The United States is one of the very few countries finishing cattle on a high concentration grain diet. The majority of beef consumed throughout the world is produced or finished on grass. There is an increasing interest among US consumers for grass fed beef cattle because of health and quality concerns. Grass fed beef contains larger quantities of Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) (French et al., 2000). CLA has also been identified as a potential powerful anti-carcinogen, with anticancer efficacy being expressed at concentrations close to human consumption levels of food from animal sources (Ip et al., 1994).
Grass fed beef has the tendency to store beta carotene and a variety of other vitamins in backfat (Yang et al., 1992). This manifests itself in a mild to abrupt discoloration of the exterior fat cover. Blue and red seem to be the most prevalent colors. This can directly affect the eye appeal of the cuts being marketed. A second obstacle is flavor. Since it is somewhat different in composition, the natural occurring transition or oxidization may be affected or accelerated. This also could lead to greater consumer rejection. According to Milton (1990), a more complete knowledge of the effects of feeds on red meat flavor could lead to the production of very lean red meats with more desirable flavor than that of the lean red meats available today.
Previous studies have addressed the effect of a high forage based diet in short feedlot periods on meat quality (Allen et al., 1996; Griswold et al., 2003). O’Sullivan et al. (2002) concluded that beef from grass silage fed animals had better overall quality in terms of color, lipid oxidation, and tocopherol levels than beef from maize silage fed animals. Pitchford et al. (2002) and Realini et al. (2005) concluded that many previously preformed experiments on meat tenderness were confounded with other factors known to influence tenderness. These included animal age, growth rate, carcass weight, external fat cover and postmortem aging processes. In addition, they showed enhanced fatty acid profiles of cattle which had been grazed on Tall Fescue. Also, preliminary research being carried out at the Main Station Field Laboratory (MSFL) showed the importance of timed grazing, forage selection, genetics and niche-marketing on fatty acid composition of conventionally fed and grass-finished Wagyu crossbred beef.
It is not known how variation in grass composition may affect growth, feed efficiency and meat quality traits in beef cattle operations in Nevada. Beef cattle producers in Nevada could be competitive raising grass fed beef cattle if an assessment is made on how differences in forage grass composition affect growth, feed efficiency and meat quality traits of their cattle. This information is critical for an economic assessment of potential benefits for grass fed beef cattle producers in Nevada.