18/01/2024
Every animal deserves an ideal life - for cows, slow days in the field, forage, and sweet hay. In cold weather, the cows stand close together - they seem to prefer the chill of winter to the extreme heat of summer. Even so, when it is as cold as it has been, the cows can most often be found in the barn, buffeted against the wind.
Did you know that a cow can eat grass one time in its whole life and be sold as a "grass fed" cow? Many cows will eat grass for the majority of their lives and then be transitioned to grain for the last few months to fatten them up - they can be labeled "grass fed". This is yet another issue where shifty labeling regulations benefit the conglomerate entity instead of the consumer. It isn't unreasonable to assume that a "grass fed" cow only ate grass. Like "organic", this vernacular has become a tool, twisted to suit those who seek to profit from confusion.
"Grass fed, grass finished" or "100% grass fed" cows have actually eaten grass as their main source of nutrition for their entire lives. Many ranchers don't do this because it lowers the overall profitability of their operations - cows eating only grass and other forage and exercising daily take far longer to reach slaughter weight, increasing the "cost" of each cow as they take longer to "become profitable". Obviously this is a very crass way to consider animals, but it is a very important discussion to have.
We will support the small farms who are doing this right for the sake of doing it right. Not only is meat raised this way better for the health of our pets, but also for the health of the planet. Not every "grass fed and finished" cow is going to be a 100% pasture raised cow, just like not every 100% pasture raised cow is going to be necessarily strictly grass fed. But the overlap is much higher than not. We are very proud of the farmers who go the extra distance to make sure that each animal on their farm lives its most ideal life.
