Grass that cows eat in the fields

Kewreeuss · 05-06-2021 11:25am #1

Apologies in advance for this silly question and I have no environmental axe to grind either.
You know the field that the cattle are in during the day, munching away happily - is that ordinary grass or is it helped by fertiliser?
I was poking around this site and I see that silage grass is, so I reckon hay must be too, but I didn’t see anything about fresh grass.

I’ve remembered something else I was wondering about also:
Does anyone think there is a difference in the taste of steak, depending on the part of the country it comes from? I never notice any difference and anyway I like streaks of fat through the meat to give it flavour!

_Brian · 05-06-2021 1:38pm

Some of it is improved with reseeding and grown on with fertiliser, some isn’t.

Sometimes it’s given gliding or slurry to bring it on.

Lots of developing work on having fields of “multi species” plants where they complement each other and grow more volume without fertiliser.

Fertiliser is desperately expensive, has probably increased ten fold when compared to beef prices over last 20 years. Farmers are really careful with its use, sometimes there’s a picture painted of farmers throwing out fertiliser for the sport, the opposite is true really.

Taste of beef is more to do with breed, age and how it’s butchered. Supermarkets will get it packed and onto shelves as quickly as possible, when we killed our heifer last year she was hung for 21 days before butchering to let the meat rest and mature, it makes a massive difference.

Kewreeuss · 05-06-2021 5:03pm

Ok, that's great. Thank you for the explanations.

Danzy · 05-06-2021 5:24pm

While I agree with Brian, I'd add that a multi species forage does change the flavour of the meat .

05-06-2021 6:54pm

Danzy wrote: »

While I agree with Brian, I'd add that a multi species forage does change the flavour of the meat .

You are what you eat.

Lime Tree Farm · 05-06-2021 7:08pm

Deleted User wrote: »

You are what you eat.

Better steer clear of pig's head so !

05-06-2021 7:47pm

Lime Tree Farm wrote: »

Better steer clear of pig's head so !

I would regardless of what it ate

Kewreeuss · 05-06-2021 8:07pm

I haven’t eaten nice pork in a while. I’d love a decent chop.
It either smells strongly or feels like eating polystyrene.
I heard of a place in rathgar that sells organic free range pork.
I will try it sometime soon.

patsy_mccabe · 05-06-2021 8:18pm

Kewreeuss wrote: »

I haven’t eaten nice pork in a while. I’d love a decent chop.
It either smells strongly or feels like eating polystyrene.
I heard of a place in rathgar that sells organic free range pork.
I will try it sometime soon.

You should try Iberico Spanish Pork some time. The pigs are fed on acorns. You'll seriously question the meat you eat after that.

Government buildings · 05-06-2021 8:22pm

The grass that cows eat in Ireland it's just forced green sward. Because of sprays, there are no buttercups daisies or other plants to give flavour.

The cattle have such a boring diet.

Say my name · 05-06-2021 8:25pm

Actually have cows eating nettle this year. Never seen it before.

memorystick · 05-06-2021 8:26pm

Government buildings wrote: »

The grass that cows eat in Ireland it's just forced green sward. Because of sprays, there are no buttercups daisies or other plants to give flavour.

The cattle have such a boring diet.

Not spraying grass for weeds or docks anymore. Tight grazing with sheep in the winter is really improving grass.

Birdnuts · 05-06-2021 8:26pm

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

You should try Iberico Spanish Pork some time. The pigs are fed on acorns. You'll seriously question the meat you eat after that.

Dined on something similar in France ten years ago - like a totally different product compared to the conventional stuff in terms of flavour etc.

Birdnuts · 05-06-2021 8:31pm

Say my name wrote: »

Actually have cows eating nettle this year. Never seen it before.

Something I've noticed recently with intensive dairy herds is that when cows are moved across a road for milking, they go mad for whatever is growing in the roadside ditches. Ivy, Cow Parsley, Brambles u name it. Suggests to me their diet of chemically forced monoculture PRG is really lacking in many essential elements:(

Mooooo · 05-06-2021 8:32pm

Birdnuts wrote: »

Something I've noticed recently with intensive dairy herds is that when cows are moved across a road for milking, they go mad for whatever is growing in the roadside ditches. Ivy, Cow Parsley, Brambles u name it. Suggests to me their diet of chemically forced monoculture PRG is really lacking in many essential elements:(

Or cows being cows....

Danzy · 05-06-2021 8:36pm

Kewreeuss wrote: »

I haven’t eaten nice pork in a while. I’d love a decent chop.
It either smells strongly or feels like eating polystyrene.
I heard of a place in rathgar that sells organic free range pork.
I will try it sometime soon.

Chicken, Pork, have all gone downhill in the last few years.fast finishing, no complexity in diet, killed much quicker.

Killed 2 pigs here one time, they had an acre of scrub and old grass, kitchen scraps, bit of silages, the falling apples of an orchard.

Meat was incredible.

Say my name · 05-06-2021 8:40pm

Birdnuts wrote: »

Something I've noticed recently with intensive dairy herds is that when cows are moved across a road for milking, they go mad for whatever is growing in the roadside ditches. Ivy, Cow Parsley, Brambles u name it. Suggests to me their diet of chemically forced monoculture PRG is really lacking in many essential elements:(

If you can get the brix up in grass it's as a complete plant as you'd ever need.
Cows know what they need.
Same as cravings in a pregnant woman.

Birdnuts · 05-06-2021 8:41pm

Mooooo wrote: »

Or cows being cows....

You see the same thing with sheep kept on lush monoculture swards - scour and worm issues are common too

wrangler · 05-06-2021 8:46pm

Mooooo wrote: »

Or cows being cows....

True....
Like us all they like something different

MeadowMaker · 05-06-2021 8:57pm

I have some species rich upland hay meadows coming into its first full flower this year and was actually wondering what effect it would have to the taste to the sheep that will graze the crop ( or hay weather permitting).

Has native grasses, plantain, meadow buttercup, yellow rattle, red clover, red bartsia, yarrow, self heal , birds foot trefoil and a couple more I can’t think off hand. Don’t think they will take to the knapweed though.

Waffletraktor · 05-06-2021 9:07pm

MeadowMaker wrote: »

I have some species rich upland hay meadows coming into its first full flower this year and was actually wondering what effect it would have to the taste to the sheep that will graze the crop ( or hay weather permitting).

Has native grasses, plantain, meadow buttercup, yellow rattle, red clover, red bartsia, yarrow, self heal , birds foot trefoil and a couple more I can’t think off hand. Don’t think they will take to the knapweed though.

Waste of time being the most pious farmer in the parish if it ends up in the same frdige truck to meat markets on the continent with the rest of commodity crap. The future for farms in rich high cost western countries is putting sparkles and glitter of what ever washing is needed to make customers pay a premium via mail order meatboxes etc.

Well sold is better than better grown.

gozunda · 05-06-2021 9:25pm

wrangler wrote: »

True....
Like us all they like something different

Some French producers are marketing grass fed beef on the basis of regional Terroir which includes local soil, topography, and climate

Something we should have a lead on here as a lot of beef produced globally is neither grass fed or produced outdoors.

Government buildings · 05-06-2021 9:29pm

Irish farmers are always boasting about the quality of the grassland here.

It's just the same old boring forced shyte all the time. No colours in the grass. No flavours.

Such a dull diet for the cattle. It's probably some kind of animal cruelty.

Mooooo · 05-06-2021 9:39pm

0/10 on trolling effort...

Say my name · 05-06-2021 9:43pm

Mooooo wrote: »

0/10 on trolling effort...

Green party vegan from Dublin.

05-06-2021 9:44pm

Say my name wrote: »

Green party vegan from Dublin.

Surely there are some south facing window box gardens to be tended in Govt Buildings

I hear they feed all the GP hangers on around those offices just from those ledges.

Danzy · 05-06-2021 9:45pm

Government buildings wrote: »

Irish farmers are always boasting about the quality of the grassland here.

It's just the same old boring forced shyte all the time. No colours in the grass. No flavours.

Such a dull diet for the cattle. It's probably some kind of animal cruelty.

Bit of emulsion on it and you'd see the growth in them.

Kewreeuss · 05-06-2021 9:56pm

Government buildings wrote: »

The grass that cows eat in Ireland it's just forced green sward. Because of sprays, there are no buttercups daisies or other plants to give flavour.

The cattle have such a boring diet.

Brian says the grass doesn’t get sprayed much.
And maybe we should push the terroir thing too, if we are extending our markets into Europe.

JeffKenna · 05-06-2021 9:58pm

Birdnuts wrote: »

Something I've noticed recently with intensive dairy herds is that when cows are moved across a road for milking, they go mad for whatever is growing in the roadside ditches. Ivy, Cow Parsley, Brambles u name it. Suggests to me their diet of chemically forced monoculture PRG is really lacking in many essential elements:(

A cow is very curious by nature, walk into a field with them and stand still...they'll go mad for you exactly as you describe here.

gozunda · 05-06-2021 10:16pm

Say my name wrote: »

Green party vegan from Dublin.

Sounds like the other one who is always banging on about beef and farmers and generally clueless tbf

emaherx · 05-06-2021 10:17pm

Government buildings wrote: »

The grass that cows eat in Ireland it's just forced green sward. Because of sprays, there are no buttercups daisies or other plants to give flavour.

The cattle have such a boring diet.

Buttercups can actually give cows a belly ache.

Very few beef cattle are fed on the type of grass you describe, they are far more likely to be fed on more natural diverse grass swards. Or weedy rough grazing as some may know it as.

It amazes me how many visitors to this forum come with the opinion that all of our grass land is either a chemical enriched monoculture or they see nothing but fields full of weeds.

Lime Tree Farm · 05-06-2021 10:22pm

Government buildings wrote: »

Irish farmers are always boasting about the quality of the grassland here.

It's just the same old boring forced shyte all the time. No colours in the grass. No flavours.

Such a dull diet for the cattle. It's probably some kind of animal cruelty.

Akin to artificial supplements for the Vegan's deficient diet.

Base price · 05-06-2021 10:22pm

Not all farms have prg mono culture grass. I bet if there was a study done it would show that the majority of grassland in Ireland is multi species. Our fields haven't seen a plough in 40 years, we don't spread artificial fertiliser and only use slurry produced by our own cattle. We also don't spray for weeds although this year (weather permitting) I am going to spray a couple of fields (non LIPP) for docks as they are increasing in numbers. We control weeds by topping after the cattle have grazed them and it's fairly successful. I pull Ragwort manually when I'm out herding and see a plant growing. Our fields have multi grass species that have survived over the years, plantain, clover, yellow rattle and lots of other plants growing (many of which flower during the summer) as well as nettle, thistles and docks.

White Clover · 05-06-2021 11:02pm

emaherx wrote: »

Buttercups can actually give cows a belly ache.

Very few beef cattle are fed on the type of grass you describe, they are far more likely to be fed on more natural diverse grass swards. Or weedy rough grazing as some may know it as.

It amazes me how many visitors to this forum come with the opinion that all of our grass land is either a chemical enriched monoculture or they see nothing but fields full of weeds.

They might as well be looking into a field of thistles for all they know!!

Danzy · 05-06-2021 11:22pm

emaherx wrote: »

Buttercups can actually give cows a belly ache.

Very few beef cattle are fed on the type of grass you describe, they are far more likely to be fed on more natural diverse grass swards. Or weedy rough grazing as some may know it as.

It amazes me how many visitors to this forum come with the opinion that all of our grass land is either a chemical enriched monoculture or they see nothing but fields full of weeds.

As Govt buildings is aware buttercups are part of the ranunculus genus, like all plants in that there is varying levels of toxcicity to mammals across that family.

Out of all the years to say there are no buttercups in fields though, lol. Never seen as many in county Cork.

As Bass points out the majority of fields in Ireland has never seen a plough or non native seed.

Too many damn studies from America being transferred over to here.

emaherx · 06-06-2021 6:44am

Danzy wrote: »

As Bass points out the majority of fields in Ireland has never seen a plough or non native seed.

Also this year's environmental scheme to increase grass land biodiversity and improve hedgerows for wild life has been over subscribed with 5 times as many applicants as there are places.

Photograph taken last week. Just look at the poor cows on their forced green diet

IMG_20210601_171409 by Farmer Ed's Shed, on Flickr

_Brian · 06-06-2021 8:37am

Government buildings wrote: »

The grass that cows eat in Ireland it's just forced green sward. Because of sprays, there are no buttercups daisies or other plants to give flavour.

The cattle have such a boring diet.

Silly generalised statement.

Grass that cows eat in the fields

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