) recipe book to cover the cuts of beef that the young mums (and dads, of course!) might not be familiar with. The book would also promote Dexter beef.
Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 4:14 pm
by Rutherford
Marcus I don’t have television either, but I made a point of looking at the Great British Menu on line.
Peter, the quality of Dexter beef is due largely to genetics, the Dexter is capable of converting grazing into beef far better than the Continental.
Since not everybody is yet into computers and Clive’s site, I think a booklet on cooking beef dishes would be useful, possibly the Merchandise committee could look into it. I am not so sure of the labelling; I believe there are restrictions, which need to be heeded.
Beryl (Woodmagic)
Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 11:49 pm
by Minnie
Hi Clive,
You've had the penny drop for me
...intra-muscular fat, that is fat that is invisible to the eye and is in tiny globules on the muscle fibres. Then there is inter-muscular fat, which is the visible marbling that we are all aware of.
Now it makes sense that they look at the meat and say no marbling, personally all the marbling isn't something I remember meat having until the last 15 years or so, and I just call it fat!
Lean tender beef is best for me!
Thank you...
Vicki
Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 6:45 am
by Broomcroft
Just to add that the good fatty acids are mainly or totally in the fat according to the test house I spoke to when arranging testing for fatty acids (which I didn't proceed with at the time). Whether that's the intra or inter-muscular fat I know not, but I would imagine it would be both. What I do know is that eating meat produced in a traditional way, off grass, has little or no effect on my blood pressure or cholestoral level because I am tested in great detail, not just a normal test, at least once a year. Eating game has the same non-effect on me. Eating almost any normal shop bought products is bad for me and I think that would probably include thinks like farmed salmon. I had some farmed sea-trout the other day, it was the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten. It was literally swimming in foul smelling oil and nearly set our kitchen on fire there was so much came out of it!
Edited By Broomcroft on 1214027197