posted on 2010-02-04 by tobbysims
A conversation took place between me and an old friend from South Dakota recently. Win lives in a 20 acre ranch raising horses and enjoys the "free from chaos" lifestyle. He is surrounded by several small family-owned ranchers whom he knows a few. One of them is a good friend of ours, Dave Reynolds who owns and operates his own cattle ranch called Nature's Cattle.

To speed up the the point of the story, the conversation started with me asking "…how the heck do these so-called grass-fed beef producers could make out from selling $3 to $4 a pound on their grass-fed beef products to cover their overhead and still make a profit?…"

You see, 100% natural grass-fed cattle means they only eat grass (not grain, corn, molasses, or alfalfa) from start to finish. A rancher needs at least 2 acres per cow. You would need 50 acres of land per 25 cows in order to graze them on grass with proper allocation of grass area. Proper allocation of grass area means a rancher has to control the amount of grass that the cattle eat, otherwise there will be no grass left if rotation is not properly managed.

So, many times purchasing hay (grass) to supplement intermittently while the grass land recovers has to be done especially in areas where natural grass is only available during spring and summer time. This is very common in places such as the ones in upper mid west and east coast states. Hay comes at a value that is not commonly cheap and the price could go up depending on the weather. Basically, it's a huge chunk of change for a common rancher.

Then there is the cost of processing the meat, packing, handling, and shipping. Most of the time, a rancher has to hire a meat processing and packing house to process, cut and even ship the meats directly to the rancher's customers. However, there are big ranchers who also own and operate their own certified meat processing facility.

Therefore, in order to make a profit from $3-$4 per pound "grass fed" beef, a rancher must have hundreds of acres of land and a lot of cattle. Most small family-owned ranchers (using sustainable and natural methods) don't have that type of property and would not be able to run such huge operation. The other option is to raise cattle the conventional way using feedlot-style facility where cattle are packed and confined in small areas (so there's no need to have hundreds of acres of land). But, you see, there's a huge problem with that. You know where I'm getting at.... Feedlot operation promotes diseases and infestation amongst the cattle, thus, the use of antibiotics and hormones (for speed growth) is inevitable. And to avoid expensive hay expense, grain and corn are the suitable alternative because they are cheaper, and they make the cows bigger (more profit) and fatter (not lean muscle but fat). It's a sad common practice.

But then you're wondering, "So, how could these ranchers still claim that their beef products are from grass fed cattle?" Well, this was something that I wasn't aware of either. Ranchers are only required to graze the cattle in grass 3 months prior to slaughter. How much grass grazing is required? Who knows. The point is that they can still claim the "grass fed" status by feeding them partially with grass and the rest is conventional.

So, the point of this article is for you, the buyers of "grass fed beef" products, to make sure that you take some precautions when buying into grass fed beef products. Find out where they come from. Call the business number ask some questions. If they lie, they lie. At least you did your due diligence.

Buy Healthy Beef: Grass Fed Ground Beef and Steaks!