We farm grass to ranch cattle.

The essence behind the statement that we farm grass to ranch cattle is that farming refers to growing things in the Earth, and ranching refers to raising animals.

We are very concerned about the kinds of plants we grow - and their health - because in order to raise healthy animals, the land and plants must first be healthy and tended to.

Ruminant digestion functions best on a forage-only diet.

Grass is the most well-known of those forages to the average consumer. But besides grass, other forages our cattle consume on a daily basis include legumes (eg, clover, peas, alfalfa), and forbs (herbs, including chicory, plantain, etc.)

Legumes add needed protein to our cattle’s diet, especially for growing animals, including calves and cows who are nurturing calves.

Forbs round out their mineral needs, plus different plants add different uses, such as chicory functioning as a natural dewormer and plantain as an immune booster.

When grains are added into a ruminant’s diet, their digestion changes.

Microbes that naturally live symbiotically (friendly bacterial helpers) in the cattle’s rumen and help them digest forages change over to a microbial population that favors the carbohydrate digestion of grains.

This throws the cattle’s entire digestive system off, and in turn their entire physiology.

It only takes 30 days on a diet of grain for the entire fatty acid makeup of a bovine to be changed from healthful to harmful fats.

Only. 30. Days.

This is why, that even if a package tells you the cattle were “grass-fed” … That fact really doesn’t matter if they were then put on 100-150 days of grain finish at the end. Which is what the majority of them do…

Don’t depend on a label.

Know your farmer and their practices.