Most of us benefit from high-quality animal protein. But what constitutes "high quality"? One key factor that has a tremendous bearing on the quality of the meat is whether or not the cattle was raised on pasture, opposed to a confined animal feeding operation (CAFO).

    Joey Jones has been involved in the grass-fed beef market for over 17 years. He created the GrassfedNetwork.com—an online resource with ongoing monthly trainings for livestock producers, in which they learn how to improve the way they raise animals on grass.

    While he grew up as a city kid, Joey got involved with ranching while attending college at Texas Tech University.

        "In West Texas, I was doing that in a county that had the second largest feedlot. The smell of that was just horrendous as most of us have smelled… When the wind was blowing from that direction, it didn't matter what part of town you were in; the entire city could smell it.

        That smell isn't a natural smell. I only know that now, from working with naturally raised animals that simply don't have those smells. Those smells are sick animals."

    About 18 years ago, Joey and his wife started an organic co-op, which also offered grass-fed beef. The more involved he got, the more he realized that many of today's farmers have forgotten how to raise animals on grass only, which is what led him to create Grassfed Network.

Definition of Grass-Fed

    There's a lot of confusion about the term "grass-fed," and in many cases, it's an abused term like the word "natural." Some producers of beef will misuse this term because the rules around it are still somewhat undefined.

    Most all calves are fed grass for a certain amount of time. This is one factor that allows less scrupulous producers to get away with calling their beef grass-fed. The key to a truly grass-fed product is actually the finishing. Optimal beef is both grass-fed and grass-finished beef.

        "The only way to know any product that you're buying, whether it's produce or meat, is really to know the source of that product, and know their practices,"

        Joey says. "It is true that all animals are fed grass at some point unless they're dairy animals; there are actually dairy animals that never see a blade of grass…

        But almost all beef animals are going to be on grass at some point in their life. It definitely is the grass-finished product that you're after. And they're difference is big."

    Joey recounts one test he performed with one of his clients, who had a herd of animals raised on grass. The animals were finished for two different grass-fed meat buying organizations.

    One of the organizations accepted dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGs) as a supplement. DDGs are the corn that has been processed in a refining process that removes the starch, leaving only the dry matter from the corn.

    Since there's no starch, it technically qualifies as a grass-fed feeding supplement. The other did not accept DDGs. So one group of the animals got about two pounds of DDG a day, whereas the other group only got grass forage.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO64PHNmO4M