Date of Award:
12-2024
Document Type:
Thesis
Degree Name:
Master of Science (MS)
Department:
Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Sciences
Committee Chair(s)
Stephan Van Vliet
Committee
Stephan Van Vliet
Committee
Korry Hintze
Committee
Sulaiman K. Matarneh
Abstract
Most beef cattle in the US are feedlot-finished where intensive feeding of grains is used to increase weight and yield; however, a minority are raised in grass-fed operations that use exclusive pasture, rangeland, and hay for feeding, possibly leading to benefits for the land, soil, ecosystems, forages, and the meat itself. These operations use a variety of methods, and the goal of this was to recognize differences in the soil and forage metrics to help understand the resulting meat fatty acid composition and mineral content. We collected these samples from 78 sets of farmers while testing 25 sets of grain-fed controls, usually purchased from a store. We found major differences in organic matter between beef pasture soil and corn field soil and in the fatty acid content of forage and grains. These differences were highlighted with better fatty acid composition and mineral content in grass-fed meat. These results show the variability in beef operations across a range of variables, providing valuable insights into how different feeding practices impact the quality of beef and the environment.
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Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Statham, Travis Earl, "From Pasture to Plate: Striking an Omega Balance Between Grass-Fed and Grain-Fed Beef Ribeyes - Fatty Acid Composition, Minerals, Soil, And Forage Analysis" (2024). All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present. 368.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd2023/368
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