Grass-Fed Beef - by the Union of Concerned Scientists

[davidw]

Just to add a couple of extra ramblings.
I attended a meeting where the speaker was Professor David Leaver, retired principal of the Royal Agricultural College and a specialist in dairy cattle nutrition. He dismissed the claims of cattle producing massive amounts of methane as pure uninformed rubbish and said that in fact British farm livestock have dramatically reduced their methane emissions over the last 50 years - one reason admittedly is there are less cattle around.
I visited some farms in California last month and was quite horrified by the way they keep their cattle. Basically they keep them in yards in the hot sun and feed them any rubbish (food process waste) they can get hold of. I saw one farm feeding 30 tons of plums each day to his stock, another was feeding produce returned from supermarkets. I know UK farmers who feed food waste, but at least they analyse the stuff so they can build a balanced ration.

[Martin]

Clive, youv'e burst my bubble. I thought all you had to do was get some grassland and put some moo cows on it and wait for the profits to roll in!!!!!!

[Broomcroft]

With grassfed Martin, your costs will be so low you'll be a millionaire in a few years. I guarantee it, but only as long as you start with £2m.

[bjreroberts]

An interesting article regarding a study into slow grown native beef in the Farmers Weekly.

http://www.fwi.co.uk/Article....ier.htm

[Broomcroft]

That's a good article Ben. It really is about time that the UK realised what was happening health-wise (and environmentally) and how grass-fed is good, not bad. The US is miles ahead of us and the industry is now worth 1/2 billion dollars a year and rising very rapidly even though the prices are much higher than normal beef.

There have also been other tests carried out recently that interestingly conclude that not only is the beef better for you and tastes better, but also that what you are tasting that seems better actually IS the omega-3, other beneficial fatty acids and cancer-fighting CLA etc.

[Minnie]

Hi Ben,

Thanks for the link to the article, it was really good to see some good trials. I posted the link over on the Aussie Dexter site as well.

I'm very opposed to 'factory farming' of any animals so this is one great article for me to point people to, already send them off to look at your site Clive. :;):
Vicki

[Broomcroft]

I'm not sure about the non-improved pasture bit though. I do not see a link between omega-3's etc and non-improved pastures, in fact, from what I have learned, quite the reverse. If we only used non-improved pastures we'd all go very hungry. I have modern fields, which can still be sown with legumes, vetches etc, and we also have non-improved pastures and quite simply I would need about 3-4 times the size of farm that I have now to produce the same amount of beef and lamb.

Graham Harvey (the advisor to The Archers) is a good read on this subject and his book "The Carbon Fields", although a bit repetitive, is full of great information.

[Saffy]

Hello Clive,

I take it you are spreading a compound fertilizer, is that every time a field is rested? Which compound do you use and at what rate?

Stephanie



Edited By Saffy on 1278062159

[Broomcroft]

We are ex-arable Stephanie and the soil was classed as severely depleted when we started 7 years ago. P's and K's were mainly about zero. Very few worms, little or no root systems, just destroyed soil. We seeded the lot with grasses, clovers, bit of chicory. We have to use fert for the first few years after reseed otherwise the clover won't give the grass a chance. As the pastures have had more and more livestock and farmyard manure on them, they are gradually coming round and we are using less fert and on some fields now, we use none.

At the moment fields for haylage had 100-200kg's per acre of 20.10.10. Fields for grazing had 50 kg's per acre. Earlier in the year I put some sulphur on as well. Have all the fields soil tested and now P's and K's are getting up into the slightly low region which is a huge improvement and you can see the difference, and when you dig a hole you see plenty of worms and a quite a good soil structure.



Edited By Broomcroft on 1278067744

[bjreroberts]

Another study has been published by Ulster University into the benefits of grass fed beef http://www.agrisearch.org/projectsdetai ... 7&MenuID=5

[Broomcroft]

Very interesting, yet more evidence.