Black Angus

For those of you out there who consider yourself beef-connoisseurs, there’s something you need to know before you order that overpriced “Black Angus” steak.  It might not be Angus at all.  A few years back an idea caught hold, and somewhere a marketing team ran with it, that Black Angus beef was the best.  Can you guess what this did to the cattle market?  Now if you’re thinking the Black Angus stock now sells for more, you’d only be half right.  When my father-in-law takes his cattle to the auction, workers separate the cows into “lots”, not based on the type of cow, but color.  That’s right folks, color.  And it’s the “lots” with black cows that sell for more.  Now Ranchers may live in rural parts of the country, but trust me, they’re savvy businessmen.  If you get more for a black cow that’s the color you primarily breed for.  My father-in-law raises a mix of Simmental, Limousine, and Solar breeds—there might be a little Angus, but not much.  For a great tasting steak, the key is not the breed, but how it was fed or fattened before it was killed.  The age of the cow is also important.  The older they are, the tougher the meat will be.

limousine cow/calf pair

simmental