Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs
What do you feed your animals?
Our Beef would be considered "Grass Fed, Grass Finished". I never made the claim, but the more butchers and people in the industry worked with us, the more I have been told we qualify. I personally think that while the intent of that terminology is good, it's a bit of a misnomer. Cattle didn't evolve eating only grass. They are foragers that do best on diets with diversity on soils with diversity of plants. Diversity of plants is what is best for soil health, soil biology, the quality of those forages and ultimately, the quality of meat.
The term, "Grass Fed"' was borne out of the realization that feeding cattle had evolved into high concentration diets and how it impacted the acidity of the rumen, the health of the cattle and the fat contents of the meat. Cattle do best with a variety of forages including legumes, forbes, and what is becoming realized as "Pharmacy Plants" such as Plantain and other species.
The final part of the diversity of what we feed our cattle comes in the form of vegetable screenings. This is a very mixed blend of Non GMO peas, Carrots, Corn, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Sweet Potatoes, Green Beans and other vegetables that were coming from a Frozen Foods Plant I was a manager at. All of this was going to a landfill because it wasn't enough for the local cattle feeders to want and most ranchers only wanted it in the winter. I felt my cattle would prosper on it and I was right! We mix this for our cattle with hay and feed it free choice in Bunks in the pastures. We've found that not only are we increasing the diversity of the diet of these cattle, we are ultimately importing nutrients into our soils with no commercial fertilizers or manure fertilizers from Concentrated cattle or chicken feeding facilities.
What makes your meat different?
I'd say the primary things go back to what we feed them, how they are handled and our focus on "Clean Meats".
The diversity of what our cattle eat shows through in the Flavonoids they eat and ultimately the depth of flavor of our Beef. I've had butcher after butcher express this to me. We currently sell carcasses to 6 butcher shops that could use any beef out there for their meat cases, but choose ours. Two of those were ones that Cut Beef for us and the others were referrals from those two. This list continues to grow.
We feel the way cattle are handled affects the quality of the finished meats. We practice and continue to improve our Low Stress Livestock handling and facilities. I've done a lot of research on how calmer cattle generally mean better beef. We have gotten to the point that we choose bulls in large part according to their Docility scores as part of the criteria we use.
A lot of our customers come to us because of dietary issues or preferences. We have products in our sausage lines that reflect this such as Sugar Free Bacons, Sausages, Pepper Sticks and Jerky. We use no MSG or SodiumNitrite in our Jerky's and Pepper Sticks and have recently added products that use Honey or Organic Maple Syrup as the sweetener. WE avoid Soy and High Fructose Corn Syrup as well.
Are you Organic?
Stating we are Organic actually has some regulatory requirements. We are not Certified Organic. However, we add no additional hormones or feed antibiotics. We don't use Commercial Fertilizers or Pesticides. We do everything we can to enhance the soil health and thereby maintain or improve water quality. We actively try to sequester carbon through use of rotational grazing and managing mixed species of plants in our pasture.
Why not Organic?
It's not so much the cost of certification, but the cost to our inputs once we become certified. We rent our pastures and once we put in the work to certify them as Organic, most likely the landlord would recognize they could get a higher lease value for the ground. We can maintain our pricing to you and in practice use Organic Techniques to bring you the quality we always have.
What breed of cattle do you raise?
We kind of know most people are looking to hear, "Black Angus". Well, that is part of the mix of breeds we use. As you read our website, you'll continually see us use the word diversity. We feel that includes using diversity of breeds that gives us free genetic enhanced production and quality as well as being able to select top Bulls from each breed. While each breed has distinguishable traits, there are really good cattle in a number of breeds. We use an Angus Simmental cross most years on our bulls. We'll cross out to Shorthorn and Red Angus at times and have used Hereford and Gelbvieh Bulls in the Past. We feel the traits we seek are more important than the breed. We look for scores on Maternal Calving Ease, Marbling, Tenderness Docility and Stayability (It shows how long an average daughter of a sire will stay in the herd on average and is an indicator of structural soundness).