Grass Fed vs. Grain Fed

In all my years of loving to eat steak I had never given any thought to what it was fed until recently.  I am a lover of lean, tender meat with lots of tastiness.  Steak is by far my favorite food.  I would say that most cattle around here are grain fed.  Lots of them spend much of their time in a feed lot.  Our cows, on the other hand, wander the pasture as they please eating grass.  They sometimes get some grain -as a treat more or less.  They also get apples, melon and carrots as treats.  This, to me, makes my cows happy cows!  I am not, however, trying to make a living with them.

As I spoke with the very nice lady at the locker, who answers all my questions about the meat and processing without complaint when we take a steer or buy one from someone else, she mentioned that they could tell our cow was grass fed due to the color of the fat layer and thickness.  This amazed me as I had no idea that it really made any difference.  I began my research into the difference and here is what I came up with:

Grain fed cattle grow faster and to promote this are sometimes given a growth hormone implant.  The meat contains more marbling that promotes tastiness (which can be debated).  The fat is thicker and white in color.  This beef is much more abundant and cheaper to buy.

Grass fed cattle may take a year longer to finish than grain fed.  The fat is yellow in color and the meat has much less marbling.  This meat is higher in omega 3 fatty acids, antioxidants, vitamins A & E and lower in calories.  It costs more and is much less abundant.  The quality of the meat can vary widely depending on the breed of cow.

This all being said, we raised our first grass fed cow and butchered him this year.  I was a little nervous that it wouldn't taste as good as the beef we purchased in the past, which was grain fed.  When we cooked our first steaks I was AMAZED!  This beef is exactly what I love to eat -tasty, lean and as tender as can be.  From what I have read we may have gotten lucky as to the cow, the breed or luck alone, but it tastes amazing.  We definately have no problems with raising our own grass fed beef again.  Also, I haven't crunched a bunch of numbers but it seems to me that it was cheaper for us to grass feed.  It took 2 years to grow him so we had to hay feed him through two winters.  We did not,however, have to buy grain for a year which seems like it would have been lots more expensive than letting him pasture eat.  The cost would be different, though, if we crop farmed and had our own grain so we wouldn't have to pay the higher prices of buying it. 

At the end of the day, we had a good experience and came out of it with a freezer full of great beef to eat that may be a little healthier than what we would have bought at the store and a lot less expensive!