Honey, I Finished The Internet

11 Replies to “Honey, I Finished The Internet”

1. Mmmmmmm … marbled beef. Making a comeback. RFK Jr. approved.

2. I agree with you Kenji.
   Interesting that there is mention of a connection between consuming animal fat and heart disease (5:15). RFK Jr dismisses that in the latest nutrition recommendations. Sugar is the obvious culprit.

3. Herefords once weighed 3,000 pounds but they bred them down in size? I spent the 1960s on a rope pulling calves as my father used bulls that were Herefords crossbred with French breeds to gain size.

   1. Hereford & Charlais?
      Mom’s step family were Sask farmers of the year, mid 60’s, raised Herefords.
      Sister married Ab farmer, their son did the Hereford-Charlais mix.

      1. On my summer on the ranch at Klamath Falls OR … we had a herd of Charolais that grazed in dry lakebed on the property. Pretty low maintenance all in all … and fairly well behaved.

         1. Did you ever get involved with sorting and loading the rotters? Have to deal with one that got into a pasture of heifers it wasn’t supposed to be in with?
            Mind you, they aren’t Channel Island bull psychopaths, but they aren’t the mildest tempered animals, and they’re big and seem to know it. Can jump quite well too.
            Plus they’re big and have big calves — and that can be a problem.

4. The Angus breeders were foresighted and worked to make their breed a brand name — good marketing. The Herefords weren’t so lucky.

   Honestly, outside of some external differences, there isn’t much difference between Angus and Hereford meat. Both do ok in cold and hot climates with management — Red Angus probably the best. The Angus tend to be a bit more touchy, but it’s not a huge difference in personality in my experience. Really it depends upon whether they’re grass or grain fed (or a combo, which is what we did — not a fan of overly fatty nor overly lean meat myself). Both are hands down better than Charolais — my experience with those has not been pleasant, same with Gertrudis (a guy got a bull once, it got sold…quickly).

   Family used to run black white faces and still run them (although a couple of my cousins introduced Simmental into the mix — a bit more rugged, just a touch though as they do tend to have leaner meat). I never really have had to deal with bad beef.

   1. And my gramps never gave up on his Berks or All Blacks — one for meat, other for lard, easy to keep. I never knew bad, cardboard tasting pork growing up either. I do miss that…

   2. What’s the deal with the black Herefords being more valuable than the brown ones? It didn’t sound as though cross breeding Angus and Hereford always created a black Hereford … so how does a black coat make the meat better? I’m no genetics expert … but that sounds a little frivolous.

      BTW … “what’s the color of the boathouse at Hereford?”

      One of my favorite movie scenes.

      https://youtu.be/nm-g0NGE9W8?si=4eJasZpX8N1h8Zgq&t=122

      1. As I stated, the Angus cattle association did an excellent job of marketing their animals. That’s all it is. Angus are an excellent beef cow, but so is Hereford.

         Each breed association which represents ranchers that breed purebred animals (a lot of those animals are shown to a breed standard, which is another can of worms), tries to make claims that theirs is the best of the best because they are promoting their breed. There’s nothing wrong with it in theory, but it can get a bit toxic if taken too far (see what’s happened to purebred dogs or horses). We need people maintaining breed diversity, but each association will try to ‘corner the market’ and that isn’t good either. The average, everyday farmer usually isn’t as hung up on studbook purity so much as what works best. And we all know what’s happened to the small farmer…

         Angus and Hereford do have some differences, but on the husbandry and consumption end they really aren’t that different. The black white face is a cross between Angus and Hereford, and were always quite popular among small holding stockmen such as my family. It’s a constant balancing act between ease of care, price of care, and production quality/quantity — hence the mention of introducing Simmental: they are leaner and thus produce a less succulent, marbled steak, but they aren’t bad and they’re a bit hardier and calve easier, so you like having those qualities. And most consumers wouldn’t know the difference because how any of them are raised and finished usually affects the quality of meat.

         1. I’m now promoting a country singer named Agnes Cattle and her band, the Herefords.