Recent History
December 10, 2024
From Pasture to Plate: Striking an Omega Balance Between Grass-Fed and Grain-Fed Beef Ribeyes - Fatty Acid Composition, Minerals, Soil, And Forage Analysis
My masters thesis 'From Pasture to Plate' has been published, comparing 300 ribeye steaks across grass-fed and grain-fed beef. 10 tables, 30 figures, 150 pages.
My thesis has been published!
Most beef cattle in the US are feedlot-finished where intensive feeding of grains is used to increase weight and yield; however, a minority are raised in grass-fed operations that use exclusive pasture, rangeland, and hay for feeding, possibly leading to benefits for the land, soil, ecosystems, forages, and the meat itself. These operations use a variety of methods, and the goal of this was to recognize differences in the soil and forage metrics to help understand the resulting meat fatty acid composition and mineral content. We collected these samples from 78 sets of farmers while testing 25 sets of grain-fed controls, usually purchased from a store. We found major differences in organic matter between beef pasture soil and corn field soil and in the fatty acid content of forage and grains. These differences were highlighted with better fatty acid composition and mineral content in grass-fed meat. These results show the variability in beef operations across a range of variables, providing valuable insights into how different feeding practices impact the quality of beef and the environment.
