Frequently Asked Questions

Our cattle are given free access to grass whenever they would like to graze. This makes up about 97.5% of their diet. They are rotationally grazed and have access to roughly a 1 acre paddock of grass and forage at a time. After 4-7 days they are moved to a new paddock with fresh grass. We try to give a 60 day window in between each paddock’s grazing which gives plenty of time for the grass to recover. They are fed an additional 0.5-0.75 pounds of feed (grain mix) every day to supplement and to make up the remaining 2.5% of their diet. This also helps in training them to go to the pen each day.

Live weight is how much the animal weighs prior to being slaughtered. Hanging weight is a weight the butcher gives us after the animal has been killed, blood drained, head, hide, feet, entrails & organs removed. The hanging weight is usually about 50-60% of the live weight. So if a cow weighs 1000lbs live weight its hanging weight will be 500-600lbs. The packaged weight is how much you, the customer, take home after it has been packaged. This is usually 55-65% of the hanging weight. The loss comes from 2 places: water loss and bone loss. Water loss occurs during the dry aging process where the beef is allowed to hang for 10-14 days to tenderize. The second place you might loose weight is from cutting the meat off the bones. So the more boneless cuts the customer requests the less the packaged weight will be. It’s important to point out that lower weight doesn’t mean you are receiving less meat, but rather than you are receiving fewer bones. If you request marrow or knuckle bones for making broth you retain some of this weight.

Our cattle do not have any hormone injections and are not fed anything with hormones. Antibiotics are to be discontinued 28 days prior to animal slaughter according to the NIH, we abide by these rules. We will supplement antibiotics situationally dependent on the health and well being of our animals, primarily in the case of pink eye. For fly control we use fly traps, organic fly spray made of essential oils, and a garlic salt that naturally repels flies.

Based on the cut sheet you will receive something like the below with an additional 30-35 lbs of ground beef.