DEMAND for "grass-fed beef" – beef from cattle exclusively grazed on pastures and ranges, often qualifying as natural or organic product – is rapidly increasing in the US, and now makes up three per cent of the US beef market, according to Kenneth H. Mathews Jr. and Rachel J. Johnson at the US Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service (ERS).
Consumers who prefer this kind of beef are willing to pay premium prices for it, and the market "survived the challenges of the last two years," Mathews and Johnson noted in a special article of a recent ERS "Livestock, Dairy & Poultry Outlook" report.
Historically, US beef production has been grass oriented, with cattle grazed on pasture and rangeland that's not suitable for crops and other harvested forages, they said.
Colonial production was primarily from cattle that ate grass for three to four years and from spent draft animals, they said.
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