DEVON ARE TASTY AND TENDER

The data has arrived. The Devon/ Angus calves that Hardwick Beef is harvesting are tender and tasty!

Our expectation from anecdotal reports was that our 100% grass-fed Devon/Angus beef was tender and tasty. Reports from friends and neighbors, our meat processor (with years of meat-eating experience), our customers and our vendors have been overwhelmingly positive. A national Whole Foods representative says it’s the best beef he has had in America!

So we decided it was time to test our hypothesis that the Rotokawa® Devon bulls stamp their progeny with the characteristics of high-quality meat by analyzing a random sample of ½ Rotokawa® Devon steers as they were harvested. We cut two adjacent rib eye steaks from the 12th and 13th rib of 25 steers.

Some of these were calves born and raised in Montana and were fed hay and alfalfa combined with a mineral supplement for their first winter. The calves were then grazed on ryegrass on irrigated land and were harvested when they were fat, weighed between 1100 and 1250 pounds, and were from 15 to 17 months of age. Cattle were killed in Montana and the primal were “wet-aged” for 14 days before the rib eye steaks were cut 1” thick and then frozen. Other steers were raised in the Northeast on perennial pasture, hay and haylage; carcasses were dry-aged before samples were harvested.

The samples were shipped to grass-fed meat researcher Dr. Susan Duckett at Clemson University to be evaluated for fatty-acid values as well as tenderness values as measured with the Warner-Bratzler shear force test. Preliminary findings are very exciting; the first eight samples show very consistent high quality. Total fat values were equivalent to USDA low choice values; the Omega 6 Omega 3 ratio was a near perfect 1.26 to 1; and the Warner-Bratzler Shear values averaged 3.6-- below the 4.1 level which is the generally accepted range where 98% of people feel the meat is quite tender and of restaurant quality.

Highly acceptable taste and tenderness values are essential for the consumer to fully embrace a 100% grass-fed and finished beef program. The story about the health benefits of this product for the consumer, the bovine, the farmer/rancher and the environment have been trumpeted in the press and are no longer even debated

Many 100% grass-fed producers and vendors are bringing product to market and general quality has improved; Marian Burros, food writer for the NY Times, says that nearly 75% of the samples she tried recently were good, whereas three years ago 75% were “bad” or not tasty and tender.

Consistent quality of product is the goal of any long-term market success. Numerous 100% grass-fed beef companies rely on sorting cattle for quality using the ultrasound machine. Live cattle can be evaluated for quality parameters and can then be harvested if they meet the quality standard set by the meat company. Other meat programs are based on a production protocol such as a standard like “organic”; the production protocol and “purity’ or adherence to a standard is the prerequisite for participation in these programs with less emphasis on consistent quality of meat.

One reason for the extreme variability of meat today is the adherence to cross-breeding programs by the industry-at-large. This has reached an extreme to the point where some companies actually market “composite” bulls which are generally a three way cross. The resulting variability that is rampant in the industry is the enemy of consistent quality meat. We use sorting methods, like ultrasound, to select cattle for harvest in the Hardwick Beef program but this is a short term “crutch”. How many producers will allow a meat company to cut their herd and “cherry pick” their good cattle every year? Bakewell has discovered that using condensed, high-quality bulls does a lot to create a consistent meat product.

It takes a long perspective and a commitment to patience to wait for a return on investment to create 100% grass-fed bulls. Hardwick Beef and Bakewell feel that using Artificial Insemination (AI) with semen from the right bulls is an investment that allows a producer to rapidly get a very even, consistent group of high quality calves with the overwhelming majority fitting the profile of high-quality grass-fed beef.

Bakewell has evaluated numerous breeds of cattle and subsets of these breeds around the world to find bulls suitable for this job. The breed that excels in this arena is the Devon.

In spite of the mountains of press criticizing animal fats over the past decades, the consumer is now beginning to understand that “good fats are good”; essential fatty acids are just that- essential for many aspects of health. Conjugated Linoleic Acids which are produced in the rumen of the bovine (one of the few places these are manufactured) have numerous health benefits including creating lean muscle mass and stopping tumor growth in mammalian experiments. The Omega 6/Omega 3 ratio is critical in determining how these essential fatty acids benefit human health rather than hurt it.

High levels of “good” fat and tenderness are essential for palatability of 100% grass fed beef. The consumer’s acceptance and embrace of this product depends on experiencing quality consistently.

The recent data is an excellent indication that Devon are the ultimate “grass’ cattle. They have always been an “easy fleshing” breed on grass and were also known historically as the “butcher’s breed” for the quality and volume of meat. Bakewell believes that artificial insemination using proven Devon bulls is the fastest and best way to introduce consistent quality to your 100% grass-fed beef program.