Our cattle are fed off the land from native grasses, untreated or tampered with. The secret to the quality of land pastured on lies with the bugs, the worms, the insects and the rain and their part in cultivating, growing, pollinating and fertilizing the ground.
We strive to uphold integrity in the beef we raise by keeping our cattle free of antibiotics, steroids, hormones and corn and allow them to live in a stress free environment of sunshine and plentiful feed.
Because of the strong immune systems these cows develop being in their natural element, consuming a large variety of grasses, plants, and weeds acceptable to their pallet and beneficial to their diet, as well as dwelling with equally healthy cattle means that not only are antibiotics not used but not needed!
These things make up what we like to call The Range Raised Difference!
The Food Revolution in their article titled The Truth About Grass Fed Beef says, "it’s important to remember that organic is not the same as grassfed. Natural food stores often sell organic beef and dairy products that are hormone and antibiotic free. These products come from animals who were fed organically grown grain, but who typically still spent most of their lives (or in the case of dairy cows perhaps their whole lives) in feedlots. The sad reality is that almost all the organic beef and organic dairy products sold in the U.S. today comes from feedlots. Just as organic does not mean grass-fed, grass-fed does not mean organic. Pastured animals sometimes graze on land that has been treated with synthetic fertilizers and even doused with herbicides. Unless the meat label specifically says it is both grassfed and organic, it isn’t."
Range fed beef yield more meat with less fat consuming foods that are digestible to their body and offering 2-4x more omega-3 fatty acids than commercial beef. Omega-3s are types of polyunsaturated fatty acids or "good fats" that are essential for their vital role in every cell and system in your body. Omega-3 fats have been shown to help prevent heart disease and stroke, may help control lupus, eczema, and rheumatoid arthritis, strengthen eyesight, and may play protective roles in cancer and other conditions. However, although a very beneficial ingredient, Omega-3s are not something our body manufactures so we have to get them from our diet. Omega-3s are found among other foods in animals raised on pasture. The reason is simple. Omega-3s are formed in the chloroplasts of green leaves and algae and 60% of the fatty acids in grass are Omega-3's.
Beef is one of the best dietary sources of Conjugated Linoleic Acid or CLA, which reduces risks of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and promotes weight loss with Range Raised beef producing 2-3x more CLA than grain fed beef.
Range Raised beef also offer Vitamins & Minerals such as Carotenoids: Ever noticed the yellowish tint in the fat from grass fed meat after it cooks? This indicated the presence of Carotenoids (precursors to Vitamin A) which are found in green grass, especially rapidly growing green grass. B-Vitamins: Red meat is also a great source of B vitamins, especially vitamin B-12, which plays an important role in fertility, mental health, muscle health and heart health. Vitamin D: Red meat contains high levels of an especially absorbable form of Vitamin D that appears to increase blood levels faster than synthetic Vitamin D or vitamin D in dairy. Iron: Red meat is a well known source of Iron, which is especially beneficial for pregnant women or those who are anemic.
NY Times bestselling author, Jo Robinson, offers very helpful information on the health benefits of grass-fed beef on her website www.eatwild.com and states that, "a 6-ounce steak from a grass-finished steer can have 100 fewer calories than a 6-ounce steak from a grain-fed steer. If you eat a typical amount of beef (66.5 pounds a year), switching to lean grass-fed beef will save you 17,733 calories a year—without requiring any willpower or change in your eating habits. If everything else in your diet remains constant, you'll lose about six pounds a year!"
Dave Asprey, founder of Bulletproof Nutrition, in his article on Grain fed vs. Grass fed states, "As you’re about to learn, consuming grass-fed meat is one of the best ways to prevent disease, improve brain function, lose weight, and become Bulletproof." He goes on to say, "Besides health benefits, grass-fed meat is better for the economy, the environment, the farmers, and the animals."
Here are six more grass-fed beef nutrition benefits given by Dr. Axe, a wellness physician, popular radio show host, and sought-after national speaker committed to setting people free from their health problems so they can live their life to their fullest potential. 1. Potential Cancer Fighter. The CLA has proved its ability to fight cancer in multiple animal studies and shows promise for doing the same in humans. 2. Reduces Heart Disease Risk. The main reasons why grass-fed beef can benefit heart health include less overall fat and unhealthy fat, lower levels of cholesterol, higher levels of omega-3, more CLA, and more heart disease fighting vitamins. 3. Improves Blood Sugar. Getting enough healthy fat in your diet is extremely helpful to keeping your blood sugar at a healthy level. 4. More Likely to Be Free of Hormones and Antibiotics. Antibiotics and hormone use in beef is significantly less likely with grass-fed versus grain-fed. 5. Safer Beef Option. Recent research conducted by Consumer Reports is the biggest study to date demonstrating that choosing grass-fed meat over conventional meat decreases your risk of food poisoning and results in fewer antibiotic-resistant bacteria. 6. Better for the Environment. Research now shows that traditional grass-fed beef production actually benefits the environment by decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing biodiversity of run-off water from well-managed pastures.
"A 6-ounce steak from a grass-finished steer can have 100 fewer calories than a 6-ounce steak from a grain-fed steer. If you eat a typical amount of beef (66.5 pounds a year), switching to lean grass-fed beef will save you 17,733 calories a year—without requiring any willpower or change in your eating habits. If everything else in your diet remains constant, you'll lose about six pounds a year!"
-Jo Robinson, founder of Eatwild
Grassfarming Benefits the Environment
When properly managed, raising animals on pasture instead of factory farms is a net benefit to the environment. To begin with, a diet of grazed grass requires much less fossil fuel than a feedlot diet of dried corn and soy. On pasture, grazing animals do their own fertilizing and harvesting. The ground is covered with greens all year round, so it does an excellent job of harvesting solar energy and holding on to top soil and moisture. As you will read in the bulletins below, grazed pasture removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere more effectively than any land use, including forestland and ungrazed prairie, helping to slow global warming.
It’s a different story in a confinement operation. Here, the animals are crowded into sheds or kept outdoors on barren land and all their feed is shipped to them from distant fields. On those fields, the crops are treated with fossil-fuel based fertilizers, sprayed with pesticides, and planted, tilled, and harvested with heavy equipment. Each of these operations requires non-renewable fuel. Then the feed is shipped to feed manufacturers where it is dried, flaked or pelleted, and mixed with other ingredients and then, finally, shipped to the waiting animals, using yet more fossil fuel.
There is also a day-for-night difference in “manure management” on the two systems. On well-managed pasture-based farms, the animals spread their manure evenly over the soil where it becomes a natural source of organic fertilizer. The manure improves the quality of the grass, which increases the rate of gain of the animals. It’s a closed, sustainable system.
On factory farms, the excrement builds up in the feedlots and sheds where it fouls the air and releases ammonia and other gases to the eco-system. The fumes stress and sicken the animals and farm workers, and they lower the quality of life of people in nearby homes. To get rid of the waste, it is shipped to nearby fields where it overloads the land with nutrients. The excess nitrogen and phosphorus pollute the soil and ground water and drain off into streams, rivers, and estuaries where it can create “dead zones” that threaten the fish population. Full article at: http://www.eatwild.com/environment.html
AgResearch Magazine
The research team, which included retired ARS scientists John Stuedemann and Stan Wilkinson, varied the number of cattle per acre, and over 12 years they assessed how the soils would respond to four different scenarios: moderate grazing (average of 23 steers for every 10 acres), intensive or heavy grazing (35 steers per 10 acres), no grazing and letting the grass grow, and no grazing but cutting the grass for hay. Under each scenario they looked at the amount of soil compaction that occurred, the amounts of soil organic carbon and nitrogen found in the soils, and the amounts of surface plant residues, which help prevent erosion. Soil compaction makes it harder to grow crops. They also looked at the effects on the soil of three different fertilizer treatments (inorganic fertilizer alone, organic broiler litter alone, and a mix of inorganic fertilizer and organic broiler litter).
The team found that fertilizer type made little difference, but different grazing scenarios produced dramatically different effects. Land that was grazed produced more grass than ungrazed land, and grazing led to the most carbon and nitrogen being sequestered in soil. Sequestering carbon and nitrogen in the soil has become a major goal for agriculture because it reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Whether grass was grazed moderately or intensely made little difference on sequestration rates. Full article at: https://agresearchmag.ars.usda.gov/2011/mar/soil
Raising The Steaks—Global Warming and Pasture-Raised Beef Production in the United States
Which is better for the environment—raising beef cattle on pasture or in the feedlots? On pasture, says a February 2011 report from The Union for Concerned Scientists (UCS) titled “Raising the Steaks – Global Warming and Pasture-Raised Beef Production in the United States.”
Although all cattle produce greenhouse gases, the UCS has determined that a wellmaintained pasture and careful management of the grazing animals can draw greenhouse gases out of the air and store them in the soil where they fuel plant growth. The overall impact is positive. Feedlots have no living plants – just bare dirt and manure; instead of absorbing greenhouse gases, they emit them.
The use of pasture management practices that improve the nutritional quality of forage crops could reduce methane emissions from pasture beef by about 15 to 30 percent. Full article at: http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/legacy/assets/documents/food_and_agriculture/global-warmingand-beef-production-summary.pdf
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