“Someone can make a living off 70 head of grass-fed beef easily — or even 50,” said Ben Campbell, who raises both grass-fed and conventional cattle near Black Diamond, Alta.

“Where if you produce 50 calves a year in a cow-calf operation, you wouldn’t have a chance.”

But you would have a more relaxed lifestyle.

“We get phone calls every day of the year except for Christmas Day,” said Campbell. “There are fussy customers and nice customers (but) it’s a whole other totally different skill set and different than beef production and farming.”

His definition of grass-fed beef is that it comes from cattle raised “on some sort of grass diet, not in a feedlot and usually out in the open.”

Tim Hoven prefers to refer to his cattle as grass finished, since the cattle on his certified-organic operation near Eckville never eat grain at any point in their lives. He’s been doing this for 20 years and has a clear goal when it comes to breeding.

“We’ve been working hard to fine-tune our genetics so animals perform well in our microclimate, under my management,” said Hoven, who calves out about 160 head a year. “Any cow that is a bigger-frame cow that gives me a calf that takes longer to finish is going to town.”

Because of that consistent culling, his animals have smaller frames.

“The smaller heifers, some of them can be done in 20 to 21 months. Some of the bigger-framed steers can take up to 36 to 37 months. Our daily gain is rarely over two pounds a day. On a bigger frame, it takes a lot to get them up to that finished weight.”

For Campbell, it’s 24 to 30 months — versus around 18 months for conventional cows finished on grain.

“The main cost is not finishing them. In conventional cattle, finishing them is when they have a high-grain diet, and grain is a lot more expensive than grass,” he said. “The fact that you have to overwinter them for two winters instead of one is the main thing.”

You can shorten that period but you get a different product, he added.

“Some people grass finish beef after only a year and a half, and they only maintain animals for over a winter,” said Campbell. “Depending on how fat you want them, you can get lean grass-finished beef that is overwintered one winter. There’s nothing wrong with them. It’s just lean.”

Lean beef isn’t popular everywhere, but people seem to like it in Ontario and in Vancouver, he added.

Breeds don’t matter a lot — in the grass-fed game, it’s all about size.

“Big animals take a long time to finish and need a lot of energy,” he said. “The smaller-framed animals will finish earlier in life, and they will fatten up a lot earlier.”

The sales side

But while there are a lot of people willing to pay a premium for grass-fed or grass-finished beef, the money doesn’t just magically appear — marketing is the most important component.

“That’s where all the value is in being a grass-fed producer,” said Campbell.

He said there is an option to sell to grocery delivery companies, but those options only offer a small premium above regular commodity beef.

“All the power and all the value is in marketing and selling the beef to consumers and delivering the beef,” he said.

But while direct marketing has high margins, it is labour intensive.

Still, it was what gave Campbell — who began with a small number of cattle and rented land — a chance to build his operation. Because of increased demand at the start of the pandemic, he and wife Steph produced 82 grass-fed cattle in 2020. But that was so much work, they scaled back and increased their commodity beef herd and are currently raising 275 conventional cattle, and 25 grass finished.

Hoven’s sales all come through his website. He owned a butcher shop in Calgary for 15 years, but got out of that so he could focus on direct-to-customer sales. He currently uses a local processor to butcher the meat, and does deliveries in Calgary, Red Deer and Edmonton.

The biggest challenge is that he and his family have to do everything, from calving and taking animals to slaughter to marketing and distribution.

“There are no existing channels for doing this. Everything we do, we have to invent,” he said. “It’s extremely time consuming. But there are benefits to that, because I can control everything and I know how everything is done.”

The second challenge is finding kill space because it’s hard to book small processors right now.

“We’re trying to slowly expand, and we’re always looking for different options to increase that kill space,” he said.

But there’s a solid future for this type of cattle production.

“The customer interest in grass-finished beef is slowly and steadily increasing,” said Hoven. “I don’t know if it will ever be a mass-market item.

“(But) for the people who want it, they are 100 per cent dedicated to eating it. And paying a premium because they know how much more it takes to produce.”

– Alexis Kienlen is a reporter for the Alberta Farmer Express. Her article appeared in the Jan. 10, 2022, issue.

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Why would A&W move to serving customers only grass-fed beef? “It is all about feeling good about the food you eat,” says the coupon book. OK, but what is so special about grass-fed beef? It’s simple says A&W, “cattle graze on pasture and the grazing helps the grasslands thrive.”

Gerond Davidson is the fifth generation of his family to continually farm and raise cattle at Springbank Farm near Neepawa.

“Today the term ‘grass-fed’ beef is being used as a marketing term that is gaining popularity with restaurants wanting to connect the beef they sell with a healthy environment,” Davidson said.

“Grass fed suggests a different management of the cattle, as compared to other approaches like a ‘conventional’ approach (open pasture), ‘grain fed’ (feedlot approach), or ‘grass finished’ (no grain) approach. The term ‘grass fed’ is somewhat ambiguous because at some point all cattle are ‘grass fed’ on summer pasture.”

In the ‘grass-fed’ world, a more holistic approach is often taken with pasture management. This includes rotational grazing, multi-paddock grazing, or mob grazing. Basically, they all mean the same thing. You move cattle through small paddocks and intensively graze, allowing grass in the ungrazed paddocks to regrow during rest periods, Davidson said.

“We have been raising cattle in a holistic way for almost 25 years now,” he said.

Keeping pasture grass and forage plants in a continuous state of vegetative growth means they absorb more carbon from the atmosphere, Davidson said.

“This has the added benefit of increasing our soil organic matter, therefore increasing the soil water-holding capacity, as well as sequestering carbon,” he said. “We were early adopters of riparian management on our creeks and adjacent grasslands because we did not want cattle to be a potential threat to water quality. In 2006 I partnered with Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation through a Conservation Agreement to protect the riparian area, grasslands and wildlife habitat in one of my pastures along Boggy Creek up stream of Neepawa.”

“I got the A&W coupon book in my mailbox and was encouraged by the fact that A&W sees value in the link between beef production and a healthy landscape,” said Tim Sopuck, the CEO of Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation (MHHC). “MHHC has long recognized the important contribution of cattle producers and their pasture lands that support healthy watersheds and the protection of wildlife habitat.”

He added the organization will continue to work with cattle producers to conserve pasture lands and improving grass quality by offering incentive programs like the new Keep Grazing Project.

“I am also thrilled that all my urban neighbours are getting the message that pasture lands are important,” he said. “Manitoba beef producers are important players in addressing issues such as climate change, carbon sequestration, biodiversity, water purification, native prairie protection and habitat for birds, wildlife, and species at risk.”

A&W says, “it’s all about feeling good about the food you eat.”

But are there any nutritional differences between a ‘grass-fed’ beef burger and a ‘grain-fed’ burger? Studies have shown grass-fed beef contains less fat. It can also contain up to five times as much omega-3 (lowers risk of heart disease, depression, dementia, and arthritis) and about twice as much conjugated linoleic acid (an antioxidant, reduces heart health risks) as grain-fed beef.

“I would say ‘grass-fed’ beef marketing is gaining popularity with restaurants,” Davidson said. “It relays a positive message to consumers about food production, and it gets the word out that beef is good.”

Davidson says in the end, A&W supports beef produced on grazed grasslands that provide environmental benefits to society and he’s glad the company is relaying it to consumers.

“I feel good about the beef we raise, and I hope consumers feel good about the beef they eat,” he said. “My hope is there will be enough cattle producers left in the future so cattle can continue to graze on pastures which will help our grasslands thrive and support a healthy environment.”

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Carman-based True North Foods is on the road to becoming a supplier of grass-fed beef for an as-of-yet unnamed, major client. That client recently approached company owner Calvin Vaags with the request.

A new program from True North Foods promises to add a new, premium-included, marketing option for grass-fed cull cows and bulls.

There are still details of the deal to hammer out, Duane Vaags of True North Foods said. While he could not name the potential client, Vaags said only that the request came from, “a large retail chain customer” located “across Canada.”

In the meantime, he and True North have started laying groundwork for a program to supply that meat. Vaags has recently spent his time reaching out directly to producers who might be eligible, gauging interest, and putting the word out to the larger cattle sector, including a plug at this year’s round of Manitoba Beef Producers district meetings.

“We’ve got to get this going, just due to the nature of the cattle cycle,” he said. “Most of these farmers are preg checking and sorting these cows out, so they’re getting ready to market these cattle, but the customer — we’re still finalizing a few details here and there.”

For the purposes of True North Foods, “grass fed” means an animal raised only on silage, hay, pasture or, “any forage that does not contain starch from cereal grain or corn and was not contained to a feedlot/grain-fed system.”

True North Foods is now actively on the hunt for producers who might be interested in marketing their grass-fed cull cows and bulls. Vaags himself recently spoke with about 50 producers across the Prairies, Ontario and as far as B.C., although he noted sourcing from those more far-flung regions would come with logistical challenges.

“Obviously, Manitoba is the easiest, but we’re going to have to go into Saskatchewan/Alberta in the long term to hopefully supply this market,” Vaags said.

Producers coming into the program can expect a 20-cent premium, based on dressed hanging weight, according to True North Foods. The plant hopes to build up from about 40-50 cattle in the first kill week, Vaags said, although it’s not yet clear how much beef will eventually flow through the program once fully up and running.

Recruiting

While producer interest has been “fantastic,” according to Vaags, there’s little data on exactly how many Manitoba producers can tap into the program.

Grass fed is something the Manitoba Beef Producers hears about “here and there,” general manager Carson Callum said, but the producer group does not have hard numbers on how many of its members might be eligible for the program.

“It’s definitely becoming almost a buzzword, you could say, in the media, but it depends,” he said. “There’s a lot of different production systems across the province in relation to the beef sector, but we know folks are looking at this strategy as well.”

The program will, however, be a rare local option in a landscape where marketing for grass-fed beef has been scarce on the ground.

Aaron Nerbas, who runs a grass-fed herd near Shellmouth, says most options for cull cows are either an order buyer or the standard auction mart. Options like Alberta-based Top Grass Cattle Company do offer grass-fed marketing, and similarly offer a premium, he noted, although freight can quickly become prohibitive, unless the producer is sending a full load of cattle.

“We qualify, so if we can get a premium and the freight isn’t counterproductive, then it makes sense for us to try something like that, for sure, rather than the traditional commodity market,” he said of the True North Foods program. “In the commodity market we’re the same as everybody else, not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, but an additional premium of ‘x’ amount a head is always welcome.”

Grass-fed backlash

For some conventional grain-fed beef producers, however, the program’s welcome has been less warm.

News of the program sparked social media posts, with some producers referencing well-broadcast restaurant chain ads on hormone-free and grass-fed beef, many of which have caused consternation among the sector. Others questioned the commonly cited marketing messages behind grass-fed beef, which often portray it as either tasting better, more environmentally sound or healthier, all statements that can and have left conventional beef producers feeling attacked.

Others, meanwhile, posed questions on how the “no starch” claims would be verified.

Callum, however, argued for a more live-and-let-live approach to the debate.

“It’s another option for producers to be able to market their particular business model,” he said. “There’s a lot of different ways to raise beef and a lot of different ways to market your animals and no way is better than the other in our mind.

“Having more options is not a bad thing,” he added.

Vaags, likewise, racked the debate up to personal preference.

“People get a little hot under the collar, a little expressive when they see something and they disagree with it, but my personal experience so far has been excellent,” he said. “All the producers have been very positive.”

Future

While the program is good news for producers with qualifying bulls or cull cows, it will give little ground for producers yearning to market prime animals.

While Nerbas is more involved in breeding stock than commercial beef, his farm does market the bottom half of each calf crop. Currently, those market-bound calves head to the standard auction mart.

The True North Foods program, targeted as it is to cull cows and bulls, won’t improve the market options for those calves or any finished animals, at least not yet.

“I don’t know what the future’s going to hold,” Vaags said. “Are we going to be able to market grass-fed beef into the local grocery stores and the restaurant trade with your typical slaughter-age animal?… I don’t know. But my hope is that this program will kind of build the framework, set the groundwork so that we can do that in the future.”

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The Vancouver-based chain, which includes almost 1,000 restaurants across Canada, announced Monday it’s “making a commitment to exclusively source and serve 100 per cent Canadian grass-fed and -finished beef in its restaurants.”

The chain’s beef supply became the flashpoint of its new ingredient sourcing campaign in 2013, when it first declared all burgers it sells “are now made with beef that has been raised without any added steroids or hormones and contains no added preservatives or additives.”

The “Better Beef” campaign infuriated some Canadian ranchers and their supporters, many of whom have voiced displeasure across social media ever since.

The 2013 policy required A+W to start importing some of its beef from the U.S. and elsewhere, rather than buy strictly Canadian. Some critics were also concerned A+W’s campaign could mislead consumers about the safety or quality of Canada’s overall beef supply.

But the ingredients sourcing campaign — which has also since seen A+W tighten and promote its requirements for cheese, chicken, pork, eggs, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, root beer and coffee — has also indisputably worked.

The chain since 2013 has booked seven straight years of year-over-year same-store sales growth, and has seen a net expansion of over 200 stores.

Monday’s announcement won’t take effect at all restaurants immediately. Susan Senecal, CEO for A+W Food Services of Canada, said the company currently expects to begin its rollout at the end of May.

Asked in an interview how long the company expects the transition to 100 per cent Canadian grass-fed beef to take, she said “we know that we’re buying millions more pounds of Canadian beef this year over other previous years, but what we’re seeing is a lot of excitement and enthusiasm, so while we thought that the timeline might be longer rather than shorter, it feels like maybe it’ll accelerate and go faster than we think.”

A+W said it’s “working closely with the Canadian beef industry” on the move, recruiting packers including Cargill, JBS Canada, Meyer Canada, Beretta Farms and others in Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan, to “help grow the market for grass-fed beef in Canada.”

A+W described grass-fed as “an emerging market (and) wants to support it by paying a premium for grass-fed beef.”

The chain will be working “with many of our current suppliers” on a grass-fed, grass-finished beef supply, but will “also be able to expand our relationships to others who currently either just starting or transitioning their programs” to grass-fed, Senecal said.

The company, she said, has been working on the idea of a grass-fed beef supply for “a number of years now” as the chain has considered its role as a Canadian company and ways in which it can support “the efforts of a lot of ranchers who are such great stewards and environmentalists.”

In that, she said, the company is well suited to provide “a ready market and a path to market for operators who are working with the grass-fed beef idea.”

On a visit to Canadian Western Agribition in Regina, she said, company officials saw “a lot of interest among ranchers who in many cases were using a lot of these practices, but wanted a little bit more information or wanted a few more ideas about networks or places that they could call.”

Furthermore, she said, while working within the company’s current beef supply requirements, “many of our partners have said ‘Just knowing that you’re always out there buying as much as we can produce really provides incentive for us to continue with these practices, and expand our growth.'”

On the continuing education end, A+W noted it’s also partnering with universities and NGOs “to support ongoing efforts to provide ranchers with useful tools and resources to recognize their regenerative agriculture contributions.”

To that end, the company said it has already signed on as a sponsor for Regeneration Canada’s Living Soils Symposium next week in Montreal, and for a ‘Grasslands Conservation Incentives’ project being developed by Birds Canada.

As for the end product itself, Senecal said the company believes “that this beef profile will fit perfectly with our recipes.”

Among the packers who have signed on to supply grass-fed beef to the chain, Cargill is “able to meet our customer’s needs through existing resources and operations in our Canadian processing facilities” without any alterations required at its existing plants, a spokesperson said via email. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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How does the production system impact your grilling and eating experience? Well, for nearly 95 per cent of all U.S. beef produced, the traditional system is weaning a calf at six to seven months. Then it’s placed in a forage-based stocker growing program for three to six months, followed by 140 to 160 days of grain feeding to finish.

That was certainly not the original beef production system. Up until the 1950s, all cattle were grass fattened, but about that time, Midwest farmers started finishing them on grain. All of a sudden the consuming public said, “YES, we greatly prefer the flavour of grain-fed beef.”

You likely knew that history. But here are some things you likely did not know about how the beef production system impacts your beef grilling and enjoyment.

Let’s start with a little Q & A.

How long do cattle need to be on feed before the flavour profile we enjoy is created?

Numerous feeding trials have shown that 80 to 100 days are required before we start to taste the difference, but adding 40 to 60 more days further increases flavour and tenderness of the beef.

How much benefit is created by the added days?

A study at South Dakota State University answered that question. Researchers harvested one group of steers with .3 inch of fat cover but fed another group another 77 days to .5 inch of fat cover. They found that the extra time on feed resulted in an additional 105 points of marbling (a full quality-grade difference) creating a more tender, flavourful product.

Our company also did a survey at Certified Angus Beef-licensed packing plants in which we evaluated carcasses by compositional end point. The underfed cattle (.2 inch of fat cover) had considerably lower marbling scores, per cent Choice and Prime carcasses and lower CAB acceptance rates.

So back to the meat case, how would grass-fattened beef compare to beef produced in a normal production system? Workers at the Ohio State University just reported results (2015) of a trial they conducted to answer that question.

The researchers compared a traditional grain-fed system where calves are spring born and fall weaned then placed on a 90 per cent concentrate diet, to cattle “fattened” on grass. The latter group was also spring born and fall weaned, but placed on grass for a short fall grazing period after weaning. They were fed hay over the winter and then placed back on grass in the spring with harvest occurring at about 16 months of age.

There was a 180-pound carcass weight advantage for the traditional, grain-fed cattle. The trial resulted in a fat cover of .23 inch and marbling score of 427 (Slight marbling or quality grade of U.S. Select) for the grass-fattened versus a fat cover of .60 inch and marbling score of 604 (Modest, or Premium Choice) for the grain-fattened cattle.

A small percentage of consumers (less than 15 per cent, according to Nebraska research) do prefer grass-fattened beef. The majority of consumers will continue to prefer grain-fed beef, which will be the future of U.S. beef as we compete globally. Grass-fattened beef is much more common outside of the U.S.

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The key is quality, which he describes as job No. 1.

“I’ve almost never had a consumer tell me, Jim, your rib-eye steak at $17.99 a pound — twice what it’s worth at Safeway — is too bloody expensive and I won’t eat it,” said Lintott, president of the 10-member Manitoba Grass-Fed Beef Association.

At his farmers’ market table, retail customers regularly come to him with a fistful of $100 bills and buy a pile of premium cuts to impress their guests at an upcoming weekend feast.

“That’s the market that’s there. Build that market with a high-quality product and give them bragging rights. Do not sell them a rib-eye steak for $11 a pound. It’s worth $20,” said Lintott, in a presentation at Ag Days hosted by the Manitoba Organic Alliance.

Wayne McDonald, who runs McDonald Farm near Cartwright, direct markets all of the grass-only production from his Galloway-Angus-cross herd of 80 head through an e-commerce-enabled website that also offers pasture pork and lamb.

“The beef is by far the easiest one to sell in terms of customer demand,” said McDonald.

Inspected

His cows are small framed, and carcass weights at 18-24 months average around 450-500 pounds. A provincially inspected abattoir is just 20 minutes away from the farm in Killarney.

The website, which uses a software program called Joomla that is available for free downloading online, is key to his marketing strategy, because it means his store is open 24-7 for customers.

Instead of hiring a webmaster, he is able to update pictures, prices and do inventory tracking himself because the software is very user friendly.

It features pictures and stories explaining how the animals are raised, as well as the farm’s philosophy.

Shoppers can browse through all the product line, then enter their choices in an online shopping cart, and then place an order and pay for it via credit card or PayPal.

“As I was sitting here, I had three orders come in. The online shopping cart is fantastic and it works really well for us,” said McDonald.

Once the order amounts for customers in Winnipeg, Portage or Brandon exceed $3,500 to $6,000, he loads the truck and delivers the frozen meat to a pre-arranged meeting place for customer pickup in a cooler-equipped trailer.

“I’m usually done and gone in half an hour,” said McDonald, who added almost all of his customers are families, and about half of them prepay online.

From the Canadian Cattlemen website: Patience pays with grass-fed beef

Different is better

Ian Grossart, who raises 90 head of forage-finished beef on his certified organic farm near Brandon, mainly sells locally from the farm gate.

In the 1990s, faced with the option of “getting big, or getting out,” he decided to switch to organic to boost his profit margins.

“Getting better, and getting different, appealed to me more,” said Grossart. “We’ve gone from using Roundup, Ralgro and Rumensin to aloe vera, kelp and compost.”

Having cattle on his organic farm means he can speed up the nutrient cycling process and turn a profit on a green manure crop by grazing it.

Raising beef the old-fashioned way has bolstered his conviction that he’s doing the right thing by raising healthier food, and he sees the results in positive feedback from his customers.

USDA literature from 1959, he said, states that a hamburger had 20 international units of vitamin A.

“In 2010, there’s none,” said Grossart. “People say we have the best science now and that ‘old is bad,’ but the nutrients in our food have in fact gone down.”

Lintott is excited by the long-term potential of the Canada-European Union free trade agreement, which could open up a new market for half a million head of hormone-free beef.

“Who has a protocol in place to service that market? It’s not the guy down the road who is producing commodity beef. He’s got hardly enough records to do his income taxes,” said Lintott, who added that in that respect, organic leads the way, followed by purebred breeders, and then the grass-fed beef association members.

Partnerships

Although it will be at least two years before CETA is signed, he is eager to start approaching buyers in the EU by working with Manitoba foreign trade representative for Western Europe Wolfgang Haufe.

But Haufe warned that trying to break into giant markets isn’t for the faint of heart, and it’s best to start with smaller markets on the European periphery.

Once, in pursuit of a co-operation deal with a big German corporation, Haufe sent a basic outline of a potential agreement to the managing director and was later pleased to receive an invitation to meet in person.

“When I arrived, the managing director stood up, tore my paper in half, and said, ‘This, Mr. Haufe, is what I think of your proposal!’” said Haufe. “At that stage, I knew that this was not a partner for me.”

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In fact, one could hardly afford to do otherwise, because those extra 12 months can mean the difference between profit and loss, Jim Lintott told a presentation on grass-fed beef production at Ag Days.

Lintott, a grass-finisher and marketer from Oakbank, used a detailed production cost analysis spreadsheet developed by retired provincial forage specialist Fraser Stewart to show “actual, not made up” numbers from his farm. They show the total cost of finishing, processing, and marketing a forage-only beef animal at 18 months stands at $1,112 per head.

At 30 months, the number is only slightly higher at $1,275. But on the other side of the ledger, there’s a huge difference when comparing the retail value of the two because the extra beef on the older animal is where the lion’s share of the profits come from.

Even though the older animal weighs only 175 pounds more, carcass yield at 30 months is 67 per cent, compared to 46 per cent at 18 months for an 800- to 1,000-pound animal. That means cut-out meat for the older animal amounts to 432 lbs. versus 250 lbs. for the younger.

“An animal at 18 months is immature, and has a higher bone-to-mass ratio,” he said.

Lintott pegged the on-the-rail price for the younger animal at $2.25/lb., mainly due to the higher chance that it would grade only AA, while a 30-month animal “almost always” fetches 10 cents more per pound at AAA.

At 18 months, the retail margin for the producer comes to $647, while the 30-month-old amounts to $1,543 — almost $900 more — after the $300 cost of wintering the dam is factored in for both.

“It’s all about the difference in the yield on the carcass,” said Lintott.

Selling 18-month-old grass-finished animals at typical live weight, wholesale prices wouldn’t be worth the extra effort, he said, and if he didn’t have a retail market available, he would have to use a separate, lower-cost production system for those animals.

From the Alberta Farmer Express website: Nothing ‘abnormal’ about producing hormone and antibiotic free beef

Marketing is key

The difference lies in the marketing. Lintott sells grass-finished strip loins and rib-eyes for $17.79 per pound and tenderloin for $21.19/lb.

“I can’t keep it in stock,” said Lintott, who added that the prices reflect sales of vacuum-packed, frozen individual cuts sold at the farmers’ market.

Much of the difficulty in finishing animals earlier is due to the slower pace and higher cost of fattening animals on forages in the dead of winter without high-energy rations such as barley. On his ranch, commercial fertilizer used to maintain the energy values and yields of annual ryegrass is a major expense, but ranchers with access to cheaper alternatives such as lower-cost hog manure may enjoy an advantage.

“The total is skewed because a younger animal requires higher-quality feed all the way through its life,” he said. “You can’t just take out the grain.”

Lintott, who often buys slaughter animals from other producers, doesn’t hesitate to buy even older animals up to 36 months, so long as they are well finished.

Ken Vaags, who admits that his “designer cow” experiment in grass-fed beef production is still a work in progress, is intrigued by the possibility of marketing older animals, even up to 42 months old.

After a lifetime of believing that in finishing cattle, “younger is better,” he recalled being “floored” by an article in the Stockman Grass Farmer that reported that the highest-priced beef in France comes from a four-year-old steer.

“That just blew all my categories,” said Vaags. “The next-highest price is for a four-year-old heifer that has had one calf.”

Besides tasting “beefier,” the older animals also finish easier on forage, he added.

He was initially nervous about potential eating quality issues with 3.5-year-old animals, but so far the beef has been well received by his growing customer base.

“When I give them the choice, they want the 42-month-old,” said Vaags.

daniel.winters@fbcpublishing.com

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