How Does Beefalo Compare to Beef?
BEEFALO: THERE ARE FEW ON THE RANGE
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January 6, 1982
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IN the early 1970's it was touted as the meat of the time to come - higher in protein than conventional beef while much lower in fat and calories. The animal that produced the meat was a hybrid, norm marry 3-eighths buffalo and 5-eighths a cattle breed such as Hereford or C harolais. These animals were described as 25 percent cheaper to ra ise than cattle; they were said to be more than resistant to disease and h arsh weather. Proponents contended the meat was at leastas flavorful, if not more than and then, than top-grade beef.
A California rancher summed up the euphoria of the time: ''It just gets ameliorate every day. Information technology'south beefalo fever!'' Ten years afterward, there are few beefaloes on the range. The several New York City wholesalers that in one case distributed beefalo meat to restaurants and butcher shops take discontinued doing then, citing a lack of sales and inadequate supplies. There is now relatively piffling publicity almost the animals, and those who seek beefalo meat need the cunning of an Indian picket to locate a source. In 1980, the Mr. Beefalo retail chain went out of business in California among charges filed in Sacramento by franchisees who contended that they were existence supplied with ordinary beef by the franchiser. Was beefalo just another food fad, the meat equivalent of Billy Beer and Pop Rocks?
Not at all, maintain beefalo boosters. ''Beefalo has actually come alive throughout the world,'' insists George O'Connor, executive director of the American Beefalo Clan, which is based in Louisville, Ky. Mr. O'Connor says his organization, which began in 1975, at present has 950 members worldwide, proof that beefalo ranchers are growing in number, if non at the predicted fever pitch, at least at a good for you charge per unit.
''You notwithstanding have to know someone to become some meat,'' Mr. O'Connor concedes, adding that the beefalo supply even so has non reached a point at which supermarket and big-scale restaurant distribution is feasible. ''It probably volition be at to the lowest degree another four or five years before we attain that level,'' he says.
Many in the beefalo business grant that the ''wonder breed'' was described a decade agone by overly enthusiastic promoters in terms a bit too glowing. ''At that place was a lot of hype,'' says Jock MacGregor of Weston, Conn., who recently sold the 40 beefaloes he owned. Mr. MacGregor, who says he sold his herd because it had outgrown his pasture land in Maine, maintains that beefaloes have many advantages over regular beef cattle and that, over fourth dimension, the brood may become a sig nificant source of meat worldwide.
When Bud Basolo, a California rancher, announced his successful breeding of the beefalo, he was quoted in press reports of the menstruation as contending that its advantages were numerous: Beefaloes were far heartier and more disease-resistant than cattle and able to withstand extreme cold and oestrus; they had no calving problems; they grew faster, reaching i,000 pounds in nine to 12 months every bit opposed to 12 to 14 months for conventional cattle, and best of all, they required little or no grain feeding. Beefaloes were supposed to survive in the open year-round, eating grass, scrub and leaves. This was expected to reduce production costs greatly.
As for the meat itself? Tests conducted by the Mississippi State Chemical Laboratory indicated beefalo was much leaner than beef. Beefalo meat had less shrinkage when cooked, a faster cooking fourth dimension and five pct more protein than beef. Information technology was described as slightly sweeter than beef and merely every bit tender.
''A lot of what they said was true,'' Mr. MacGregor notes. ''It'due south a tender meat; that's the buffalo influence. Information technology has a shorter grain, so it's not stringy. And if you gear up the animals loose, they volition actually clean out the woods.'' Other ranchers say, all the same, that the animals do require grain feeding, at least in some circumstances. Mr. Basolo still maintains, ''I've never exaggerated anything. I've had my animals abound right on grass, but there'south a big nutritional deviation in the various types of grasses.''
''When beefalo first came along, a lot of people believed yous could put them out in a field and they could consume cattails and scrub and would thrive,'' says Joan Dowd. ''That is not truthful of whatever animate being. Sure, they'll survive, but they won't produce a good salubrious calf or enough milk to assist information technology abound. They need some other feed. But information technology's true that they don't heed the common cold.'' Mrs. Dowd and her husband, Stephen, tend more than 700 beefalo on their Ancramdale, N.Y., ranch. Information technology is ane of the largest herds in the Northeast.
The Dowds sell their beefaloes to a feed lot when the animals are 6 months old. When they mature and are slaughtered 6 to eight months afterwards, Mr. Dowd's father, Al, buys beefalo meat for his retail outlets on Long Isle, one of the few commercial sources of beefalo in New York, New Bailiwick of jersey and Connecticut. The elder Mr. Dowd's butcher shops adjoining his Manero'southward Steak Houses, in Roslyn and Garden City, and Al Dowd's Steak House, in Centerport, sell the meat when it is available. Mr. Dowd too owns Dowd's Beefalo Farms burger stand up in Laurel Hollow, near Oyster Bay, where beefalo burgers are served.
The retail price of beefalo is roughly x cents a pound more than comparable beef cuts. The Dowds' beefalo sells out inside days. ''People love it,'' says Mrs. Dowd, calculation, ''To tell you the truth, I've never sat downwardly and blindfolded myself to compare the gustation with beef. To me, it simply tastes like proficient beefiness.''
Not everyone shares Mrs. Dowd's opinion regarding flavor. Stanley Lobel of Lobel Brothers Prime Meats in Manhattan says he tasted beefalo meat when all the publicity first came out. He rejected it for sale in his store.
''I found it to be very, very dry, flavorless and not tender at all,'' he recalls. ''The crossbreeding seems to have removed the distinctive flavor of buffalo and lost the tenderness of proficient beef. It has no distinction of its own. Information technology was just a tough piece of meat.'' Beefalo fans contend that Mr. Lobel must have a sampled an inferior cutting.
The American Beefalo Clan, known to ranchers every bit the A.B.A., estimates its members own about 25,000 beefaloes, while the World Beefalo Association and the International Beefalo Breeders Registry, both in Stockton, Calif., merits roughly 20,000 head each. The A.B.A. has 143 members in New York State and 147 in Connecticut, although many of these ranchers keep their animals in other states.
Ranchers say function of the problem of beefalo availability is that there are non enough registered bulls to increment the brood. Today, virtually beefalo ranchers, whose herds mostly incorporate six to 20 animals, resort to artificial insemination - a process large-scale Western cattlemen are non willing to attempt until the animal indisputably proves its worth.
It takes four generations of convenance, a full of half-dozen to 10 years, to produce a certifiable beefalo.In 1980 the National Cattlemen's Association recognized the breed in its official roster.
The A.B.A. and its counterparts on the Westward Coast are however avidly preaching the gospel of beefalo. The A.B.A. publishes a magazine called the Beefalo Nickel, which advertises beefalo T-shirts, beefalo neckties, beefalo coffee mugs and a national Miss Beefalo Contest sponsored past the Beefalo Belles women's group (''Participants in the contest will be judged on poise, appearance and cognition of beefalo'').
For at present at least, unless your neighbor has i of these genetically jumbled critters grazing in the backyard, in that location is little beefalo meat bachelor. But the beefalo hybridizer, Mr. Basolo, says, ''If yous get used to eating that, yous'll never swallow anything else.''
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