Why Grass-Fed is Best

It's Better for the Animals: Grass-Fed animals spend their lives grazing or eating hay in a low stress, un-crowded situations, just as they were meant to. They are eating what they were designed to eat-forage, in the form of grass or hay. They are not given hormone implants, fed antibiotics, or other unnecessary medications. We aren't in as big a hurry as the commercial feedlots, and the animals rarely get sick, and therefore don't need the other medications.

 It's Better for the Land and Environment: Grass-fed animals require pasture and hay, not small grains. Grain fields require several tractor trips across the field to prepare the seed bed, plant, spray for pests and to harvest. Grass and hay farms do far less of this, and so use their diesel guzzling tractors much less than grain farms. Also, these farms have nearly constantly planted ground which reduces soil erosion by both wind and water. Confinement feedlots create mountains of nutrient rich manure which must be relocated. On grass-fed farms the livestock do this themselves, while they are grazing. Grass farms often use little or no commercial fertilizer or pesticides.

It's Better for the Consumer: Grass-fed meat is higher in both CLA and Omega 3 Essential Fatty Acids than meat from grain fed animals. Grass-fed meat also tends to be lower in fat, and thus in calories. Grass-fed meat has a more robust flavor than grain-fed meat due to both the forage based diet and the dry aging that most grass-fed producers employ. Dry aging not only increases the flavor fullness, and tenderness of the meat, but it also decreases the amount of water in the meat. Ever notice all the moisture that comes out of grocery store ground beef? There is far less moisture loss with grass-fed meat-so you are not buying a bunch of water you are going to cook off anyway.

It's Better for the Farmer: Grass-fed meat production allows smaller farms, like us, to survive and even thrive, in an ever more challenging food system. Instead of selling our calves and lambs into the commodity agriculture system we can finish them on grass and hay and market them directly to the consumer. This removes all the middlemen, and allows us to receive a living wage for our efforts. Besides, its just more fun to move naturally healthy and happy animals across the pasture, than it is to ship them off to the feedlots. We also take great pleasure in providing our customers with healthy, tasty, and wholesome meats.Thank you for supporting our family farm!