(click on a link to go directly to that topic) Protecting Your Beef Investment Freezers External freezer alarms What to do once you have an external alarm Cooking Beef Natural vs. Organic Beef Mad Cow Disease Where do different cuts come from? Protecting your Beef Investment Freezers. • Over the years, several of our beef customers lost all of their meat during  due to a malfunction of the freezer. One of our own, relatively new freezers died in November, 2007 and due to the external alarm we were able to save our beef.  In an effort to try to help our customers keep their meat safe, we are offering the following suggestions. • If you are considering purchasing a new freezer, buy one that has a temperature alarm built in. This feature causes an audible sound should the freezer temperature reach an unsafe level (usually 32 degrees F). Note that some built in factory installed alarms may not work during a power failure! o This article covers emergency care of your freezer and contents and facts about refreezing and a lot more - click the link below.  From the University of Missouri Extension.  http://muextension.missouri.edu/xplor/hesguide/food nut/gh1506.htm • If you purchase a used freezer, plan to have it in place and plugged in for testing that it reaches zero degrees F at least ONE WEEK prior to picking up your beef.  Pay special attention to the seal/gasket!  We had one customer who put their beef (2 shares) into a used freezer, went away for the weekend, came home to find a bloody mess dripping out of the freezer.  The gasket was no good.  The beef was  a total loss. External Freezer Alarms.  Alternatively, one can purchase an external refrigerator/freezer alarm that will alert you when the freezer’s temperature rises to your preset level. They cost about $50, but it is a worthwhile investment considering the cost of your beef. There are several companies that manufacture, or sell, alarm type thermometers for monitoring refrigerator and freezer temperatures. We found one from what appears to be a solid manufacturer of scientific equipment and purchased it.   The temperature probe is encased in a non-toxic glycol filled bottle that is supposed to prevent rapid fluctuations of the probe sensor and is more likely to represent the true temperature of your meat. Theoretically,  reducing swings in the sensor probe by the use of this bottle should reduce false alarms at times of opening the freezer which I have read about happening in reviews of those without the bottle. Many external freezer alarms do not produce the alarm until the temperature goes above freezing which doesn’t give you much time to act in order to save the beef.  We prefer an alarm that you can set the limits for. After much research we purchased a Traceable® alarm (see photo below).  It works well, although siren is not very loud; it was loud enough for us to realize that our fairly new chest freezer died in November, 2007.  We saved the beef!  At the time it cost about $50.  We had the alarm set to go off if the temperature went above +10 degrees F.  The alarm built into our freezer will not go off until the temperature reaches 32 degrees F -- this doesn’t give us much time to act.  The  Traceable® alarm gave us more time to get the meat into our backup freezer before it started to thaw - a great advantage over alarms that come with freezers - plus many of the factory installed alarms will not function in a power failure. You need to be alert and check it daily; the freezer should be in a location that you pass by each day.  Do a test of the alarm before you place it into operation so that you will recognize the sound should it go off. The URL for the company that sells the unit is:  http://vwrlabshop.com/vwr-refrigerator-freezer- thermometers/p/0013416/ Be sure to select the thermometer that reads in degrees C or F. Now you have a freezer thermometer, what next? When it arrives (the item pictured above), you will get the main digital thermometer housing, the bottle probe with a 10 ft. lead, some Velcro and a piece of flexible magnet for mounting inside the freezer. You will also receive a manual and a certificate of calibration. First question is where do you place the probe?  The manual does not address this.  You will have to experiment as I did – see below – in order to know where to best place it for the an adequate reading, and more importantly you will then have to set an upper and lower temperature limit for the alarm based on where you place the probe.  Without some experimentation, you may have several false alarms. This is what I did. We have a large chest freezer. Most literature I have found suggests that the freezer should be set at 0 degrees F or a lower. The compressor is in the lower left hand side of chest freezers - as you look at it.  I placed the probe using Velcro on the inside wall in the upper right side just under the lid.  The temperature varied between 4 and 9 degrees F.  I then placed it in the middle upper basket and the temperature there /varied between -3 and +4 F.  Then I placed it in the right bottom under some ground beef packs.  The temperature there was -2 to +1 F. Finally, I placed it under a roast sitting on a ledge right over the compressor in the left lower section of the freezer.  The temperature there was -1 to -8 F, this is the location that the literature suggests you will find the lowest temperature in a chest freezer. Using the above data, I set the alarm in our chest to go off should the temperature go below -15 F and over +10F to give a fairly narrow window.   Our upright is set at -15F and +15F.  You need to make your own decision. Our freezer was operational for several years with good results until November, 2007.  Most of the meat is in the lower section were the temperature is -2 to +1 F.   My understandins is that in upright frost free freezers, the temperature is lowest in the top of the freezer, but you must check this out.  We placed the Traceable in our frost free upright and noted that it has very wide temperature swings at the factory setting -2 F to 14F, which I assume the high represents the time during which it is self defrosting?  It does this every day! The Sell Farm, LLC does not warrant any of these devices.  We do not own stock, know the principals or people working for the firms, or receive a fee from vendors.  We are offering suggestions for your consideration. Cooking Beef. We all have had the experience of taking a beautiful piece of beef and ruining it by improper cooking methods.  In order to get a tasty and tender steak or roast, one has to following the correct cooking method (dry heat or moist heat) as well as to bring the internal temperature of the meat to the proper level.  We’ve cooked our farm raised ground beef in the frying pan over both electric and gas heat, on a grill over charcoal briquets, and in the Green Egg grill over wood charcoal chunks.  All are delicious.  Our favorite is the wood charcoal chunks - way more flavorful.  Our optimal result with roasts (chuck, shoulder, tip, or rump) has come with a slow cooker (All Clad - the tall metal insert can be placed directly over gas or electric heat elements to prepare the vegetable mix without splattering oil) on low for 8 hrs, using homemade muscadine wine (other robust red wine will do) for the liquid, and various spices (from Penzey’s).  Those roasts just fall apart, tender as the cut can be.  The cook is out of the kitchen once the ingredients are in the slow cooker. Fajitas are marvelous either done over the grill quickly or chopped into small pieces and used to make a mexican fajita influenced dinner. The GA Beef Board has produced many useful brochures. One such brochure, Basics about Beef, can be found on their website:  Natural vs. Organic Agricultural Production.  Our calves are grown out using only grain based food and grass or hay.  No products are administered to stimulate growth stimulants such as injected hormones or antibiotics in the food.  Our beef cannot be considered organic because for our farm it is necessary to use herbicides to control pasture weeds and occasionally to apply fertilizer to pastures to improve fertility.  Also, it is necessary to control parasites in the calves to ensure a healthy animal and good growth.  The beef is not ionized at any point in processing. Natural.  There is no federal law enacted which defines “natural” products although several agencies have attempted this (FDA [Federal Drug Agency], FTC [Federal Trade Commission], FSIS [Federal Safety and Inspection Service], USDA [US Department of Agriculture]).  Organic.  The Organic Foods Production Act went into effect in 1990 as part of the farm bill.  Complete details can be found here.  The following is taken from the web site. “What is organic food? • Organic food is produced by farmers who emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future generations.  • Organic meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones. • Organic food is produced without using most conventional pesticides; fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge; bioengineering; or ionizing radiation.  • Before a product can be labeled ‘organic,’ a Government-approved certifier inspects the farm where the food is grown to make sure the farmer is following all the rules necessary to meet USDA organic standards.  • Companies that handle or process organic food before it gets to your local supermarket or restaurant must be certified, too.”  • See the consumer brochure from the USDA National Organic Program if interested. Mad Cow Disease. This disorder in cattle (and deer among other animals) is a fatal disease characterized by neurological damage to the spinal cord and brain.  It is also called BSE (bovine spongioform encephalopathy). People cannot get mad cow disease.  On rare occasions they can get the human disease which is called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD).  This can happen if a person eats nerve tissue (the brain and spinal cord) of cattle that were infected with mad cow disease.  There is no evidence that people can get mad cow disease or vCJD from eating muscle meat, which is used for ground beef, roasts, and steaks, or from consuming milk or milk products. The apparent way in which cattle get the disease is to have been fed a product that contained spinal cord and/or brain (by products of slaughter) from an infected animal.  Although the use of those byproducts in the preparation of animal food is now prohibited, we request that the feed mill that mixes and pelletizes the food given to our calves inform us that no ruminant animal by products have been used. Where do Different Cuts Come From? This image is from the American Angus Association, 2007 Educational Information