Pasture finishing is one way to curb costs when prices for feed barley soar. A study under way at Agriculture Canada’s Brandon research centre is looking at the pros and cons of pasture finishing.
“Manitoba has an abundance of grass,” said researcher Paul McCaughey. “We can grow grass like crazy here.”
The research was triggered by earlier studies that showed the potential for pasture finishing.
A study in 1993 using only steers found that two-thirds of those animals graded A directly off pasture. It also found that when steers were fed a 50:50 barley-hay ration for only 30 days after the grazing season, they all graded A or better.
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The research continued three years later using heifers and steers. Part of that group was fed only on pasture. The rest also grazed on pasture but was fed steam-rolled barley at a rate of four kilograms per head per day during the 74 days prior to slaughter.
The supplemental grain increased pasture gain and hot carcass weight. But it did not improve such things as carcass quality, taste panel rating, shear test results, carcass value or gross return per head.
Similar results were recorded in 1997. However, researchers noted an increase in off-grades, with a striking number of cattle grading B3Y (yellow).
Although that did not affect the eating quality of the meat in taste test panels, yellow fat is not a desired trait in the mainstream meat trade.
That has not deterred McCaughey. He thinks there is a niche market for pasture-finished cattle, especially among health-conscious baby boomers.
Other research has shown that pasture-finished beef has higher concentrations of omega-3 fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid. Both have been shown to curb the incidence of heart disease and cancer, McCaughey said.
This year’s research includes a mix of crossbreds that are at least half Gelbvieh or half Red Angus. The smaller, earlier-maturing breeds put down fat sooner, McCaughey said, making it easier to finish them on pasture.
“It’s not going to work for everyone, especially if they have a lot of large exotic influence in their livestock.”
More research is needed, he said, to improve the consistency of results. More work is also needed to further describe the fatty acid profile of pasture-finished cattle.
McCaughey does not envision a day when pasture-finished beef will edge out the need for feedlots, which are “very efficient in terms of feed conversion.” He views pasture finishing as another tool that farmers can place in their tool bags.
