Now’s a Good Time to Try Some Grass-Fed Beef

June 14, 2012 - PRLog -- Although the wet winter didn’t totally break the back of what some are calling the “Great Texas Drought,” it did provide enough rain for most North Texas ranches raising grass-fed beef to develop a relatively robust crop of the kinds of grasses that cattle love best—clovers, rye, winter and spring wheats, winter peas, vetches, and native prairie grasses.  
   “That’s why we tell our customers that now is the best time to get in their orders for our beef,” explains Jackie King, who with her husband Donald, raise some 30 head of grass-fed cattle on 123 acres of pasture near Corsicana that they care for using organic practices.
         “In addition to all the healthy benefits of grass-fed beef, the cows we are taking to slaughter have been fattened up on our lush pastures and should produce some of the tastiest beef of the year,” she noted.
            Her husband Donald agrees. “During the winter, the soil microbes have been busy breaking down the decomposing soil matter and making it ready for plant use,” he explained. “In the spring, the plants and grasses then begin to absorb the nutrients along with help of microbes and sunlight to produce the very nutrients, sugars and enzymes the plants and animals need for survival.”
        “It’s also important to have a variety of grasses available for grazing in the spring.” he noted. “We make sure our pastures have a virtual “salad bar” of grasses for several reasons. Different grasses contain different amounts of nutrients and enzymes which balance the dietary needs of the cattle. Also, many grasses come on at different times thus giving a constant supply of forage for the cattle.  And finally, providing the ‘salad bar’ to our cattle helps eliminate any strong taste to the meat that one grass may cause over another.”
      That balance in natural nutrients helps give grass-fed beef a number of health benefits compared to the grain-finished beef found in most supermarkets.   Grass-fed meat is low in both overall fat and artery-clogging saturated fat, and it provides a considerably higher amount of healthy Omega-3 fats than corn-fed meat.   Couple that with the no-antibiotics, no-hormone approach to cattle-raising that grass-fed cattle producers like the Kings follow and you have a product that is considerably healthier than what you can buy at your local grocery store.
     But it can be more expensive.  
     That’s why some ranchers, like the Kings, encourage their customers to buy their beef in larger quantities. “We offer ‘shares’ of our beef,” King explained. “Each share sells for $7.49 a pound, which is about the average of what you would pay in a supermarket for a similar variety package of beef.  And we’ll deliver to anyone in the DFW area.”
     King explained that shares can vary in weight from 25 to 35 pounds depending on the size of the beef and typically contain four types of cuts. “Grill and serve” cuts include a rancher’s choice of four or more steak cuts like filets, rib eyes, New York strips or top sirloin; “grill and slice” cuts include sirloin,  flatiron, flank, skirt or tri tip steaks; “braise” cuts include brisket and roasts;  and the favorite cut is  lean, juicy ground beef.
     “A share can fit in a side-by-side freezer, King said. “ If a customer wants more than one share, we recommend they invest in an 8 – 14 cubic foot freezer that can hold 50 plus pounds of meat. “
    For more information on buying shares from P.O.P. Acres, visit www.popacres.com or email them at popacres@gmail.com.