I have 8 eggs coming the beginning of May. Much cheaper to buy/ship eggs and incubate them than to have the turkey chicks sent. Makes it more cost effective unless the eggs don't hatch LOL.
Cornish X's grow fast and do not need much room. Once they start growing and eating they really don't move much except from food to water to rest and back again. They are ready to butcher in as little as 4 weeks depending on how big you want them to be. You could build a tractor big enough to hold 6 or so and do that from warm weather until cold. In 24 weeks you could process 24 chickens. You do want to move them around, hence the tractor, because they will just sit in their own poop (and there is a lot) and get blisters on their breat and legs.
100% wrong! Grass fed is the way to go. Cows are not supposed to eat corn they are supposed to eat grass. We have just conditioned them to eat corn so that we can raise more cattle in a smaller space while using subsidized corn. Grass fed beef is way more healthier.
You got one on me there, I've never heard of that. We have always raised a beef and grain feed it for its last few months.
The grain fed beef also fatten up much quicker. Another reason the industry loves using grain fed. Do a google search and there is a ton of information about this.
To answer the question though, we raise a beef, so I haven't bought store beef in years. We have a huge garden, so I don't know if I've ever bought corn, green beans, okra, potatoes, squash...i love the gardening too.
Fats the flavor though right? And our raised beef is still way more lean than anything you can buy in the stores. ***oh I'm googling it though
beef is beef is beef to me. ESPECIALLY when we are talking hamburgers and roasts. Steaks I can tell a difference slightly, but I've never ate a steak I didn't like either. My uncle has about 700 acres with 200 head of cattle or so....growing up, my family would half a heifer with their family to have butchered and it would last us most of the year. Cheaper/more convenient alternative than the grocery, but we never really thought about the health aspect.
The skinny on grass-fed beef As we stood at the checkout at a Publix supermarket with some grass-fed cuts, a young checkout clerk asked, "So, what is grass-fed beef?" Hearing the short answer -- meat from cows that eat only grass -- he looked surprised. "I thought all cows just ate grass." All cows do graze on pasture for the first six months to a year of their lives, but most finish at a feedlot on a concentrated mix of corn, soy, grains, and other supplements, plus hormones and antibiotics. This growth-spurt formula is the backbone of a hugely productive U.S. beef industry. A feedlot cow can grow to slaughter weight up to a year faster than a cow fed only forage, grass, and hay. "That's one year that you don't have to feed the cows in the feedlot," notes Eatwild.com founder Jo Robinson, who spent the past decade examining scientific research comparing grass-fed and grain-fed animals. "Conventional factory meat is so cheap because they've done everything to speed growth and lower the cost of feed." The feedlot process not only speeds the animal to slaughter weight but also enhances fat marbling, which is one factor that determines a cut of beef's USDA rating -- the more fat within the red meat, the richer the taste, the higher the grade. Most supermarket beef is Choice, which is one step below Prime, the top grade typically found in steak houses. Boosting fat levels changes the nutritional composition of the meat, of course, and, from a health point of view, not for the better. Cooking Light: How to buy the best beef A study by researchers at California State University in Chico examined three decades of research and found that beef from pasture-raised cows fits more closely into goals for a diet lower in saturated fat and higher in "good fats" and other beneficial nutrients. Grass-fed beef is lower in calories, contains more healthy omega-3 fats, more vitamins A and E, higher levels of antioxidants, and up to seven times the beta-carotene. Skeptics such as Chris Raines, a professor of meat science at Penn State, say the benefits of the different fat profiles are overblown: "Some people get very excited about the fatty-acid profile of grass-fed beef. Then, in the same breath, they'll talk about how wonderfully lean it is. We're talking up the good fats that aren't really there." The National Cattlemen's Beef Association, which says it supports all forms of beef production, echoes this much-ado-about-not-much theme. Shalene McNeill, who has a Ph.D. in human nutrition and is executive director for human nutrition research at the association, acknowledges that "if you feed (cows) grass, you can slightly increase the omega-3 content, but if you look at it in terms of a whole diet, it's not a significant advantage to human health." Ditto, McNeill says, for some other "good" nutrients. Yet a 6-ounce grass-fed beef tenderloin may have 92 fewer calories than the same cut from a grain-fed cow. "If you eat a typical amount of beef per year," Robinson points out in Pasture Perfect, a book about the benefits of pasture-raised animals, "which in the United States is about 67 pounds, switching to grass-fed beef will save you 16,642 calories a year."
I would not argue that the corn fed beef may taste better. Grass fed tastes just fine and is much better for you and the environment. There is also less of the animal that you have to waste with grass fed. If you are raising your own beef and are not adding anything to the feed (i.e. hormones) I would be fine with that. I guess I am not aruging taste so much rather what beef is better to consume.
That is interesting Brad, but I personally think adding the grain at the end (all natural) makes the meat better. Also what about putting the,up in a lot vs. roaming the fields?
I have now informed all the deer on the land I hunt not to eat corn. Just eat grass so when I kill you, I can have a healthier diet
Thanks seriously that was interesting, and I'll agree from what you said and what else I looked up the "more healthier" beef is the grass fed. **both are way better than what you buy in the store!!
Eggs (and chickens) are much better for you (and better tasting) when the birds are allowed to go out and roam in the grass and sunshine. I'm talking real 'pastured' or 'free-range' chickens. Not the industrialized 'cage free' or 'free-range' crap. http://www.motherearthnews.com/Natural-Health/Health-Benefits-Free-Range-Eggs.aspx "Our previous tests found that eggs from hens raised on pasture — as compared to the official USDA data for factory-farm eggs — contain: 1/3 less cholesterol 1/4 less saturated fat 2/3 more vitamin A Two times more omega-3 fatty acids Three times more vitamin E Seven times more beta carotene"
Industrial version of 'cage free'. These are considered 'free range' (industrial style). Local, real eggs from small farms that allow real pasture access cost more but are worth it.
I don't remember where I got this quote but I love it! "Excercise, eat healthy, Die anyway!" If I had the money and space I would grow all of my own food because I enjoy it. Maybe one day.
I hate the seafood that's available. Every pack of frozen shrimp, every taliapia, every salmon is farm raised in either Vietnam, India or some other 3rd world country where they pump in sewage or whatever is available to make them grow. I know we get shrimp from our shores... but it doesn't get to upstate NY. I've gone to ordering things I want for flavor from the internet. I'm getting a big collection of dry ice shipping carts. I can order fresh sea scallops from Maine with no water added, lobster, shrimp from the gulf coast etc and it's great. I know it didn't get fed gook poop to make it big. Shipping cost area *****... but when I want something good or want to serve something good to someone I just do it. I always try to by free range chickens and the like.... simply because they taste so much better. When you can buy sliced deli type meats for sandwiches and they're good for over a month.... you know they have crap in them to preserve. You aren't getting a nice piece of cooked beef that just been sliced. It's been put through Mummyization. LOL I don't like that.
Pm me location and time. Have stuff going on but gonna try to make it. Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2
