​Medications, insecticides, chemical and synthetic inputs, and hormones are commonplace in the cattle industry today to maintain health, increase growth rates and production, and manage pests like flies, lice, and mosquitoes. While these practices can help achieve the intended results, what are the long-term effects on the beef animal, the environment, and on your health as a beef consumer?

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Original beef cattle breeds were smaller than what we typically see today, and they were designed to thrive on a forage only diet. Out of necessity, they adapted to their environments and developed natural resistance and immunity to disease. Industry demand has driven the breeding of larger framed cattle for the purpose of adding more pounds of beef per animal and promoted breeding of singular traits regardless of whether those traits were suitable to the environment the cattle were in. What are the negatives of this approach? There are a few.

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- The larger the animal, the less ability they have to fully flesh out well and finish on a forage only diet.

- Larger framed cattle have lower fertility rates.

- Larger framed cattle actually produce fewer pounds of beef per acre.

- Cattle have poor conformation, difficulty calving, and are less resistant to pests and disease.

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What are the popular solutions?

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- High carb diets of corn and grain

- Added hormones to increase growth rates and shorten time to slaughter weight

- Medications and hormones to increase fertility

- Mass produce beef off pasture in close proximity feed lots.

- Medication and antibiotics to treat sickness, and insecticides to control pests.

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How does this affect you and what are the negative effects on the environment?

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- Medications and chemical inputs never fully leave the animal's body. They affect cell and muscle development, which is the beef you end up eating.

- The chemicals secreted from the body through manure and urine, go into the soil and kill the living organisms that are essential to soil and plant health.

- Unhealthy soil feeds fewer nutrients to the plants resulting in low nutrient content in the vegetation. 

- Poor quality vegetation sequesters less carbon leading to poor quality soil.

- Poor quality vegetation fails to provide the required nutrients for optimal animal health and inevitably results in a lower quality beef product.

- This then requires further chemical inputs to maintain essential animal health, and the cycle goes round and round. 

 

What is our approach?

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Our focus is on promoting genetics within our herd of beef cattle that thrive in a low input environment. This means they are highly efficient on grass having the ability to build muscle and get fat on a forage only diet. They are chemical free and enhance the environment by fertilizing the land with manure and urine. They graze on grass which stimulates photosynthesis, the process by which a plant pulls carbon from the air and puts it into the soil via the roots. The billions of living microbes in the soil feed off that carbon and in turn provide nutrients to the plant promoting increased growth. This produces a healthier plant that sequesters more carbon and provides a nutrient rich diet to the cattle. 

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