Grass Finished means that the animal was completely fed on grass, and nothing else. (Grass refers to all forages - plants that cattle are designed to eat.) Please see our “Why Grass” page for details.

A Grass Finished animal has eaten nothing but green growing plants (or dried plants in the case of hay) their entire life, up to and including the day of harvest. These cattle have never eaten grain. (Grain includes soy, corn, millet, oats, etc.)

Because of the NUMEROUS health benefits of Grass Finished beef, many people have jumped on the bandwagon of trying to profit from the publicity that Grass Finished cattle and their heart-healthy meat have gained, leading to the term “grass fed”.

Grass fed simply means that steer (or cow) ate grass sometime in its life.

All cattle eat grass at some point in their life.

The distinguishing factor, and the one you should ask anyone claiming their cattle are grass fed, is what were they FINISHED on? Because there are many many cattle, the majority in fact, that were grass fed most of their lives, then put on 100 days of grain at the end to “finish” them. Herein lies the problem: It only takes 30 days to undo the favorable fatty acid profile of their beef and make it unfavorable. Please know your farmer, and know their practices.

Yes, our cattle eat only grass year-around, with supplemental hay in the wintertime or heat of summer as dictated by the weather. Since hay is dried grass, we typically just refer to these cattle as simply “grass fed and finished”.

They are moved to a new patch of pasture every 1-3 days, depending on the season. Because of this daily contact, our cattle are low stress around people and calm.

This also makes for more tender meat.

Multiple studies have shown that beef from cattle raised on pasture alone has much higher levels of CLAs and Omega-3 fatty acids, which are the fats that are heart healthy. Feeding grain to cattle, which are not made to naturally digest it, upsets the natural balance of Omega-3 to Omega-6 fatty acids and dramatically lowers the amount of CLAs.

This is problematic, as Omega-6 fatty acids are inflammatory, and CLAs and Omega-3 fatty acids are anti-inflammatory.

You will notice that our grass-fed cattle have, first of all, less fat, but also, the fat they do have is yellow, not white like on conventional grain fed cattle. This is because of the beta carotenes in the grass that they eat. Healthy fat.

Additionally, raising cattle on pasture is good for the environment - but only if they are rotationally grazed.

Cattle left to their own devices can ruin a pasture by overgrazing plants that they like, and under grazing ones they don’t.

By rotating their pastures, we can actually use cattle to improve the land, rather than harm it. Their urine and manure recycle nutrients back into the soil, acting like a natural fertilizer, and moving their paddocks every 1-3 days distributes it more evenly than if they had access to the entire pasture all the time.

Lastly, cattle were made to eat grass, not grain. Our cattle grow slower and thus take more labor to raise as a result of letting them mature as nature intended. They are slaughtered at an average age of 24-30 months, vs. the average of grain-fed cattle, which are 15-18 months old. This age difference represents a significant additional time and labor investment.

Yes, most definitely.

When you buy beef from us, you can know the exact animal that beef came from, and ONLY that animal. (You can even see a picture of him if you so choose.) In the store, ground beef is from multiple animals, thus increasing the chances of contamination.

Grocery store meat is rarely, if ever, aged. Our beef is dry aged for 10-15 days to increase tenderness and flavor. This means that after the animal is slaughtered, the carcass hangs in refrigeration to “age”. This allows the natural enzymes present to tenderize the meat and further enhance the “beefy” flavor.

Also, our butcher vacuum packs all our meat, and you can age your meat further in your refrigerator due to its superior packaging.

Another point is you will notice that our beef is not bright red. This is because there is nothing added to our beef. In grocery store beef the meat is actually flushed with carbon monoxide to artificially enhance its red color because people associate bright red with meat. The darker red color of our meat is the way it naturally looks as it ages.

Our cattle receive zero medications on a daily basis.

Growth hormones? No way!!! These animals grow as God intended cattle to grow.

They will be dewormed if necessary, however our rotational program largely makes that unnecessary. Currently we only deworm our cattle at their arrival at our farm during their 30 day quarantine. As our herd grows and we no longer need to purchase cattle to bring in, deworming will become almost obsolete due to our management practices.

We will treat a single animal with antibiotics only if needed to save their life or if natural means are unable to treat their infection. If that occurs, then mandatory withdrawal periods for food animals are met and exceeded on our farm. We don’t take any chances of introducing antibiotics into our customers’ diets. (Withdrawal periods are time periods calculated specifically for cattle that tell us how long a certain drug takes to be eliminated from their system. Each time period for each drug takes into consideration cattle physiology and the particular drug’s pharmacokinetics. There are different lengths of time depending on age/type of cattle (eg. young vs old, and beef vs. dairy). This is to safeguard humans ingesting second hand drugs.)

In feedlot fed animals, low dose antibiotics are needed to feed to cattle as a matter of course to keep them from getting sick during the months they are in the feedlot with no access to pasture and crowded quarters. (This NEVER happens on our ranch.)

Our animals are on pasture their entire lives, up to their last day, and this practice is not needed. You can see from our pictures that our cattle always have more than enough room to live the life that cattle are intended to live.

Rail weight (or hanging weight) is a term used to refer to beef that has had its head, hide, hooves, and organs removed.

With bulk beef, that is the part of the animal that the cost is based on, and the part that will actually be used for consumption.

We charge this way because customers may choose different ways to cut their beef - with bones, without bones, etc. Different ways of cutting affect the final weight of the take-home meat, and so a standardized method of measurement is needed.

We don't feed them anything different I don't think. They just eat the grass that is here. It's native grasses, plus fescue, bermuda, orchard grass and clover, to name a few. The only supplement they get is a mineral (NOT protein) lick. We will shortly be changing to an all-natural Redmond loose mineral (comparable to Pink Himalayan salt, but mined here in the US), plus kelp. We are excited about doing that!

When you read the fine print on a lot of "pasture raised" cattle you find that they are actually grain fed, but live in a pasture instead of a feedlot … ours never eat anything but grass in our fields …

South Polls are a relatively new breed of cattle (1980’s) created by Teddy Gentry of the Alabama band. They are called a "composite" breed, meaning they are a 4-way cross: Red Angus, Hereford, Barzona, & Senepol. Read more about our beef cattle breed here. They are a smaller type cattle, topping out at not much over 1000 lbs, thus easier on the land and to manage in general, and giving more people an opportunity to purchase an actual 1/2 steer in bulk.