Spent a couple of days at the National Western Stock Show and will be headed back for a few more days this week. I have been a Livestock Superintendent there for several years. Really nice weather after last week. The snow is melting and the temperatures are really nice. Been back and forth from home to Denver, Co this week so I am getting in lots of travel time.
Here we are again starting a whole new year. The First week has been cold and seasonal for us here in Northeastern Colorado. We moved the cows to a new cornfield last week after Christmas, only to start this week with a snow storm. It was kind of like a blizzard for us but fortunately the snow amount was only a couple of inches. We had to feed the cows for a couple of days. Will be going to the stock show at the end of the week for a couple of days.
Black Angus beef is one of the most preferred meats in the kitchen. Known for its consistent marbling and great flavor, Black Angus beef is even more flavorful when it has been grass fed. Feeding cows a diet of grazed grass requires much less fossil fuel and impacts the environment in a more positive manner. In fact, there’s no comparison to typical supermarket grain fed beef. Our animals are raised in a natural humane way, making them Colorado’s natural best beef. Koberstein Angus Farms sells top quality Black Angus beef with easy online ordering.
Check in here often as we will tell you what went on at our farm this week. We will be discussing all the interesting aspects of how are animals are raised. If you have a topic that you would like us to respond to please email us on our contact form and we will include it in our weekly blogs.
Here at Koberstein Farms, We use RFID Tags in the beef animals to track their movements and to monitor their performance and growth. We have used several types of programs and different equipment but the one that works the best for us is the Archer Unit and FAST EID Software sold by Fort Supply Technologies, www.fort-supply.com In the photo below you will see the unit we use along with all the accessories. The data is saved in an excel format spreadsheet so that the data can then be downloaded to a regular computer or laptop. We can send this data to any breed association for registering the cattle or to our source and age provider for verification of the animals birthdate. The folks at Fort Supply have been very helpful with everything and are always on call if you have any questions. The unit is weather proof, water proof, and very durable as I have dropped mine several times and it still works great.
Did you know that beef is divided into sections called primal cuts? From these large areas, the meat cutter makes smaller portions suitable for individual or family-sized packaging. Different cuts of beef require unique cooking methods. A chuck, for example, makes an excellent roast but isn’t as pleasing when pan-broiled. With these details in mind, we have prepared the following information for you to use as a guide when selecting and preparing Colorado Natural Best Beef cuts.
Chuck
Meat is basically muscle, and the chuck happens to be a heavily exercised area. Luckily, this area contains a great deal of connective tissue, including collagen. Collagen melts during cooking, making the meat intensely flavorful. Cuts from this area benefit from slow, wet cooking methods like stewing, braising or pot-roasting.
- Blade Roast—an inexpensive cut which lies next to the ribs; more tender than most chuck; makes an excellent roast. Alternatively, the roast can be cut into a rib-eye steak, with meat above and below the bone excellent for stir-fry dishes
- Chuck Steak—a good choice for kabobs if well marinated
Rib
Tender and flavorful ribs can be cooked any number of ways. Most recipes call for ribs to be roasted, sauteed, pan-fried, broiled, or grilled.
- Rib Roast—known as a standing rib roast (bone left in), or without the bone for convenient slicing. Excellent when dry roasted. A seven-bone prime rib roast can be quite a hefty addition to the dinner table. It is great for a crowd, but for a small family a bone roast will do. Many butchers will cut a roast to order for you
- Rib Steak—also cut from the rib section, these tender steaks can be purchased bone-in or as boneless rib-eye
Short Loin
This area boasts extremely tender cuts and can be prepared without the aid of moist heat or long cooking times. Cuts from the short loin may be sautéed, pan fried, broiled, pan broiled or grilled.
- Porterhouse Steak—a very popular steak cut from the rear end of the short loin; the name originated from the days when it was served in public alehouses that also served a dark beer called porter. The porterhouse consists of both tenderloin and strip steak. The tenderloin is often served separately as filet mignon
- T-bone Steak—cut from the middle section of the short loin; similar to the porterhouse steak; has a smaller piece of the tenderloin; usually grilled or pan-fried
- Tenderloin—often considered the most tender cut of beef; responds well to sauces, meaning the meat does not overpower the flavor of the sauce. It can be cut as the whole strip, or into individual steaks for filet mignon
Sirloin
“The backbone’s connected to the … hipbone”—not a song, but a sirloin. These tender cuts respond well to sautéing, pan-frying, broiling, pan-broiling or grilling.
- Sirloin Steaks—these steaks are available in a variety of boneless and bone-in steaks
- Sirloin Tip Roast—excellent when dry roasted or marinated
Flank
This meat is lean, muscular and very flavorful. Flank is primarily used for flank steaks and rolled flank steaks. It can also be used for kabobs.
- Flank Steak—this steak has a great flavor, and should be sliced thin against the grain for maximum chewability. Use to make the classic London broil
Short Plate
This section is best used for stew meat, where its rich, beefy flavor can be appreciated.
Round
The round consists of lean meat well-suited to long, moist cooking methods.
- Top Round—this is the most tender part of the round; it can be prepared as pot roast or cut into thick steaks for braised dishes
- Rump Roast—a very popular cut for pot roast, but can also be roasted at low temperatures
Shank/Brisket
Traditionally used for corned beef, brisket is best prepared with moist heat. Suitable preparation methods include stewing, braising and pot-roasting.
- Foreshank—excellent stew meat
- Brisket First Cut—a leaner cut of the brisket, for those who want the flavor but not the fat of a brisket pot roast
- Brisket Front Cut—fork tender and succulent, a Colorado Natural Best Beef pot roast made with this cut is truly mouthwatering
What is the Key Code and how do we come up with it? The Key Code comes from the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Device) ear tag that is placed in the animal’s ear. The tag is a small device about the size of a quarter. – See Photo Below - The ear tag has a very small microchip and several feet of copper wire antenna molded into the tag. The microchip is coded with a 15 digit number. This number stays with that ear tag for life and a long as the ear tag stays in the animal, that animal is identified. The tag can be read by a RFID reading device and this device can be hooked to a computer thereby collecting data on this animal and tag. We use these tags to track our animals, monitor their growth, and anything else that we can monitor with these tags. The 15 digit number is unique to that animal and cannot be duplicated – therefore giving each animal it’s own identity for it’s entire life. 
Sunday Morning News here at the Farm: Snow here this morning about 2 inches that makes 28″ of snow we have had here since the first of October. We have moved a group of Mother cows home from their summer range and they are on their winter range which is a corn field that has been harvested. They will eat the leaves and stalks from the corn plant and if they are lucky they might find an ear of corn which is a real treat. The Girls ( Mother Cows) will search the corn field looking for them left over ears, to them it is like finding candy in your vegetables. I swear they can smell an ear of corn at 50 yards. We finished the sugar beet harvest last evening. The beets are hauled to a local factory where they extract the sugar from the beet. Once the sugar had been extracted the left over pulp which looks like shredded coconut can be used for cattle feed. It is a very good feed for the cattle as it is mostly fiber with a good protein content. There is nothing wasted from the sugar beet process. We feed the pulp to our cattle as a part of 
their growing diet.
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