January 1997
Grass-Fed natural Beef Niche for Ranchers?
DAVIS-Will consumers buy and eat grass-fed "natural" beef? Is this a viable market for Northern California beef producers and could it help save grazing land from becoming "ranchette" parcels? The answers to these questions may lie in a new study funded by the UC Davis-based statewide Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP).
"We were encouraged by a preliminary survey at California State University, Chico on grass-fed beef and consumer acceptability,"says Glenn Nader, livestock and natural resources farm advisor in Yuba, Sutter and Butte counties. "But the new study will provide us with more in-depth information to determine if consumers will purchase and eat grass-fed natural beef, whether raising it will be economically feasible, and whether we can develop useful marketing plans for producers."
CSU Chico researchers, a team of ranchers, UC Cooperative Extension personnel and students found that more than 90 percent of the Chico-area consumers in their test survey who purchased and ate grass-fed, mechanically tenderized beef would purchase it again and 73 percent would pay more for similar ground meat.
"This is simply preliminary data," says Dave Daley, animal science professor at CSU Chico, "But the results are encouraging enough to warrant an expanded study of the possible market."
CSU Chico Agricultural Economist Annette Levi says that of those who purchased beef in the local survey, 97 percent had some concerns about meat, including health issues (fat, cholesterol), contamination questions (E. coli) , and questions about antibiotics and growth stimulants.
Nader said that the team of researchers and ranchers believes the increased emphasis on natural, lower-fat products by consumers suggests this is an appropriate time to evaluate the acceptability of a grass- (or forage) fed, natural beef product, finished and distributed near the Northern California areas in which it was raised.
"The feedlot is the traditional method of raising and marketing beef," he says. "We're trying to find out if producers can be successful using an alternative way to raise and market beef cattle." Raising grass-fed beef may be an untapped market for producers, Nader says, which may also have the effect of attracting consumers who have cut back on eating beef.
"The primary intent of the project is to demonstrate the feasibility of an alternative, sustainable food system, which begins to stabilize family ranches and rural communities," says Daley. The massive feedlot industry in the U.S. and a packing and distribution system designed to accommodate large volumes of grain-fed cattle has led to the elimination of small, local packing facilities from rural communities, and waste management and water quality issues at the feedlots, Daley says. Because of packer consolidation, small and mid-sized family ranchers have limited marketing options, and many have left the business, selling small parcels of their land as "ranchettes," he says.
Others sell feeder cattle to Midwestern feedlots where they are processed, and then shipped back to California for retail. "Transporting them from the region of production has a destabilizing effect on rural communities," he says. "Grass-fed beef would be a regional product, marketed through community-based packing plants in Northern California, and would require less transportation costs than feedlot-finished beef."
Daley says that prior to World War II, most cattle were forage fed. "We've only been feedlotting cattle with high-energy grain-based diets for 50 years." The rising cost of grain-based diets has contributed to a renewed interest in evaluating forage-fed beef, he says.
One of the results of feed lot-finished beef is more tender meat, Daley says. "However, standard taste panels used to get reaction to beef tend to be skewed by the fact that they're traditionally conducted in research facilities where average consumers are usually not part of the panel," he says.
"We want to ask more consumers what they think of grass-fed beef," Daley says. He notes that those consumers in the pilot study were pleased with the tenderness of the meat, which was needle-tenderized at a meat processing facility in Chico.
Researchers are concerned that producers plan carefully for changes in their production systems. "It's critical for producers to 'pencil out' the exact cost-revenue break-even point for a new marketing plan," says Levi. She says the UC SAREP grant will help researchers gather economic data for producers' marketing plans. "They should be familiar with the market and confident of success, besides just knowing what the costs of production will be," says Levi.
One of the issues for producers is the slightly yellow-colored fat of grass-fed beef. This is the result of the high beta carotene (Vitamin A) content of grass diets. The beta carotene is stored in the fat. Although the yellow color is healthy, Levi says, processors are not familiar with it since feedlot diets produce white fat. Preliminary studies indicate that consumers do not seem concerned about the color of the fat, Levi says. Needle-tenderized frozen beef lost most of the yellow color in the fat.
"It's time to think about what's out there for markets," Daley says. "Grass-fed beef may be a market for those who normally don't eat beef."
Media Contacts:
Lyra Halprin, (530) 752-8664, lhalprin@ucdavis.edu
