We know you care about what you put into your body like we do. That’s why we’d love to share how we grow our Beef. So… let’s talk about feed.

The Beef you will be purchasing gets a balanced diet of grains that include oats (protein), corn (carbs = energy), wheat (protein), and barley (protein, carbs). They also have minerals mixed into their feed which supports immune function, nervous system, bone development, muscle development, skin and hoof health, appetite, fertility, fetal development, milk production and hair coat. Yea. It’s good stuff. Think mega vitamins. The roughage part of their diet is hay and cornstalk bales.

Our Mama cows get a slightly different diet. During the winter they eat sweet corn silage, barley hay, and grass hay. They also get mineral tubs (same contents as above).

The calves have a special feeder called a creep feeder. It’s special because only the calves can fit in it. Their feed consists of oats, the mineral mixture and protein pellets to take some pressure off of the nursing Mamas.

As we enter into the warm, foraging months, our Mama and baby cows will be grazing on our pastures (grass). We supplement that with alfalfa (protein) corn (gotta love those carbs!), and rye (protein and roughage).

The rye is planted as a cover crop in the fall to keep live roots in the soil to promote soil health and to minimize erosion.

Hay… straw… what’s the difference?? Hay is a roughage and filler; fills the bellies. Straw carries an element of non-digestible fiber. What does that mean?? It means gut health. We eat things like lettuce and bran flakes to keep things moving. Cows need that, too.

So…. why don’t we just pasture feed the beef?? We like to feed our Beef protein based grains. Protein = muscle. We feed our beef corn for meat marbling. Marbling = juice = flavor.

Our long term goal is to produce all of our own feed and we are almost there! Whatever we do bring in is locally sourced from farmers we trust to supplement what we grow ourselves. This means we still know what we are feeding our herd.

If you have any more questions about how we feed and/or grow our beef, talk to Your farmer - US! Send us a message through our contact page and we’d be happy to chat. :)