12/27/06 Grass fed label

Grass Fed Label It sure is easier to raise a product than define the rules to sell it. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be back in one minute to try to explain. Raising and selling grass-fed beef for unique markets sounds like a fairly straightforward process. But after reading an article in the Western Farm-Stockman magazine, I understand that defining grass fed beef for marketing is not all that easy. The USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service first proposed a definition in 2002. This definition set an 80 percent minimum forage level to be sold as grass fed, but grass fed purist felt that percentage left too much room for nonforage feed stuff to be used. Also purists thought only grazed forage should be allowed, which left producers that had to feed from stockpiled forages during winter a little upset. Well, the AMS took another try at a workable definition for a grass fed marketing claim. It reads something like this  forage is any edible herbaceous plant material, other than separated grain that can be grazed or harvested for feeding to ruminant animals. Consumption of seeds naturally attached to forage or grain in an immature stage is acceptable. Milk consumed prior to weaning is exempted in the new rules. Less than one percent of total energy consumed during an animal's lifetime may be supplementation. I wonder how you figure one percent of lifetime consumption if you don't know how long it takes an animal to be market ready. Too bad a producer's word that it is a grass fed animal is not acceptable. I'm Jeff Keane. Western Farmer-Stockman November 2006