----- Original Message -----
> well, suppositions all, but here's three:
> 1) more time is required to get any one animal up to "market weight" on an
all
> grass diet

Right on, Katy.  In fact, all your suppositions are grounded in fact.


> 2) its a "specialty market".  Many food items cost more because
ingredients are
> omitted. (strange as this is).  its gimmicky marketing with a willing
buying
> public.

It's definitely trendy.

And I'll add a supposition of my own here:  As has been found with a few
health studies, greater health consciousness and practice tend to correlate
with education about health topics AND with just plain old education in
general.  Education is generally accepted as correlating with greater
earning power.   Now we all know this isn't always true, unfortunately, but
it's the prevailing belief anyway.  Therefore (conclusion to the syllogism),
educated, health conscious people with a relatively high income are able and
willing to pay more for their food.  Marketers have us by the
ba......neutered steer.



> 3) the breeding stock itself is sometimes more expensive because of the
>animal's
> genetics to prosper and gain good weights

Good God, yes.  There're some terribly expensive mama cows and bulls and
bully semen out there.  Conformation and the ability to produce calves of a
certain high birth weight (relative to breed) is of paramount importance.


>on poorer quality feeds in less time.

Clarification point: Not poorer in the sense of less nutritious since cows
are adapted to a grass diet, but poorer in the sense that it takes more
pounds of grass than it does grain to convert to a pound of beef body
weight.


> (some states have less grass/acre as a norm than others).

Right.  Varies widely.  It takes about 3 acres per cow here in an average
year, whereas in parts of West Texas about 40 acres per cow is more the
norm.

> The range of breeds
> has changed a lot over the decades.  Blacks with angus blood lines became
>very
> popular, now many are going back to stronger Hereford lines.

When I think cow, I think Hereford.  They epitomize to me everything that a
cow should look like.  Brangus (Black Angus-Brahma cross) have become very
popular for their hardiness and growth rates.  These are the two main
purebred strains common to this area.  I say "main" because there are other
purebreds as well, other than Holsteins in the dairies.  However,  there is
an awful lot of mixed breed cows of all colors and stripes here, too .
Eventually, they all end up in the supermarket, and I challenge
anyone/everyone to a game of name that cow when chawing on a steak.   Taste
is basically indistinguishable.   Growth habits (time to a certain weight),
hardiness, and muscle and fat deposition are not.  The English breeds have a
greater proportion of fat to muscle and intramuscular marbling than the
Continental breeds, which actually tend to be larger bodied cows overall.
There was some recent discussion about the French Paradox and unaccountable
differences between French and English health in spite of the many
similarities.  Might the kind of meat cow make a difference?  I don't know,
but it crosses my mind.  In one sense, a cow is a cow is a cow, but there
are differences at that.

>All this parentage
> genetics messing around also costs money above and beyond putting a calf
>at
> mother's side and turning them loose on grass.

Way beyond.  But breeders and raisers have somewhat different economic
goals.  Breeders obtain most of their income from producing cows and bulls
to sell to raisers and other breeders to improve their herds.  Only a very
few culled stock go to market.  Raisers, on the other hand, send all or
almost all their calf crops to market.   I had a student from Argentina
several years ago whose family gave him the job while he was here studying
to find some purebred semen for export so they could diversify their herd's
genetics and build it up.  Unlike most crossbreed cows with a bull who get
to, uh, *do it* the natural way, most purebred bulls are, uh, mechanically
jacked off and the cows AI'ed.  Then the vet or a tech gets called in to
palpate the cow for pregnancy.  If not pregnant, she gets a shot of Lutylase
to bring her back into fertility (which is also the norm for all dairy cows
who only get to keep their calves for a few days, or less, so mama can be
put back on the production line). Then she's AI'ed again.  Got to keep 'em
pregnant to make money.  Point is, the more technology that's involved, the
more the cost gets passed to the consumer.

> As a generalized BTW:  from what I know, ANY cow will just flat bloat up
and die
> in a short while if they were fed nothing but grain.

If they're burned in--i.e., accustomed to eating some grain--they usually
don't unless they just grossly overfeed on the stuff, which happens
sometimes.  Same with horses.  But in a cow that's never been grained, it's
more likely to happen because, for one thing, they're not likely to stop at
a little.  Grain tastes good--that's why cows will even preferentially eat
it or break into corn fields to get it.  Raisers, if they feed grain at all,
introduce grains in gradually increasing amounts.  A bloated cow is quite a
sight.  The immediate cure is to use a trocar to punch a hole in the cow's
rumen (first stomach) to let all the gas out.


> I'm only making these comments because I've seen several posts here that
make me
> think several paleo eating enthusiasts think most commercial cattle are
fed
> nothing but grain.  That just isn't true.

Right, it's not.


> The grain is a side dressing to hay or grass type food, usually offered
during
> the "finishing" period that most commercial beef undergoes.

Yes.......with a few exceptions.  1) Unweaned calves bought very young are
oftentimes given just a little cracked grain/soybean meal/rice hull mix
after they arrive from transport.  They don't yet know how to graze grass,
and they won't.  All they'll do is walk the fence line and bawl for their
mamas.  It only takes a couple of days for them to sicken and die because
they're stressed out.  The hi-carb mix gives them fuel to go on till they
discover the grass at their feet.  Then they go on pasture/hay.  2) Some
raisers will supplement with a little grain along with the hay during
periods of especially harsh winter weather.  Grain is said to burn hot,
gives cows extra energy to withstand the elements better.  3) Some raisers
will introduce cows to grains (burn them in) shortly before they're sent to
feedlots where they're finished.


> I think anyone who drove up to a cattle ranch with an appropriate trailer
could
> buy a steer that had been pasture/grass fed all its life past weaning, and
just
> haul it to their preferred butcher shop and have it processed and get a
good
> quality meat that avoids the grain finishing.

Yes, yes, yes.  I've mentioned this before.  It's so simple and easy.  And
most likely, the raiser will do it all as a matter of course, other than
deliver the packaged meat to your door.

Theola