Revival Beef
Cows weren’t meant to eat corn—plain and simple. Americans have been brainwashed though to start salivating at the very thought of biting into a seared, juicy, excessively-marbled, corn-fed rib-eye. When our country began over producing corn we had to figure out a place for it all to go and the cow seemed as good a place as any to start. After all, cattle pack more weight on, pound for pound and dollar for dollar, eating corn than they do grass. Put another way, why would anyone take the extra time and money to get a cow to market weight on grass, when they could do it quicker and cheaper with corn? The plan seemed logical. We then got really good at the whole “corn thing”. Sustainable farmer extraordinaire, Joel Salatin is famously quoted by saying, “I’m always shocked at how good we are at hitting the bulls-eye of the wrong target…we’ve gotten extremely precise and efficient by planting corn using GPS technology, but no one is asking the broader question, ‘should cows actually be eating the stuff anyway?’.”
Grass-fed and grass-finished beef is obviously not a new concept, but over the past few decades it has become increasingly hard to find. When one can find it, the ranchers that raise it, more times than not get hung up on its “health benefits” more than the actual quality. To develop quality beef, one must scrutinize everything about the cow and the way it lives. In Revival Meats’ case this meant looking for breeds of cows that were naturally efficient grazers in the pasture. The other characteristic we didn’t want to compromise on was significant development of intra-muscular fat at around 18–24 months of age. Intra-muscular fat, more commonly referred to as marbling, is essential to flavorful meat, and aids in tenderness. Besides being efficient grazers and tasting good, we wanted to have cattle that adapted well to our fickle and sometimes extreme climate. We also wanted to have animals that didn’t require much human interaction in order to survive. We at Revival Farms are somewhat lazy and feel like if the animals can do the work for us, then why not let them.
We quickly understood that a pure-bred cow probably wouldn’t fit every need that we had, so we looked for breeds that displayed certain characteristics that could be crossed with each other to develop a super cow, able to conquer all. Genetics are cool.
To this end, Revival Farms is beginning an experiment in 2010, by crossing cattle of varying breeds to develop beef that is uncompromisingly flavorful and tender, and that also performs well in our pastured environment. Ideally we’ll be able to have our cake and eat it too by using sturdy breeds of cattle with fantastic “survivability” genetics, able to withstand our severe Texas heat and droughts, but also maintain the flavor and tenderness of the highest quality beef. As we progress through the year, we’ll be sure to keep you up to date on our success.
