Our Beef
We take great pride in our beef herd. Our cows are crossbred beef breeds and our bulls are purebred Angus. We have been sourcing our bull genetics from a family-owned ranch in Montana for a number of years. We are very particular in our genetic choices because we want to provide the customer with a consistent product, year in and year out.
The same goes with our feed. We grow and harvest the feed our cattle eat. Utilizing rotational grazing, cover crops, and our own grains that we plant and harvest, we feel that we can further the consistency by having an “in-house” operation.
Our cattle are raised and sold under the “All-Natural” label. This means that we do not use any hormones, antibiotics, ionophores, and our cattle are on a completely vegetarian diet. We are audited at least annually to meet these requirements. If an animal is sick, we will use medication judiciously and that animal will be marketed through other means.
Our cattle are born on pasture and raised by their mothers until weaning. Upon weaning, they are fed a forage (grass) based diet, then in the finishing stage, fed a forage and grain diet to increase marbling and flavor.
If you have any questions about our beef, please Contact Us!
Our Feed
We discovered the value in cover crops. Cover crops improve soil health and promote water quality by preventing runoff of our crop fields.
We are able to use cover crops in an additional way by harvesting and feeding them or grazing them with our cattle. The main source of feed in the wintertime for our mama cows are the following cover crops:
- Sorghum/Sudangrass
- Rye
- Oats
- Turnips
- Radishes.
We also utilize these cover crops to start our weaned calves on a forage-based diet.
Summer grazing has been an adventure for us. When we started, we knew nothing about rotational grazing and stock density. Through many trial and error experiences and classes/ schools, we feel like we have finally hit the mark.
We graze our mama cows and their calves from May-September (weather depending) on our pastures with no additional feed. Our pastures are mainly endophyte-free fescue, clover, orchard grass, perennial ryegrass, and reed canary grass.
We rotate our cattle every two days and give each paddock a rest period of at least 21 days.
Following our cattle, we “clean up” with our sheep grazing rotation (see our sheep section for more info). This keeps our pastures clear of most weeds and evenly grazed, leaving little to no clumps of ungrazed grass which promotes even regrowth.
We also try to drag our pastures which spreads out the manure left and helps fertilize the grasses.
We are always learning and nature, cows, and circumstances continue to throw us curveballs. It’s all part of the adventure!