- Author: John M Harper
I’ll bet a lot of you guessed chicken or pork. Some of you probably thought beef. Surprise! While in the United States, we tend to consume chicken as our white meat choice and beef as our red meat choice 63% of the world's population consumes goat meat. Interestingly, more and more goat meat is being consumed in the United States and not just as an ethnic dish due to the growing ethnic population. The health conscious consumer is also looking at the benefits of incorporating either Cabrito (a delicacy meat from goats that are harvested between 1 to 3 months of age and weigh less than 50 pounds) or Chevon (goats that are harvested between 6 to 9 months of age and weigh between 50 and 75 pounds). Older goat meat is also consumed but usually as sausage or in chili.
The table below shows the nutrient comparison of goat meat to that of traditionally raised chicken, beef pork, and lamb. I suspect that these values are based on grain finishing as we already know that grass finishing will result in slightly different values. They may also be affected by the potential younger age of Chevon.
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Nutrient Composition of Goat and Other Types of Meat1, 2 |
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|
Nutrient |
Goat |
Chicken |
Beef |
Pork |
Lamb |
|
Calories |
122 |
162 |
179 |
180 |
175 |
|
Fat (g) |
2.6 |
6.3 |
7.9 |
8.2 |
8.1 |
|
Saturated Fat (g) |
0.79 |
1.7 |
3.0 |
2.9 |
2.9 |
|
Protein (g) |
23 |
25 |
25 |
25 |
24 |
|
Cholesterol (mg) |
63.8 |
76.0 |
73.1 |
73.1 |
78.2 |
|
1 Per 3 oz. of cooked meat |
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|
2 USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 14 (2001) |
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You can see from the above that goat meat is lower in calories, total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol than traditional meats. Less saturated fat and less cholesterol mean healthier red meat for the health-conscious consumer. Additionally, goat meat has higher levels of iron (3.2mg) when compared to a similar serving size of beef (2.9 mg), pork (2.7 mg), lamb (1.4 mg), and chicken (1.5 mg). Comparatively, goat meat also contains higher potassium content with lower sodium levels. Regarding essential amino acid composition, goat meat closely resembles that of beef and lamb.
With these benefits it’s clear why the consumer is looking at different meats like goat. Ideally as grass-farmers, it makes sense to diversify for the health of our rangeland and for the economic well-being of the ranch. Consider adding goats to your operation.
- Author: John M Harper
An Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist may have found a way to cut the amount of ammonia produced by cattle. To do it, he's using a key ingredient of the brewer's art: hops.
Cattle, deer, sheep, goats and other ruminant animals depend on a slew of naturally occurring bacteria to aid digestion of grass and other fibrous plants in the first of their four stomach chambers, known as the rumen.
The problem, according to ARS microbiologist Michael Flythe, comes from one group of bacteria, known as hyper-ammonia-producing bacteria (HAB). While other bacteria are helping their bovine hosts convert plant fibers to cud, HABs are breaking down amino acids, a chemical process that produces ammonia and robs the animals of the amino acids they need to build muscle tissue, according to Flythe, who works at the ARS Forage Animal Production Research Unit (FAPRU) in Lexington, Ky.
To make up for lost amino acids, cattle growers have to add expensive and inefficient high-protein supplements to their animals' feed.
According to Flythe, hops can reduce HAB populations. Hops, a natural preservative, were originally added to beer to limit bacterial growth.
Flythe put either dried hops flowers or hops extracts in either cultures of pure HAB or a bacterial mix collected from a live cow's rumen. Both the hops flowers and the extracts inhibited HAB growth and ammonia production.
Flythe also collaborated with FAPRU animal scientist Glen Aiken on a study in which hops had a positive effect on the rumen's volatile fatty acid ratios, which are important to ruminant nutrition.
- Author: John M Harper
In a press release on Thursday, May 21st, USDA said that it wants to help increase the availability of slaughterhouses to serve small livestock and poultry producers. The effort is part of the agency's "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" initiative, which partly seeks to rebuild rural economies and bridge a gap between food producers and consumers.
In a prepared presentation, the USDA shows national maps of livestock production by small farms and the availability of federal inspection slaughter plants. Maps for cattle, sheep, hogs and poultry are shown. USDA defines a small farm as having sales of $250 thousand or less per year.The maps also show the proximity of rendering plants that take offal and deceased livestock - another problem for north coast ranchers. The pdf of the maps is attached.
Not suprising, is the dirth of USDA inspected plants close to Mendocino and Lake Counties. Our meat capacity and feasibility study of the North Coast Region of California already demonstrated this need for our livestock industry to revitalize.
slaughter-availability
- Author: John M Harper
May 25 2010
The Slaughterhouse Problem: is a resolution in sight?
After years of hearing sad tales about the slaughterhouse problem, it looks like many people are trying to get it resolved. A fix no longer seems impossible.
The slaughterhouse problem is what small, local meat producers have to contend with when their animals are ready to be killed. The USDA licenses so few slaughterhouses, and the rules for establishing them are so onerous, that humanely raised (if that is the correct term) animals have to be trucked hundreds of miles to considerably less humane commercial facilities to be killed (see added note below). Furthermore, appointments for slaughter must be made many months or years in advance — whether the animals are ready or not.
Perhaps because the USDA has just announced guidelines for mobile slaughter units, lots of people are writing about this problem. Here, for example, is what I ran across just last week:
- Joe Cloud, who works with Joel Salatin, writes about the need for small-scale slaughterhouses in The Atlantic.
- The San Francisco Chronicle reports Joe Cloud’s concerns that USDA regulations will put small slaughterhouses out of business.
- Carolyn Lockwood has a front page story in the San Francisco Chronicle about the worries of operators of small slaughterhouses about safety requirements for microbial testing.
- Christine Muhlke writes in the New York Times magazine about her experience observing a mobile slaughterhouse developed by Glynwood’s Mobile Harvest System.
- Marissa Guggiana, president of Sonoma Direct Meats in Petaluma, CA, says in Edible Marin & Wine Country that “in Northern California, the lack of local slaughtering options is at a crisis point.”
If enough people complain about this problem, the USDA might get moving on it. The guidelines are a good first step.
The guidelines, by the way, are up for public comment. For comments (or attached files with lengthier comments), go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal. Be sure to include the agency’s name, USDA, and docket number FSIS-2010-0004. Comments must be filed within 60 days.
Added note: the USDA has a new study of “Slaughter availability to small livestock and poultry producers — maps” that tells the story at a glance. Many large regions of the country have limited or no access to slaughterhouses small enough to handle animals from small producers.
- Author: John M Harper
The American Meat Institute (AMI) released an updated version of its U.S. Meat Industry at a Glance document and pocket guide to reflect the most recent data available for 2010. It provides the most up-to-date information, facts and figures about U.S. meat and poultry in four areas: production, economic impact, nutrition and trade.
The U.S. Meat Industry at a Glance, 2010 is available electronically on AMI's Web site and can be folded into a pocket-sized guide for ease of use and convenience. The document is available at http://bit.ly/cFrn7b.
Highligts include: Dietary guidlines for meat consumption, beneficial nutrients found in meat, statistics on the value of meat to the US economy, and average US male and female consumption trends. Really neat graph shows that the US spends less on food than any other country in the world.
