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The Value of Knowing Your Farmer

written by

Ben Simmons

posted on

April 14, 2018

Farm Update –

Have you noticed the seamingly small change to our tag line on our website homepage? We have changed the wording from Grass-Fed Beef to Grass-Fed to Finish Beef! That small change makes a BIG difference. Here's the story:

When we started out back in 2010 we visited other farms and read how to successfully raise grass fed beef. And we followed the recommendations. All was good and we sold all we were able to raise each year when they were about 16-18 months old and weighted up to 1000 pounds.

However, as the industry has matured we have learned that "Premium" grass-fed beef requires the animal to be closer to 24 months of age before they are "finished". A grass-fed to finish beef will have more marbling, better meat to bone ratios, and be more tender & juicy than a younger and leaner beef.  To finish simply means the beef continues to graze our diverse forage pastures until they are fully mature and ready for harvest.

We are pleased to let our customers know that all the beef in our freezer qualifies for Grass-Fed to Finish Premium Beef.

It really pays to visit your farmer and to understand how the animal was raised. In the past several weeks customers that have visited our farm told me of other farms that sell pastured beef but when asked questions they found out they feed grain the last 90-120+ days before harvest. Friday, a man near Columbia told me of someone who was buying beef at the stockyard, having it processed, and selling it as grass-fed beef out of a chest freezer in his pickup truck - which is illegal!

To close on a positive note, I am resending Dr. Martin's tips due to link issues from last week.

Several of my Hattiesburg Clinic customers told me about Dr. Arthur Martin, Cardiology, who wrote "Dr. Martin's Tips for a Heart-Healthy Diet and Lifestyle." I contacted his nurse who gave me permission to share with my email list. While he has many powerful tips the one that impressed me about him the most was "Eat real food from farm to table and stay away from processed junk." Let me encourage you to read all his Tip's. 

Click here for Page 1

Click here for Page 2

Customer Feedback- 

The beef is so tender and juicy! Just very clean tasting beef! The chicken is wonderful! Ben, we love your products and are always satisfied! Thank you again for growing healthy forage for the animals! R. McGarrah

Quote Worth Re-Quoting – “(Sir Albert) Howard put it this way:"Artificial manures (synthetic fertilizers) lead inevitably to artificial nutrition, artificial food, artificial animals and finally to artificial men and women.” ― Michael Pollan

As always, thank you for supporting our regenerative, local farm.

Ben & Beth

 

More from the blog

Taste Test

Greetings Ben and Beth, I'm really looking forward to my next order pick up. I'm trying to improve my cholesterol numbers, thus eating more chicken, and ran out of your chicken products. I ended up buying some industrially produced chicken, and man was that a mistake! It smelled terrible raw, also while it was being sauteed, and also later when I reheated it to put into an otherwise healthy salad. I have enough of this subpar stuff to last until I pick my order, but I don't think I can ever buy this CAFO stuff again.

Beef Update & A New Product

Beef Update – Typically this time of year folks are hesitant to buy bulk beef for their freezer due to hurricane risk. That is why we have delayed our next custom half & whole beef processing until September. If you are interested, our next harvest will be September 2nd with pickup on September 22nd. If you want to be included then please email me your name, email, and cell number to be added to our wait list - and be the first folks contacted and guaranteed to receive an order. Beef prices continue to increase and hit a new All-Time high this week fueled by strong demand and limited supply. For example, based on what a 700 pound steer sold for at the Hattiesburg Stockyard Monday, I could make more than feeding him till he weighs 1100 pounds and sell as packaged beef - but our mission is to provide nutrient-dense, clean food to our customers. Effective immediately custom beef half and whole prices will increase $0.50 to $6.25 per pound based on the hanging weight. Retail cuts will increase for September deliveries as well.

Real Health Is NOT A Pill. It's A Practice!

Two Great Must Read Articles – Typically I don't make a big deal about articles we have read, but these two are so good that I felt they needed to be shared. The first is by Joel Salatin titled "Food Think" that is part of his The Lunatic Farmer blog. You can read the full article at this link. The second article is one Beth forwarded to me from the Health Viewpoints section of Epoch Times titled "Americans Spend Trillions on Health Care but Remain Unwell - Here's Why" Dr. Yang, FAPA, a board certified psychiatrist, begins by stating the difference between treating disease and building true health lies in a proactive and preventative lifestyle. Note - Beth and I would agree with other folks who commented that his article is spot on and very important for folks to read and understand. You can read at this link.