Benefits of grass feeding

Beef from grass fed cattle is more flavorful, while being far lower in fat than grain fed.  More importantly, 100% grass fed means that the beef is loaded in good cholesterol improving cardiac healthy omega 3 fatty acids.  It’s no wonder that some of the top cardiac docs are reportedly telling their patients to “eat two grass fed steaks and call me in the morning”.

Cattle are naturally ruminants and historically, all cattle ate nothing but grasses.  Over time, the industry discovered that you could make them much fatter, much quicker and require a minimal investment in land if you fed them grain and corn.  This led to the birth of feedlots.  Instead of roaming grassy fields their entire lives (and helping the replenish the grasslands with manure), cattle now spend their lives knee-deep in their own waste, shoulder to shoulder with no room to move, while being stuffed with corn and grain.  Beware of beef producers who grass feed but "grain finish."  Even if cattle eat nothing but grass for most of their lives, the grain finishing before slaughter completely negates all of the healthy aspects of the beef up to that point.

Given that they are naturally ruminants, cattle have a neutral digestive system. Feeding cattle corn and grain changes their digestive systems to acidic causing a host of aliments and infections in the animals.  These infections must be treated with antibiotics to avoid a whole herd of sick cattle. To prevent these infections, all animals are regularly loaded with antibiotics.  The end result is new strains of  antibiotic resistant bacteria that are not killed in the cattle's digestive system and that we subsequently ingest when we eat the meat. 

 There is a fabulous book out  by Michael Pollen called "Omnivore's Dilemma".  He writes about the evolution of mass corn feeding in the industry and what it has done to our food chain and subsequently our bodies.  After reading his book, I promise you will think long and hard about what is in the meat you buy at your local store.

Our Cattle:

Our cattle are all 100% grass fed.  They spend the growing seasons rotating through our more than 20 certified organic pastures taking in fresh air and sunshine and enjoy our home grown certified organic hay in the winter.  This pasture based approach provides a natural, healthy and low stress environment for our cattle.

 If the idea of grass fed beef is new to you, we encourage you to do your own research on the many benefits for your health as compared to the conventionally practiced alternative of grain finished beef.  Some informative and helpful links on the benefits of grass-fed beef are as follows:

http://www.foodrevolution.org/grassfedbeef.htm

http://www.eatwild.com/healthbenefits.htm