We are rich.
We don’t even think about half of the animal that most of us don’t eat.
We don’t think about utilizing heads, feet, hearts, stomachs, kidneys, bones, and fat. It’s all about the steaks. Although 40% of the beef Americans eat is ground beef.
Some of our beef customers are more in tune with the eaters on the rest of our planet. They come on slaughter day and grab the items that can’t go to our farm butcher shop due to regulations.
Some more folks want the trimmed bones, as I do for bone broth for its nutritional value. (I use it when I cook rice!) It is also where I source tallow from the bone marrow. Here is a site that shows you how to do that, or do your own research: Rendering Fat: How to Make Tallow, Lard and Schmaltz – The Homesteading RD. And here is an interesting article to introduce you to tallow: Sizzling Science of Tallow: – MSU Extension | Montana State University
With the current high cost trend of tallow (averaging $40/lb.!), I finally have folks asking for the fat trimmed off by the butchers to render for tallow.
Tallow, rendered fat from sheep and cattle, has been valuable as cooking fat, lubricants, leather treatment, etc. for millennia. It’s making a renaissance in recent years as our understanding of the various forms of lipids evolves.
Our bodies did evolve to eat animal fats. But not too much!
Not all tallow is equal. Nor is all flour, lettuce, carrots, . . . . How it is grown matters. Consequently, I try to grow most of my own food. For what isn’t feasible to grow, I try to buy from a nearby Organic farm. It’s why I prefer to eat animals I care for. Cattle that get a fresh paddock daily of diverse, organically grown pasture. No corn, no soybeans, no GMO.
If you are getting a share of beef from us this year, you will get an allotment of bones and fat for tallow unless you opt out.
Beef Nutrient Density Project
This is a lay summary from the Journal of Animal Science as found on the Oxford Academic website:
The Beef Nutrient Density Project analyzed more than 300 beef samples from North American farms and supermarkets to examine how grass- and grain-fed systems affect nutrient composition in meat, particularly fatty acids and minerals. On average, grass-fed beef contained higher amounts of omega-3 fatty acids and minerals, such as iron, calcium, copper, and selenium, especially when cattle were rotationally grazed and finished on pastures with a wide variety of plants.
However, there was substantial variation within both systems. Some grain-fed samples had omega-3 and mineral levels that overlapped with or were higher than grass-fed samples, particularly when feedlot diets used less grain and shorter finishing periods and when grass-fed cattle grazed less plant-diverse pastures. These findings highlight the complexity of beef nutrition and suggest that simplified labels like “grass-fed” or “grain-fed” may not fully capture nutritional differences.
Providing more detailed information on nutrient content (for example, front-of-package labeling of omega-3 content and/or an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio) could help consumers make informed choices. Producers can use our study insights to refine management practices associated with elevated concentrations of omega-3 fatty acids and minerals in beef.
