Grassfed to Finish: A Production Guide to Gourmet Grass-Finished Beef

Grassfed to Finish is the first book to address all the factors necessary for a quality grassfed product. It lays a foundation of facts from Nation's world travels, debunking the myths and misconceptions about grass-finished beef and showing that grain is totally unnecessary for a gourmet "killer" product, and actually lowers overall quality as well as nutritional character.

Nation tells how meeting grazing specialist and researcher Dr. Anibal Pordomingo in Argentina aided his understanding of the key components of an all-grass system. Nation includes Pordomingo's production tips and innovative Forage Chain of grasses and legumes.

Chapters detail what researchers have learned about grassfed's health benefits; how to get started with heifers and why; how to turn cull cows into gourmet products; how to integrate summer and winter annuals into a perennial-based pasture system; how to come up with a year-around supply of beef while only over-wintering cattle once; how different grasses can flavor meat; how to recognize a ready-to-harvest grass-finished beeve; how production errors can create tough meat; what educated, health-conscious consumers want and how to serve them.

The grass program explained here can be used equally well for replacement heifer development or mainstream stocker steers; however, the production and marketing foundation outlined here will serve you well if you decide to expand production and make grassfed beef your primary enterprise.

Allan Nation served as the editor of The Stockman Grass Farmer magazine from 1977 until his death in November, 2016.

Begun in 1947, it was Mississippi's oldest farm publication. Based in Ridgeland, Mississippi, The Stockman Grass Farmer is an international publication that covers management-intensive grassland enterprises for producers of pasture-raised livestock. This includes stocker cattle, grass finished beef and lamb, and pasture-based dairying. It is the only monthly publication in North America devoted solely to management-intensive grassland farming in all its aspects.

The son of a commercial cattle rancher, Nation grew up in Greenville, Mississippi. He traveled to some 30 countries around the world studying and photographing grassland farming systems. In 1987, he authored a section on Management-intensive Grazing in the USDA Yearbook of Agriculture and served as a consultant and resource for Audubon Society Television Specials, National Geographic, WTBS, PBS, and National Public Radio. He received the 1993 Agricultural Conservation Award from the American Farmland Trust for spearheading the drive behind the grass farming revolution in the United States.

Nation was a featured speaker at ranching and grasslands conference and authored 11 books on pasture-based livestock and artisan meats and milk products.