Resources :: Grassfed Basics

Key differences between conventional and pasture-based animal production.

Conventional Animal Production-Ruminants. All commercially raised ruminants, including cattle, sheep, goats, and bison, are raised on pasture for the first months of their lives. Technically, all animals are "grass fed" for a portion of their lives. But the vast majority of the animals are then transported to distant feedlots where they are raised in confinement and switched to a grain-based diet. Typically, the animals are also treated with hormones, feed additives, and low-level antibiotics to boost their productivity and minimize the health problems that come from eating a high-starch diet and living in stressful, crowded conditions.

Pasture Based Animal Production - Animals that are fed nothing but pasture live dramatically different lives. Unlike grain-finished animals, they graze on pasture or stored forage from birth to market, never leaving the farm. They live such stress-free lives that they are rarely sick and never require the use of pharmaceutical drugs. As in nature, their rate of growth is determined by their health and the quality of the forage, not hormonal implants or growth-promoting additives. For all these reasons and more, their products are healthy, wholesome, and natural in every sense of the word.

Finishing meat and dairy animals on pasture alone requires far more knowledge and skill than sending them to a feedlot or confinement dairy. For example, in order for grass fed beef to be succulent and tender, the animals need high-quality forage, especially in the months prior to slaughter. This requires healthy soil and careful management so that the pastures remain lush and the growth is spread as evenly as possible over the growing season. Also, the animals' grazing patterns must be carefully managed on a daily basis to keep the pasture from being grazed too little or too much, which would compromise its quality and availability. Because high quality pasture is the key to raising animals on grass, some people who raise grass-fed animals refer to themselves as "grass farmers" rather than ranchers.

The main difference between grass-fed beef and grain-fed beef is the fat and how ruminants convert grasses or forages into beef proteins and fats. Grass is a rich source of Omega-3 fatty acids. In fact, the Omega 3 fatty acid in naturally fed ruminants is like the fatty oil found in wild fish. Omega 3 oil and/or fat is one of the primary reasons wild fish is considered "heart healthy."

Non ruminants. Commercial chickens, turkeys and swine suffer a worse fate than the ruminants. Tightly packed into cages, sheds, or pens all of their lives, they never have access to the outdoors or green plants. Nor do they have the opportunity to escape the stench of their offal. Their diet and environment are carefully controlled so that they reach market size in the least amount of time for the least amount of money. Antibiotics and growth hormones are used to accelerate their growth and control the diseases that spread so rapidly in confined quarters. The products we promote are free-range or pastured raised.

"Pastured" pigs and poultry, by contrast, are raised outdoors on pasture. Chickens can glean as much as 20-30% of their nourishment from grass. Turkeys, more avid grazers, rely on grass for 40% of their diet. Pigs or swine are also good browsers and consume a considerable amount of grass. The animals live low stress lives and have the freedom to exercise the full range of their normal behaviors including rooting, scratching, preening, roosting, and taking sunbaths.

Human Health. Raising animals on pasture is not only better for the animals, it's also healthier for consumers. In particular, animals that graze on grass produce meat, eggs, and dairy products that have several times more health-promoting omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E, and beta carotene, but less total fat and omega-6 fatty acids. (Omega-6 fatty acids compete with omega-3 fatty acids and have been linked with a number of disorders and diseases, including cancer, obesity, allergies, auto-immune disorders, and Alzheimer's disease.

The Environment. Raising animals on pasture is better for the environment than raising them in confinement. For example, in a feedlot operation, cattle deposit large amounts of manure in a small amount of space. The manure must be collected and transported away from the area. But it costs money to transport the manure, so it is deposited as close to the feedlot as possible, risking overloading the surrounding soil with nutrients and contributing to ground and surface water contamination. On pasture-based farms, the animals deposit their manure over a relatively large tract of land, making the manure a valuable source of natural fertilizer---not a pollution problem.

Finally, because grazing animals "harvest" their own food, grass farmers have little need for gas-guzzling farm equipment. Typically, they have a tractor, a pick-up truck, and haying equipment. Feedlot operations require a long list of heavy equipment, including tillers, planters, crop dusters, harvesters, grain grinders, commercial trucks, feed mixers, and conveyer belts. It takes as much as ten times more fuel oil to raise cattle on grain than on grass.

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