Ever hear that “we are what we eat”? Our cattle are what they eat as well. The meat and fatty tissues take on a flavor based on what is in the animal’s diet.

Cattle in a feedlot take on the bland taste of their high carb diet--usually very high in crushed corn and soy. Since most of our beef (and pigs and chickens) are on this diet, the meat flavor is very predictable.

A grass-fed and finished animal will take on nuances of flavor due to the varied diet of grass, herbs, legumes, and forbs that they have been eating. These nuances can be subtle to extreme and desirable or objectionable. Talk to your farmer and find out what the cows have been eating. Try a sample before you buy a whole cow. Like fine wines, each farm or ranch will have different nuances of flavor. Find your farmer. Talk to him. Subtle flavors will even vary seasonally and from farm to farm.