Even EPDs have their place in genetic selection By Jim Munsch Coon Valley, Wisconsin—I am often asked about the best breed for grass-based beef production. Most grass-fed experts say that a high proportion of English genetics is important. I lean that way myself — we have Angus. But I always tell people that the specific [...]

Analysis shows some surprising profit results from cow-calf and finishing after two winters By Tom Wrchota, Omro, Wisconsin — Grass-fed beef is hot. More and more people are questioning the safety and quality of conventional beef and are willing to pay premium prices for grass-fed even during this recession. While we’ve had to work a [...]

Tom Wrchota, Omro, Wisconsin — The increase in unemployed, underemployed, and fearful Americans has certainly affected overall spending on food. Here at Cattleana Ranch, meat sales are off slightly from our all-time record high of 2008. A decline in the dollar volume of our chicken and meat CSA sales offset slight increases in our beef, [...]

By Jim Munsch, Coon Valley, Wisconsin — Take a stroll through the meat market, do some math, and your first inclination is to say that direct marketing of beef will pay a producer. We farmers have been basically saying that for years. Ever since I can remember, I’ve heard uncles, cousins and neighbors complain about [...]

By Tom and Susan Wrchota, Omro, Wisconsin — If you want to sell a few head of grain-fed beef in sides and quarters, you shouldn’t have much trouble finding a processor who can do the job for you. But if you want to target a high-end niche market for grass-finished beef in an effort to [...]

By Jim Munsch, Coon Valley, Wisconsin — At a grazing meeting last month, I heard that fresh, grass-fed beef from Uruguay and other countries had shown up in Upper Midwest specialty food stores catering to the health conscious. The question that was being bantered about: “Why can’t that beef be produced in the U.S.?” Certainly [...]

By Tom Wrchota, Omro, Wisconsin — Most of conventional agriculture treats productivity as the be-all, end-all for financially successful farming. Productivity is nothing more than measuring inputs and outputs, such as how many pounds of grain it takes to produce a pound of beef, pork, lamb, or chicken. So productivity is the study of how [...]

By Tom Wrchota, Omro, Wisconsin — Ever since living and working in Costa Rica back in the early 1970s, I have greatly enjoyed the taste, smell, and texture of “properly” raised and prepared grass-fed beef. Once back in Wisconsin, it was one of my crusades to develop a beef herd and a grass management system [...]

Cliff Schuette employs annuals and fescue in 12-month beef grazing program   Breese, Illinois — “If you’re paying for the ground year-round, you might as well try to graze it year-round.” While Cliff Schuette’s rationale may be sound, this grass-farming grail is simply not attainable for northern graziers. Then again, Cliff and a few others [...]