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FREE WEBINAR

GRASS-FINISHED BEEF: PRODUCTION AND MARKETING ISSUES

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20TH, NOON CENTRAL DAYLIGHT TIME



Grass-finished beef is part of a growing niche market of farm products that can command higher market prices and bring more to a farmer's bottom line. And consumers concerned with food safety and environmental issues are becoming more aware of the benefits of pasture-raised farming systems.

On Wednesday, October 20th, the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) is presenting a free hour-long seminar titled "Grass-Finished Beef: Production and Marketing Issues."

We'd like you to attend, and also to spread the word through your networks about this free webinar.


Please register in advance for this webinar at the following website:

http://www.attra.ncat.org/webinars2010/grassbeef

[Tanada]

Here along the coast of California we can raise grass fed beef, though with some difficulty. The winters are no problem.

But it hardly rains in summer. However under the coastal mountain range the weather is cool and there is almost enough ground/surface water (especially along certain river valleys) to keep the grass green all summer. Some irrigation is necessary.

East of the Rocky Mountains there is plenty of summer rain but no grass in winter. The cattle depend on what? Silage, stored hay? Grain?

In Michigan when I was growing up we wintered them over with Hay and Silage, grain was too expensive to waste. That is the bulls and most of the cows, we slaughtered the ready steers in the fall to prevent unnecessary cost of feeding them all winter. Some years the Bulls got the hammer too and one year we only kept a very few cows, though I was too young to remember the details of why. Around that time the local dairy farm down the road had to slaughter many of their producing cows and bury the carcasses due to contaminated PCB laced feed so my dad probably made a profit on beef by reducing the clean herd to the minimum due to the beef shortage.

I had not though about that in many years, thanx for stirring up some dusty memories P!

[Pops]

East of the Rocky Mountains there is plenty of summer rain but no grass in winter. The cattle depend on what? Silage, stored hay? Grain?

Stockpiling fescue is one way. Fescue is a cool season grass so it can stay green till the weather gets pretty cold. After it dies it holds onto nutrition for quite a while - off the top of my head I think that by March (about 3 months dormant) it still contains 70% of the food value of live grass.

A good setup would be a fescue pasture for spring grazing, then a warm season grass (bluestem, switchgrass, gama) for summer/fall pasture while the fescue gets long for winter.

In SW MO, you'r as liable to see hay fed in August as in February because there is so much fescue.