Grass-fed Beef - Nutrient Dense and Sustainable

We fully believe that nutrient dense foods, such as grassfed beef, offer people a diet that supports good health and a strong immune system. On TK Ranch our cattle are not fed any grain - we use the pasture model from birth to slaughter. Our animals are born, raised and fed outside on large native grass pastures. Unlike organic and conventional grain finished beef, our animals are never confined in feedlots. Cattle are ruminants (grass-eaters), like deer and elk, and are not meant to digest a diet of grain. Excess grain causes many health problems for the animals - the rumen (first stomach) becomes very acidic throwing the animal's natural system out of balance. The feedlot industry routinely feeds cattle ionophores (some brand names are Rumensin and Monensin) to prevent acidosis of the rumen. Ionophores are similar in form to antibiotics. Acidosis can cause serious illnesses in cattle as seen in the following articles:

Acute and Subacute Ruminal Acidosis

Rumen Acidosis

Feedlots use high calorie grains to speed up the finishing process. Most calves are shipped to a feedlot when they are weaned at 6 or 7 months of age and are finished by the the time they are 13 to 15 months old. Many organic producers put their calves into a feedlot when they are older - this shortens their finishing time to 3 or 4 months. Since organic cattle cannot be fed ionophores to prevent acidosis, feedlot operators adjust their rations to include more forages. This keeps the organic cattle somewhat healthier, but it doesn't address the significant effects feedlots have on our environment. Concentrating and feeding animals in one area for long periods of time has serious affects on our soils, watersheds and air quality. The transportation of feed (grain, hay, silage) to support the feedlot industry, not to mention the petrochemical inputs (fuel, etc.) required for production of that feed, creates a carbon footprint that is not sustainable for the food system. Moving back to more grass-based livestock production methods would be better for all concerned - economically, environmentally and socially.

Producing Quality Grassfed Beef in Canada

Producing quality grassfed beef in Canada can be difficult due to our colder climate. We have heard from several people who have had very bad eating experiences when they've tried grassfed beef. This is because some producers don't understand how to properly grass "finish" an animal. To begin with, an animal has to be gaining when it is processed - if not, the meat will be tough. This means that it has to be receiving enough calories to gain as well as maintain healthy body function. When it is minus 40 in Alberta it is almost impossible to grass-finish an animal without some supplementation - there aren't enough calories in standard feed to keep them warm and gaining. This is why most cattle producers supplement their cattle with grain during the winter.

During the cold winter months we supplement our cattle with hay and sprout pellets - a nutritious and clean by-product of the malting industry. When barley is malted it is soaked in water and then placed in a warm room until it grows a small half-inch sprout. Once sprouted the grain is dried. The sprout is then broken off and separated and the malted barley sold to breweries to make beer. These sprouts are high in energy and nutrients and provide the calories our animals need to keep warm in the winter while being finished properly. These sprouts do not affect the pH balance of an animal's rumen like grain so acidosis is not a problem. The cattle stay healthy and contented while being finished properly.

A picture of the Northern Fescue Grasslands in full bloom on TK Ranch.

The definition of "grassfed" is a contentious issue. Many producers call their cattle grassfed even though they were supplemented with grain while out on grass or fed in a feedlot for the last few months of their lives. As a consumer you have to ask if the animal EVER received grain in its diet - including when it was out on grass. Sometimes you can determine this by the age of the animal when it was processed. Some producers think they can grass-finish a yearling animal at 12 to 16 months of age. To get the kind of finish required for a good eating experience it is virtually impossible to do this without grain supplementation - the animal is simply too young to have grown properly. On TK Ranch our grassfed animals are at least 24 months of age before being processed. This means it takes almost a year longer to finish our animals when compared to most organic and conventional grain-fed beef. This adds tremendous flavour and quality to our beef - most of it grades AAA - almost unheard of in the organic, natural or grass-fed beef industry.

Support for Nutrient Dense Foods

For many years TK Ranch has been a supporter of the Weston A. Price Foundation (logo seen at right). The Weston A. Price Foundation is a "nonprofit, tax-exempt charity founded in 1999 to disseminate the research of nutrition pioneer Dr. Weston Price, whose studies of isolated nonindustrialized peoples established the parameters of human health and determined the optimum characteristics of human diets. Dr. Price's research demonstrated that humans achieve perfect physical form and perfect health generation after generation only when they consume nutrient-dense whole foods and the vital fat-soluble activators found exclusively in animal fats.

The Foundation is dedicated to restoring nutrient-dense foods to the human diet through education, research and activism. It supports a number of movements that contribute to this objective including accurate nutrition instruction, organic and biodynamic farming, pasture-feeding of livestock, community-supported farms, honest and informative labeling, prepared parenting and nurturing therapies. Specific goals include establishment of universal access to clean, certified raw milk and a ban on the use of soy formula for infants."

On the website you will find a tremendous amount of information regarding almost every subject that relates to nutrient dense food. With regard to grass-fed beef, the following quotations will give you an idea of the quality of information that Sally Fallon and Mary Enig offer. The link to this article follows the quotes.

"Before the industrialization of agriculture, cattle grazed on pasture during all but the harshest weather. In winter, they ate hay (which is dried grass) or silage (which is fermented grass) or root vegetables; chickens and other fowl roamed freely in the barnyard; and pigs enjoyed the open air, either in pens or verges or woodlands."

"The discovery of CLA in the fat of grass-fed animals—in butterfat, tallow and suet—and the emerging revelations as to its benefits, has posed an embarrassing dilemma for apologists of the factory farming system. Scientists are looking for feed supplements that induce confinement cows to produce CLA and for ways to produce CLA in the laboratory so it can be sold in supplement form. The solution, of course, is to phase out confinement feeding and put cows back on green pasture where they belong. As a nation that has always depended on dairy products, this is the only way to regain the robust good health we enjoyed just a generation or two ago."

Splendor from the Grass

Another very interesting article - It's the Beef - authored by both Sally Fallon and Mary Enig, de-bunks modern theories about beef:

"With the exception of butter, no other food has been subjected to such intense demonization in recent years as red meat, particularly beef. The juicy hamburger, that delicious marbled steak and the Sunday roast have been accused of terrible crimes. Beef causes heart disease, say the Diet Dictocrats. Beef causes cancer, particularly colon cancer, beef causes osteoporosis, beef causes autoimmune diseases like asthma, beef harbors E. coli leading to food-borne illness, beef causes Creutzfeldt Jakob disease."

Check out the article, it is well worth the read.