What does Grass-fed, Grass-finished, Organic and All-Natural mean?
At Oxbow we are all-natural and grass-finished. What does this mean? It means our cows spend their entire lives on pasture, living the best life a cow could have. It means we do not give them growth hormones. It means we do not feed or give them sub therapeutic antibiotics (antibiotics are usually fed to feed lot cows because the conditions promote disease and infections). Our spend their entire lives having never eaten a grain. They graze on diverse pastures of grasses, legumes and forbs and are fed high-quality hay throughout the winter months. We do not chemically worm or “pour on” our cows, we provide them with the best diet and mimic natural grazing habits to break the lifecycle of parasites. We manage are soil and land to the best of our abilities and we believe that healthy land gives us healthy cows!
The definitions:
Grass-fed: A beef cow that is fed grass. Nearly every cow starts their life as grass-fed. In other words, calves spend their first 6-8 months with their moms out on pastures eating grass and drinking milk. Somewhere shortly thereafter the calves are weaned from their moms and start their journey through the commodity beef world, meaning they get on a truck and head to a feed lot, where they are finished for beef on grains. These animals are grass-fed and grain finished.
Grass-finished: A beef cow that is grass-fed and grass-finished. In other words, these cows that live this life never leave the pasture. They start off on grass and milk, get weaned from the milk and continue to live their life out eating grass or hay in pastures. An exception is, some feedlots are beginning to feed cows just hay, so they can take advantage of the grass-fed and grass-finished markets. These animals still finish their lives within the confinements of feedlots, but being fed only harvested grass in the form of hay.
Organic: A beef cow that has met the requirements of the USDA organic standards. Organic beef can be feedlot beef fed corn and molasses, the grains and sugars just have to be certified organic. You can also have grass-finished, organic beef too.
All-Natural: There is no definition in general for this. Terms like no antibiotics or no growth hormones usually fall into all-natural. Some all-natural producers use “pour on” or wormers? We DO NOT at Oxbow. What is pour on? It is a pesticide that you pour down the back of a cow that is absorbed through their skin that kills internal and external parasites and kills beneficial soil microbes during that process. We also feel that we do not want to be eating a cow that has had chemicals absorbed throughout its body. You may ask how do we help our cows fight internal and external parasites. We have our cows on a very detailed free-choice mineral program, manage our grazing intensively and provide our animals with apple cider vinegar (ACV). ACV has tons of health benefits for humans, well guess what it also has tons of health benefits for cows!
Grain-Finished:
- Grain-finished beef is less healthy for you.
- See the Top Ten Health Reasons to Eat Grassfed beef above.
- Grain-finished cows are unhealthier.
- Grains, which are simple carbohydrates, are not intended for a cow’s diet. Grains change the natural bacteria and digestive process in the intestines, making them prone to acidosis.
- Cows are confined in a feedlot in very tight quarters and this promotes infections, resulting in the use of sub-therapeutic antibiotics.
- Grain-finished beef are not as good for the environment.
- Feed for grain-finished cows has to be planted, harvested and shipped using large quantities of fossil fuels.
- Many grain and vegetable crops require from 5 to 10 calories of fossil-fuel for every calorie of food or fiber produced.
- Growing corn and soy causes six times more soil erosion than pasture.
Grass-Finished:
- Grass-finished cows produce healthier beef.
- It has been scientifically proven that grass-finished beef is healthier than grain-finished beef.
- Grass-finished cows are healthier.
- Our cows spend their entire lives on open pasture living in the environment nature intended for them.
- They forage on complex carbohydrates which their digestive system is developed for.
- Nothing about the grass-finishing process is accelerated – it happens in due time.
- Grass-finished cows are better for the environment.
- A diet of grazed grass requires much less fossil fuel than a feedlot diet of dried corn and soy.
- Beef from grass-finished cows requires only one calorie of fossil fuel to produce two calories of food.
- On pasture, grazing cows do their own fertilizing and harvesting.
- Grazed pasture removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere more effectively than any land use, including forestland and ungrazed prairie, helping to slow global warming.
- For more information on the research behind these benefits see the Eat Wild website.
Top 10 Health Reasons to Eat Grassfed Beef:
To learn more, click on any of the links below:
