What Is Certified Angus Beef?
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Angus beef comes from Angus cattle, also known as Aberdeen Angus in most parts of the world. It is a breed of cattle developed from cattle native to the counties of Aberdeenshire and Angus in Scotland and is commonly used in beef production. But what is Certified Angus Beef, anyway?
Angus beef is considered among the best. But Certified Angus Beef is on an entirely different level. It defines the standard by which all beef is measured.
Whether you consider yourself a ‘foodie’ or not, the story of those standards is an interesting one. It so happened that in 1970, a group of farmers got together and set the benchmarks for beef production in the US. And, as they say, the
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Before the 1800s, the hornless cattle in Aberdeenshire and Angus were called Angus doddies. In 1824, William McCombie of Tillyfour, Member of Parliament for South Aberdeenshire, began the process of improving the stock and is regarded as the father of the breed. The first herd book of the Angus cattle was created in 1862, and the local farmers formed a society in 1879. They were a little late to the party, given that the cattle had already gained mainstream acceptance in the middle of the eighteenth century, becoming commonplace throughout the British Isles by the mid 20th …show more content…
Because of their native environment, they have evolved to survive the harsh Scottish winters. Cows typically weigh around 550 kilograms (1,210 lbs.) and bulls weigh around 850 kilograms (1,870 lbs.). Calves of Angus are usually smaller at birth than is acceptable in the market, resulting in a need for crossbreeding with dairy cattle for veal production. The calves mature earlier compared to other native British breeds, like the Hereford or North Devon.
The American Angus Association
Four years after the farmers in Scotland formed the Angus Society, on November 21, 1883, the American Angus Association was founded in Chicago, Illinois. The first herd book was published nearly two years later in March 1885. Both red and black animals were registered without distinction at that time. However, the Association barred registrations of red and other colored animals in 1917 in an effort to promote a solid black breed in the continental United States.
Struck off the herd books, it took a long time for the breeders of Red Angus cattle to come together and form the Red Angus Association of America in
I can remember being a little kid and listening to stories my Grandpa and Great Grandpa told about the mustangs that used to be around the Black Canyon. They used to tell stories about when they would put their mares out with the mustangs during the winter to get bred. Then they would go out in the spring and catch their mares. They told stories of the times they had to chase the mustangs from the fields during the winter so the cattle could eat. They told of when they would go and capture the colts from the herd to keep for themselves. I can even remember the last one they ever had. He was at least 25 years old when I saw him. The last I knew of the mustangs Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rounded the herd up and that is all I ever heard.
...f Farm Animals as Products, in the Western and Southwestern States and Territories, and in Virginia, and of the Best Routes to and the Cost of Reaching the Districts Described 2nd Ed. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1876. Print.
Hasheider, Philip. How to Raise Cattle: Everything You Need to Know. St. Paul: Voyageur, 2007. Print.
The need for affordable, efficiently produced meat became apparent in the 1920’s. Foer provides background information on how Arthur Perdue and John Tyson helped to build the original factory farm by combining cheap feeds, mechanical debeaking, and automated living environ...
The. The "Meat Industry" Encyclopedia Americana. Grolier Online, n.d. -. Web.
In 1916 the Stockraising Homestead Act was implemented. This act granted stockmen 640 acres to raise fifty cows which resulted in extensive range destruction due to overgrazing.
The Meat Inspection Act of 1906 was an attempt to regulate the meatpacking industry and to assure consumers that the meat they were eating was safe. In brief, this act made compulsory the careful inspection of meat before its consummation, established sanitary standards for slaughterhouses and processing plants, and required continuous U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection of meat processing and packaging. Yet, the most important objectives set by the law are the prevention of adulterated or misbranded livestock and products from being commercialized and sold as food, and the making sure that meat and all its products are processed and prepared in the adequate sanitary and hygienic conditions (Reeves 35). Imported meat and its various products are no exception to these conditions; they must be inspected under equivalent foreign standards.
There is no humane way to raise beef cattle to meet the world's growing demand. Let's take a look at one of the biggest beef based corporations in the world, Tyson. Tyson slaughters and packages 170,938 cattle every day! That number is not including any other of the corporations who are
Speed, in a word, or, in the industry’s preferred term, “efficiency.” Cows raised on grass simply take longer to reach slaughter weight than cows raised on a richer diet, and for a half a century now the industry has devoted itself to shortening a beef animal’s allotted span on earth… what gets a steer from 80 to 1,100 pounds in fourteen months is tremendous quantities of corn, protein and fat supplements, and an arsenal of new drugs. (71)
cattle. Between the years 1992 and 1995, a major BSE outbreak occurred in Great Britain, which caused
4.)"Rodeo Facts: The Case Against Rodeos." Winning the Case Against Cruelty. Animal Legal Defense Fund, 1979. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. .
British Charolais Cattle Society. (2012). Charolais. Retrieved December 10, 2013, from British Charolais Cattle Society: http://www.charolais.co.uk/
An abundance of Americans have no idea that most of the food that they consume are either processed or altered in one way or another. “Almost all beef cattle entering feedlots in the United States are given hormone implants to promote faster growth. The first product used for this purpose is DES (diethylstilbestrol) it was approved for use in beef cattle in 1954. An estimated two-thirds of the nation's beef cattle were treated with DES in 1956. (Swan, Liu, Overstreet, Brazil, and Skakkebaek)” Many people enjoy the various meats that comes from a cow, but that would probably change if the consumers knew that cattle is one of the most processed meat source in the market today because of the synthetic hormones that the cows are given. “ The three synthetic hormones are the estrogen compound zeranol, the androgen trenbolone acetate, and progestin melengestrol acetate. (Swan, Liu, Overstreet, B...
They are in the central of human culture and represent one of the most important domesticated animals (Loftus et al. 1994). The evolution and domestication of cattle have been always contentious research particularly in determining the relationship between the two main types of cattle the humped zebu and hump less taurine. Due to the economic importance of cattle, morphological and genetic differences observed between the two subspecies are still an active area of research and speculations (David et al. 1997). India is rich in dairy animal diversity. It has diverse and distinguishing cattle genetic resources which led to their domestication some 10000 years
Cows are naturally very gentle and calm creatures. These smart and sweet natured animals have been known to go to great lengths to escape slaughterhouses. More than forty-one million of these sensitive animals suffer and die a painful death each year in the United States. When cows are still very young they are burned with hot irons, there testicles are torn or cut off, all without painkillers. Most beef cattle are born in one state, live in another, and are slaughtered in another. The cows who survive the gruesome transportation process are shot in the head with a bolt gun, hung upside down by there legs, and taken onto the killing floor where there throats