Our Practices
Sustainability
We raise our beef with compassion and care. Animals store their stress in their fat and fat gives the beef flavor so we are very mindful about allowing our animals a stress free life. We technically could be considered grass-fed however to be transparent and honest we like to tell our customers that we are a grain-on-grass approach. This means that our cattle are always offered grass (hay in the winter that was grown and harvested right here on our ranch) and are also offered free will rolled corn right in the fields. We don't change the feeding style through-out the year; it is constant.
This is important because when the feeding style is changed (ex. when commercial cattle are moved to feed lots from the fields) it takes their bodies up to 11 days to take in nutrients. This causes stress, and the stress taints the flavor of the meat. Therefore the way we feed our cattle does not do this.
In addition to that we handle our cattle in a way that we try not to stress them. For example when we work with our cattle it is on foot or by horseback. We don't move our Ranch-to-table beef with 4 Wheelers because 4Wheelers can cause undue stress.
We try to adhere to intensive grazing practices. This has helped our land to be heathier. The grass comes back better and better. We did away with fertilizer years ago and are pleased with the results. Eric's grandfather used fertilizer on the ranch when that was touted as the best thing to do. Now we know better so we can do better. We also use no-till farming in order to decrease erosion and increase microbiology within the soil.