We do:
Treat our animals with respect. We make sure that they are able to live peaceful and happy lives and always strive to make their interactions with humans low stress and pleasant. We like to say our critters only have one bad day.
Plan our grazing! Grass fed is great, but a lot of pasture can be damaged with improper management, so not all grass fed beef is created equal from an environmental perspective. We plan our where our animals will be 365 days a year using adaptive management to make sure that our animals are in the right place at the right time for the right reasons to maximize positive ecological impact.
Heal the land with our cows. We are focused on maximizing ecosystem function, not extracting from the land to grow beef. Our management decisions are based on maximizing solar capture (plant growth), creating an effective water cycle, cycling nutrients to encourage improved plant growth, and maximizing biodiversity, both above and below ground!
Sequester carbon! We've tripled our soil organic carbon since we began practicing Holistic Management in 1996. If we could raise soil organic carbon by 1% on two-thirds of the world's grasslands, we could go back to pre-industrial levels of atmospheric carbon!
Raise every one of our butcher animals from birth. No mystery meat here! We know what goes into our critters, and how they were treated, from day one.
Feed hay in the winter. Our cows get about 75% of their diet year round from natural forage, but we do feed hay to supplement in the winter. This is mostly alfalfa and canary grass hay. We bale some ourselves and buy the rest from neighbors we trust.
Love visitors! But unfortunately we will not be entertaining visitors during the COVID pandemic. We are focusing on keeping our family well so that we can keep taking care of the land and animals! Our cows are often visible from the road, so contact us and we’ll let you know where you can swing by and see them!
We do NOT:
Feed grain, corn, soy, or any other yucky stuff cows aren't meant to eat.
Give our butcher animals steroids or antibiotics. We strive to make sure that our cattle start out with a great diet and proper pasture management to limit health problems from occurring in the first place. We never let an animal suffer though, so if we have exhausted all options, we will treat a sick animal with antibiotics. That animal will be removed from our beef production schedule. The only other medications our animals receive are an annual vaccination. Butcher animals are not medicated or vaccinated in the year prior to harvest.
Spray any pesticides or herbicides on our land. Ever! We let our cows do the work, and they do a great job of keeping the weeds under control without releasing harmful chemicals into the environment.
Hide or obscure information from our customers! Ever! Want to know something? Ask! Want to come see your steer butchered? We can make that happen. We believe that transparency is the most radical way to make change in our food system.