“Good health starts on the ranch, with healthy soil, and healthy animals.”
-Weston A. Price
Soil Health
Rotational grazing is a ranch management style where cattle are rotated through different pastures over a period of time.
This managements style gives plants and soil time to recover and for cattle to eat a higher amount of quality feed. If cattle return too soon to the same pastures, many plants won't have sufficient time to regrow. This can lead to degraded plants and soil.
Health in YOU
There are so many benefits from eating grass fed beef. Here are just a few:
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Grass finished beef has less saturated fats than grain finished so you are actually consuming less calories and eating the same serving size.
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The Omega 3 content is much higher in grass finished beef. Omega 3s are made in the chloroplasts of plants. When cattle are fed grain, the amount of Omega 3s diminish. (See top graph) Omega 3s help prevent heart attack, stroke, depression and many others.
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Beta carotene is also found in the pigment of plants. So grass finished beef is an excellent course of Beta carotene. Beta carotene gets converted into Vitamin A. Vitamin A helps strengthen the immune system, vision and eye health, and healthy skin.
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In the graph to the right, you'll notice that grass fed beef has more vitamin E than grain finished cattle. Vitamin E lowers the risk of heart disease and cancer.
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Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) is found in grass fed beef. CLA is one of the best defenses against cancer.
Healthy Animals
We don't ranch conventionally. We don't use insecticides. We don't give our cattle growth hormones. We don't have a vaccine plan that we follow. In fact, we don't vaccinate at all. (With the exception of government required Brucellosis vaccine). We would rather develop a herd that is immune to those diseases.
As far as medication goes, we do treat sick or injured animals. When this situation arises, which isn't often, we try to use the most holistic practices.
Data from: J Animal Sci (1993) 71(8):2079-88.
Data from: Smith, G.C. "Dietary supplementation of vitamin E to cattle to improve shelf life and case life of beef for domestic and international markets." Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523-1171