Does grass fed taste different than conventional raised meat? Health benefits?
I would like to say that grass fed doesn't have a huge taste difference if at all. Taste is a matter of personal preference. Some people will notice a positive difference in the taste of grass-fed beef, and some people do not notice much of a difference at all. The factors of taste in my opinion come from their environment genetics and finishing time. When calves are put on dry ground the meat can be changed because what they are eating isn't as flavorful. The breed type of the animal helps how well they will finish and in how much time. Also leaving the calf on the cow for an extended period of time helps the calf get the best start. A calf can be weaned anywhere from 4 to 9 month. We wean at about 8 and half. Each calf is different on finishing scale so individually checking the steers to ensure proper finish and size is important. A steer that is too old the meat can be tougher. Grass fed beef has many health benefits such as being leaner meat easier to digest has omega 3s (Links on benefits to grass fed)There is also a piece of mind when buying grass fed you are buying meat from animals that have lived life as natural as they can grazing in a pastures their whole lives on quality grasses that provide the correct nutrients they need. The other plus of grass fed is the environment it creates for the animals is easy life only being moved to graze fresh grasses and not being overly handled or stressed.
We even had one customer come back to us saying “ Before I had my gallbladder removed ground beef was hard for my body to digest, and after my body was still reactive to it however I had some of your grass-fed beef and I was able to eat it. No issues.”
Do you use antibiotics?
We use antibiotics only when necessary. For example, (when animals are showing signs of sickness, we would prefer to treat them with an antibiotic rather than allow them to continue to suffer. When this does occur, the calves are marked specially and not put into our meat program.
However, it is important to note that all antibiotics have a withdrawal period. This means that there is a short period of time in which antibiotics stay in the system of an animal. After that it metabolizes, just like it does in humans.
How we raise our locally sold beef?
We are a small cow Calf producer in the central valley of California raising calves for the general market. A cow Calf producer is a farmer or rancher who keeps a permanent herd of cows to produce calves for sale. A cow’s gestation (length of pregnancy) is about 283 days, or nine months, so a cow Calf producer breeds cows only 2 to 3 months after calving. That cow then raises a calf that is nursing and maturing at her side and also is developing a calf inside. We raise cows to calves in spring, therefore the calves are born from around February to March. This gives the cows the strongest feed when they are feeding new calves. Most ranchers have what they call summer and winter ground. For us the winter ground is in the hills and is dependent on mother nature and what it produces. Summer ground is typically irrigated pasture (watered to ensure strong grass for the growing pair(cow and calf). Once the grass dries in the hills the pairs are moved down to summer pasture. The calf will spend it's time learning to graze and nursing off the cow till about October. The calves, about 8 to 9 months old now, are slowly being weaned by the cows (their milk is drying up). We then help wean the calf by separating the cows and calves by fence. This allows the calves to still see the cow but not nurse. This is a low stress solution for both cow and calf. By then the winter ground starts getting rained on and the cows are moved back to raise the calves they are pregnant with.
Flying Diamond Cattle is now raising a small amount of these calves on green grass to be fed out as grass fed beef for our local community. We will also be selling grain fed for special order of quarter, half or whole beef.
