$0.49/ lb.

[bobm]

Ducks: You said that when an animal , such as a beef cow/ calf move around a large pasture that that increases the taste of the meat. It may have some truth to it if on lush pastures from abundant rainfall or irrigation. But in the Golden State of Cal.( and many of the arrid / desert like / poor soils Western States ) when you have virtually NO rainfall from May to Late Nov. or Early Dec. and tempertures in the 100's for days on end ... those range pastures are a golden brown and dormant with next to nothing in TDN and need 20+ acres to sustain one cow so that grass fed cow will be tough as shoe leather so you judge the taste. Just how will that grass fed beef fare in that type of environment to increase that meat's flavor if not grain finished in a feedlot for 90- 120 days ? The characteristic taste of any animal resides in it's fat. The amount of fat marbling and outside fat cover determines the intensity of the flavor. Yea, some recent research has been done using even saw dust among others as a feed ingredient to lower production costs. Thanks to the calapse of the US wool market due to competition from Astralia and etreamely high price for production and shearing ... Australian lamb meat comes mostly from the straight wool breed sheep such as the Merino , Ramboulet, etc. which are not on the best tasteing lamb meat list. While the American lamb meat is usually from a Ramboulet, Corriedale, Polypay , etc. ewe crossed with a Suffolk ram which ranks very high in flavor of their meat. The taste ranking for best meat taste is Standard Southdown, Suffolk, Hampshire ( loosing favor as a sire of x- bred lamb due to the shape of the shoulder that presents lambing difficulties ) , Dorset and just recently Dorper ( developed in S. Africa using Dorset ram X desert Fat Rumped Ewe . The Dorper is now competing VERY FAVORABLY and often BEATING the other meat breeds in carcass and taste competitions ).

 

[seedcorn]

@bobm Most of the people in this area that are more inclined towards non-commercial are most definetly conservative.

Flavoring is in the fat. Dairy breeds (Holsteins) have to be finished at a heavier weight than colored.

In chickens, any game breed changes the meat flavor-maybe because it slows then down?

 

[ducks4you]

I think that proves my point. I KNOW what my chickens eat, even if I don't see any bugs and worms that they consume, which is healthy...if you are a chicken.
Dried up weedy pasture wouldn't sustain cattle. Many times, the rancher feeds hay to supplement. We horse owners have to be picky about the hay WE feed because horse's do not ruminate, they pass a LOT through their systems, everything has to be low protein, high fiber but tender, and, horses will refuse hay that a cow will eat. Subpar and rained on hay is usually sold locally to cattle owners. Very Stemmy alfalfa hay can be digested by a cow, but you will starve even a younger horse with it. Still, many cattle ranchers prefer to feed the best.
I didn't want to mention the sawdust. I did in a post on another forum and somebody bit my head off, complaining that livestock owners would never think to feed their meat animals sawdust. I often wonder if that is true.
But, knowing what my birds eat helps ME to keep feeding them the same and supplementing with grass, tender weeds, like dandelion leaves, and grass, since I don't spray my lawn. Fun to watch them eat grass and other leaves since they eat it like spaghetti.
My birds are really tender and just on the verge of "gamey." I season with sage leaves, an onion, and salt and pepper, sometimes a few ounces of wine or beer. They taste NOTHING like a store bought bird.

 

[bobm]

When chickens are out and about scratching and searching for something that is edible and eating anything that they find, we really have no idea what they actually eat nutrition wise on a daily, weekly , or monthly basis. While commercial feed has a much more uniform and ballanced nutrient content in every bite. It is true that cattle will eat and be just fine on poorer / weedy feed. I ahve seen cattle eating rotting bales of hay too. However, here in CAL. DAIRY producing areas, they demand and receive what is known as DAIRY QUALITY alfalfa hay that is of the finest and nutrient dense hay that is produced in Cal. , Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, etc. . The cows need this top quality feed as they need the nutrition to sustain their very large volume of milk produced per cow. Much better quality than horse quality hay as well as more expensive. Heck, these dairy cows owned by very large dairys have no need to expend energy or sweat to walk out to a pasture as they are pampered and spoiled rotten in the shade of covered barns, eating their finest hay then rest on air matresses, and cooled by huge fans just chewing their cuds while waiting their twice per day turns to ride on carasells and dine on computer formulated concentrated treats based on their energy needs due to their current milk production and being machine milked while the outside temperature is in the 90* s to well over 100*.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

WHEN we move to OR and get some property, I'll be raising meat chickens. And of course eggs...I can barely eat fresh eggs from the store. They are tasteless compared to home grown.

I'd like to raise a beef cow/steer too. I'd have her/him ranch killed and then off to the processor. And a pig too.

I know, since I live in the Sierra Foothills, how much the cattle ranchers have to pay to keep the herds alive all summer. Down in Stanislaus county, amoungst the turkey barns, are thousands of head, all of whom have to be fed.

I don't know if Lucky's/SaveMart and Albertson's are associated anymore. We only have a SaveMart here. There is a Safeway in Sonora but I don't go often. I'd love to put up alot of 49 cents per lb chicken in my vacuum seal packages for my freezer.

 

[ducks4you]

@murphysranch, can you keep chickens now? I was thinking the "meat chicken" thing, too, but I have been very happy with dual duty chickens, who lay a lot more eggs.

 

[Beekissed]

Plymouth White Rocks...I recommend them. They have that fine textured, dense muscling like the meat birds(who get the genetics for such meat from the White Rocks) but are the slow growing, good laying dual purpose bird most are looking for in a better meat flavor.

I butchered 5 mo. old WR and WR cross cockerels this fall that had not really been allowed access to the feeder by the older rooster and hens all summer long...they would come in sometimes after all the birds were gone and grab a mouthful here and there, though. But, most of their nutrition was all found out on range. I was vastly surprised at that point, upon butchering them, to find them to be the fattest male birds I've ever butchered~and that includes male CX birds.

These cockerels had fat pads on their pelvic girdle, much like hens, they had fat around their organs~much like an older hen, they even had fat on the backs of their necks! The best part was the appearance of their meat...it was golden with fat within the muscle fibers, much like a cow has fat marbled in the meat. I can honestly say, up until that time, I had assumed that all chickens of a certain age, fed the same feeds and allowed to free range, tasted much the same. I was wrong. Those cockerels tasted better~even canned up~than any chicken I've had in the past 40 yrs of doing this.

I'd say, if not interested in getting food real fast, I'd lean towards using WRs for your meat~and the added benefit of good laying~than I would any other dual purpose bird. Even the WR hens have almost as big a carcass and meat yield as a full grown rooster of the other well known DP breeds, but the meat has that fine fat marbling and tight texture that the other breeds won't have.