Description
They are fed grass the first few years, then grain-finished on a mix of brome and alfalfa hay, silage and corn. Consequently, it can take three to three and a half years to finish a steer to an average of 1,200 pounds without the use of drugs and hormones.
“It tastes like the meat we grew up on,” Janell explains. The couple uses no growth hormones as they believe fattening a critter fast affects its flavor. “When you hurry something up, you lose something else, which is taste.”
Longhorn beef is leaner than other types of beef with just the right amount of marbling, according to the Lobergs, which makes if healthier and lower in calories. Even so, it is flavorful and tender. In addition, Branded L Longhorns are raised humanely. Their lives are lived in virtual comfort. When they are relocated from a winter pen to summer pasture, loading into stock trailers is completed without the use of cattle buzzers, a piece of equipment the Lobergs don’t even own. Russ believes that reducing stress and raising cattle humanely is reflected in the taste of the meat.
