Grass-fed Beef

Our beef is grass-fed/grass-finished for three reasons:

1. Better for the animal
2. Better for the consumer
3. Better for me.

1. Better for the animal

Cattle are ruminants like deer and elk and are not meant to digest a diet of grain. Ruminants are designed to eat fibrous grassy plants and shrubs, not large volumes starchy, low fibre grain.

Roughage - including pasture grasses or dried forages such as hay-are the most natural foods for cows and other ruminant animals. From a health standpoint, there's no question that cows and sheep do better on these natural foods than on grain-based feeds. For example, too much grain feeding can cause excess formation of gas in the digestive tract of the cow and pose serious health risk. Not surprisingly, when cows are given the opportunity to follow a diet composed of their natural foodstuffs, the beef they provide as food is healthier as well.

Cattle finished conventionally – or organically - typically spend their last months in a feed lot being fed grain to put on extra weight – much of it fat. These cattle are kept in concentrated number in the feed lots, and as a result can pass on organisms like e-coli quite easily. As a result, many are given additives to control the acid in their stomachs and the risk of e-coli.

The concentrated numbers, unfamiliar surroundings and shipping back and forth across the country adds to the stress on the animal. Stress results in tougher meat, which must be offset by yet more grain.

Tatlayoko Highland cattle are born, raised and finished on pasture. They live with familiar companions on fields they know, eating a complex selection of grasses, using their sensitive tongues and noses to pick and choose the ripest and most tempting balance of greenery, their rumen then turn this cellulose to food humans can digest – grass-fed beef . In winter they eat the best hay available. There are no artificial hormones, antibiotics or steroids in their systems. They don’t need them. They live outside on open pastures, with access to fresh water to a balance natural mineral, getting all the nutrients needed for the best, most nutritious flavourful beef.

Cattle bound for your freezer and table leave the Tatlayoko valley once, for the butcher, but before that trip lead a calm, and stress free life. They never see a feedlot. Grass finished cattle and sheep are slower to mature, consuming less calories than their grain fed equivalents, consuming less starch and fat, but this seems to add to the depth of flavour of the meat.

2. Better for the Consumer

We are what we eat. Truly.

We believe that nutrient dense foods such as grass-finished beef or lamb provides a diet that supports good health and a strong immune system in humans.

Studies have shown repeatedly that grass-finished beef has:

• Less fat – grain-finished beef has been shown to be four times as fatty as grass-finished beef; and grass-finished beef had 70% less saturated fats than grain fed
• Less cholesterol
• Fewer calories
• More health promoting fats including Omega 3 fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid
• More vitamin E, zinc, vitamin B-12 and vitamin C
• Twice the level of beta carotene than grain-finished beef

Grass fed beef may take more chewing. But humans were meant to chew. Modern humans, used to bolting fast food without chewing have forgotten this important fact. Chewing is important to digestion and the benefits of thoroughly chewing your food will extend beyond improved digestion. It will cause you to slow down when you are eating, making more space for the enjoyment of your meal. Food will begin to taste even better when there is more focus and concentration on the process and act of eating. By chewing your food well, you will be able to better enjoy the benefits - the abundance of nutrients and release the great, complex tastes of grass-fed beef and lamb.

Our grass-finished beef is raised on land inappropriate – in fact mostly impossible - to use for any other agricultural purpose than raising grass and hay. We believe the best farmland should be kept for producing food for humans, not grain for ruminants.

3. Better for Me

Raising grass-fed beef means we are not constantly driving the three hours to town to get tons of grain and competing with lower cost producers at the stockyards when we sell our animals there. We sell our beef directly to the consumer and to select butchers and restaurants. Like our livestock, we stay on the ranch more and spend our time improving the quality of our pastures, taking the time to work gently with our livestock, spending time with them so they are accustomed to our attention. This makes them wonderful animals to keep on any ranch or farm.