Livestock
We must have livestock on the farm to supply compost and manure for the soil. They allow us to grow soil building crops (hay and pasture) in our crop rotation. The animals are raised with lots of space to roam and graze. They are able to express their true animal instincts. They get to live and grow the way they are supposed to. By doing this we can use all natural feeds and have no need to feed antibotics and hormones.
IN REGARDS TO OUR BEEF...
My family has a long history feeding beef cattle. As a kid growing up our farm was a finishing lot, feeding 100’s even 1000’s of cattle on grain rations as I descried above. What I remember the most though is the 2 or 3 head that dad took aside, put on a small pasture behind the house, gave them a little bit of grain, not a lot and high quality grains too. When they needed hay they got the best hay we had. These were the animals we put in our freezer to feed the family. Dad would point at the 100’s in the lot and say those are for making money and then point to the pasture animals (we called them his pets..he named them all…and then reminded us while having dinner that we were eating Harry, Jethro, Todd…) and say these are the animals for the family.
So raising the animals with mostly pasture and high quality hay with a little bit of high quality grains (less than 5% of the ration) was instilled in me at a young age. We are confident that it is the best flavoured beef, the small amount of grain improves the flavour and gives just enough fat for awesome steaks. When beef is fed properly it should be healthy for you..we think we accomplish that. We say all the time that as a society we need to eat less meat…. and eat a higher quality meat. We have higher quality beef.
So there you go. Beef that is fed at least 95% grass and hay with no more than 5% grains is the ideal. 100% grass fed is a little different and more of an acquired taste. Stay away from standard fed feedlot beef if you can…its very hard to do.
