Three cows grazing

100% Grass-fed Beef

Our beef is 100% grass-fed, natural, Black Angus beef. These cattle are not fed grain nor do they receive antibiotics or hormones.

Our mission is to provide the healthiest and highest quality, all-natural beef to our local customers from a farm that is humane and is environmentally "Beyond Sustainable".

Our Angus cattle are born, raised and finished solely on the highest quality grass that is over-seeded with clover to provide additional protein. They graze fresh, green pastures from late April until November or December. In some of our pastures, we use a fescue-type grass that stays green and holds it nutrients for months after the first fall frost allowing us to graze into late fall. For the remainder of the winter, the cattle are fed grass hay that we grow on the farm. We do not use pesticides on our pastures or hayfields; instead hayfields and pastures are maintained by rotational grazing and mowing to provide pesticide-free, all-natural forage.

Our cattle are raised in a friendly, low-stress environment. They are never held in confinement and instead live on open pasture their entire lives. Since we have our own breeding herd, our cattle are born and raised on our farm and have never been transported until they are taken to the butcher. We handle our cattle when they are young and routinely walk through the herds, talking to them as we go. As a result they are calm and comfortable around humans.

The combination of high-quality grass forage plus the low-stress environment ensures that we produce the highest quality beef that is tender and flavorful.

Why grass-fed beef?

Many Grass-fed beef benefits the consumer, the animals, and the environment compared to the beef sold by most grocers.

Consumer benefits: Beef from cattle raised only on grass is healthier. It has less total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and calories. Plus it is higher in vitamin E, beta-carotene, vitamin C, and a number of health-promoting fats, including omega-3 fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid. Plus, our grass-fed beef does not contain antibiotics, growth hormone or pesticide residues since such products are not used in our operation.

Animal benefits: Cattle are ruminants whose physiology was optimized by nature for thousands of years for a grass-based diet. When "factory farms" feed grain-based diets to make the cattle grow faster and decrease production costs, this causes stress and illness. Add to this the stress of confinement on a mud or concrete feedlot and it is no wonder why "factory farms" mix antibiotics into the grain used to feed the cattle.

Environmental benefits: "Factory farming" is bad for the environment. For a full discussion, see our Conservation page. Briefly, feedlots uses a great deal of fuel to grow and harvest crops and to transport the large amounts of food, manure and animals required. It creates concentrations of manure that spill into waterways, contaminate groundwater and produce extraordinary amounts of greenhouse gases. In 2011, a USDA of a 10,000 cow feedlot found that it released into the atmosphere 33,092 pounds of methane, 3,575 pounds of ammonia and 409 pounds of nitrous oxide each DAY! In contrast, when cows eat their natural food (i.e., grass), the production of these gases is greatly decreased and any manure produced is naturally incoorporated into the soil of the pasture to provide nutrients for further grass growth.

Our cattle are fed ONLY grass. The "grass-fed" designation is not regulated so most beef labeled as "grass-fed" in grocery stores only means that the animals received some grass in their diet. To get the health benefits of true grass-fed beef requires a strict diet of grass only. True grass-fed beef is leaner than grain-fed, so if you see "grass-fed" beef that is 70-85% lean in the grocery store you know that animal did not recieve a strict grass-fed diet unless fat was added into the ground beef from another animal. Our ground beef tends to be around 92% lean.

To order all-natural, grass-fed beef, please go to our ORDER page.

 


©2017 Clover Spring Farms Inc.
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