The best steak in the world has been chosen and it is from Argentina

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – “The best beef is in La Pampa and, of course, in the country”, says, proudly, producer Carlos Gabriel Suárez, after a steak eye from a steer raised in his cattle farm El Caldén, between Macachín and Doblas, won the World Steak Challenge in the “Grass Fed” category (animals raised on pasture).

The contest was held in Dublin (Ireland), where the best beef cuts in the world are chosen every year. “At the beginning of last October, we sold, through the town’s Cooperativa Agropecuaria Atreucó, a pen of 34 26-month-old steers that averaged 600 kilos each. He told LA NACION that the troop was a luxury and had an excellent yield: 60%”, he told LA NACION.

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In this sense, Pablo Guimaraenz, manager of cattle purchase of the meatpacking plant, pointed out how the journey to reach this achievement was “so important both for the meatpacking plant and for the producer”.

“We slaughter heavy export steers, where 100% is a kosher slaughter that is sold to the United States and Israel. We always look for heavy, young, well-finished animals because our international buyers demand them. When we selected Suárez’s animals for the contest, we knew the quality of their cattle because they always sell to us”, he described. The company also won the gold medal in the best grain-finished steer from the Egeo establishment in the Buenos Aires district of Carlos Tejedor.

According to him, when the steers arrived at the plant, after a 400-kilometer trip from the farm, they were left to rest for 24 hours before being slaughtered. After slaughtering, the goods were left in cold storage for another 24 hours and matured for 15 days. The cuts were vacuum-packed and sent by plane to Greece for a second selection and finalizing.

There, about 20 steaks were chosen and finally sent to Dublin: “We were looking for meat with a good caliber, with a high marbling, from young and heavy animals”.

Once in Dublin, they competed with more than 100 slaughterhouses from 27 countries. A jury of 50 people made up of chefs, technical specialists, and people from the meat processing industry chose the best Argentine beef eye. The raw cuts were first analyzed and then cooked for the final selection.

“Nothing can be done if you don’t work together. It is not easy to make this type of steers. We work expressly integrated with the producers, visiting them in the fields, visiting us at the plant. It is a permanent back and forth”, he pointed out.

In the 1,000 hectares of his farm, the farmer is dedicated to full-cycle cattle raising. To feed his herd of about 1,000 cattle (90% Angus breed), he also makes pastures and some grains to protect himself from any climatic problem that may arise. In plots, he does rotational grazing where he changes the herd once a week to another lot.

“We manage with perennial pastures. We have been incorporating good genetics with good parents from local herds. Last year, to improve replacement and facilitate the management of the farm, we inseminated some lots of cows and heifers”, he explained.

Born and raised in Macachín, he is 43 years old and has always been a cattle farmer. In 1931, his grandfather Manuel arrived from Asturias, Spain, and settled in the Sabadell colony, and in a 100-hectare leased property, he began to produce cattle. “The area was desert, it was nothingness itself, and little by little, my grandfather grew. Then my father followed, and now I continue with his legacy,” he said.

For Suárez, it is essential to work in the field responsibly, taking care of the environment. “Cattle ranching, with regenerative management, can become part of the solution to the environmental problem. For this reason, I am learning more about the subject, and I intend to join a program of this type. We have all the possibilities to grow in Argentina, but it is difficult to produce here,” he said.