Quality over Quantity
The nature of the animals we choose to raise does not lend well to the quick, factory farming approach to livestock, and that is something we have no interest in. We produce a premium quality meat product. In order to produce the highest quality meat we need to ensure that the animals have the highest quality of life. We keep our herds manageable and raise only as many as our land can sustain. Their quality of life is just as important as our own and we strive to maintain it to the best of our ability.
Anything worth having is worth waiting for
As we have limited the number of animals we will keep, we are selective in our breeds so that the animals will be successful. We want them to thrive in the environment they were naturally designed for, eating as nature intended without use of commercial feeds. Since we feed them accordingly and they are moving around so much burning calories, they are slower growing and therefore produce a premium quality end meat product. But they don't do it quickly to say the least. Our grassfed beef takes 18-24 months to finish, our WildTam pork takes 6-9 months to grow to size and our heritage turkeys ... well they take forever, upwards of a year sometimes.
The Grassfed Difference
Typically cattle are moved to a feedlot to "finish" after a summer of pasturing. They are switched to a high energy, corn and soy byproduct based diet which puts the finish (fat) on before butcher. They are often given hormone injections to increase the speed at which they gain weight. Due to the high number of animals in a confined area, antibiotics are required to keep disease at bay.
Cattle are designed to eat grass and they will thrive and grow doing just that. Our beef are raised their entire lives on grass. They grow slower and take longer to finish and we are A-OK with that. Why you ask? Along with the ethical standards of animal husbandry, there are so many health benefits to consuming grass fed beef that we just don't care! Nevermind the taste is ah-mazing!
You are what you eat ...
We all know the saying! It is a staple in parents repertoire of tactics to get kiddos to make the "right choice" in what they put in their mouth. Even as adults it remains in the back of our minds .. a subconscious reminder from Mom that we need to be mindful of what we eat in order to be the healthiest version of us that we can be. So clearly it must work to some extent!
But .. what if we take it one step further than Mom and consider that maybe .. just maybe .. it is also important to consider what our food is eating? If the rumen of a steer is designed by nature to digest grass, what happens to that gut when we fill it full of an unnatural diet of grains? And what happens to the meat? Well .. the animal probably doesn't feel so good, grains cause bloating and excess gas when they are fermented in the rumen of the cow. This is well known as the excess gas from factory farming of cattle has had major contribution to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Environmental factors aside, turns out grass is chalk full of goodies that store up in the muscle and fat of the animals which can be of great benefit to us!
The good bits that we're after are fatty acids and vitamins .. omega-3's, CLA's, stearic acid, vitamins A, E and selenium to name a few .. they boast antioxidant properties, promote cardiovascular health, decrease insulin resistance, lower cholesterol .. even anti-cancer qualities. They are fat soluble and live in the fat of the animals. And how do they get there?? .. these little powerhouses are found in high concentrations in coloured vegetables and .. you guessed it, pasture grasses! Which happens to be what our grass fed cattle are dining on their entire lives! They store up all those goodies in their fat, you can tell by the colour. It's yellow .. a sure sign of the high concentrations of beta-carotene hanging out there. When cattle are moved to feed lots they eat grains .. mostly corn .. which causes the levels of these vitamins to decrease 3-5x, leaving their fat white in colour.
