100% Grass-fed Promise – Willow Creek Ranch Growing Protocol
Our cattle are 100% pasture and hay fed. They are never given any grain at any time… that’s our “100% Grass-fed Promise”. Our herd only consume grasses and plant that they harvest by choice while moving from paddock to paddock. Our cattle are moved to fresh pastures every 2-3 days so that they allow plants a chance to rest and recover, improving water retention and reducing soil run off. Fresh paddocks and strong immune systems allow us to not have to use antibiotics. During winter, we feed grasses dried and harvested during summer when the growing season produced much more than the cattle could consume. Rotating through fresh pastures allows cattle to naturally choose from an abundance of plants, many which have different nutrient profiles and add to the flavor of the meat of the animals. We highly encourage you to come visit us and see the difference for yourself.
Benefits
Save Money By Purchasing Farm Direct Beef.
By cutting out the middle man and retail store chains, you can save up to 50% off the average price of beef that you would pay in the store, simply by buying direct from the farmer. There are no hidden costs when you purchase from Willow Creek Ranch. The price you pay includes everything, from the beef, pork or poultry product itself to the processing. Willow Creek Ranch will even deliver your product free of charge, within 20 miles of our ranch.
Buy Local, Eat Local, and Support Your Local Community and Local Farmers.
Farmers are paid pennies on the dollar for beef that is processed by one of the three huge food companies in the U.S. that together control 80% of all beef processing. When you buy your beef locally, you support your local farming families like Willow Creek Ranch, and your local meat processing plant, while saving yourself up to half on your food costs.
Reduce Stress On Our Local, and Global Environment.
Local farm raised range fed animals eat less processed foods and are transported a far shorter distance than stockyard, factory farm cattle. Less transport results in significantly less fossil fuels being burned in order to put meat on your table.
Factory farm cattle are fed a diet of medically treated grain, which does little nutritionally for the cattle with the exception of making them grow faster while keeping them alive. That grain comes from chemically treated tillable farms, a significant factor in soil erosion and water table pollution. Our grass fed cattle, free range poultry and pigs are rotated through natural pastures that are not tilled, or chemically treated, and as a result, do not endanger our streams, rivers, water tables, or the land itself.
It’s a scientific fact that grass-fed, free range poultry, pork and beef are far richer in nutritious value than commercially fed livestock.
The American Grass-fed Association defines grass-fed as “food products from animals that have eaten nothing but their mother’s milk and fresh grass or grass-type hay from birth to harvest – all their lives.”
Grass is cattle’s natural diet. This means livestock can process their natural food source better, and because they are pasture-raised, the chemically treated foodstuffs that factory farms use are not part of our animal husbandry, and therefore, not part of your family’s diet.
In 2007, the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) developed strict standards surrounding what can be termed “grass-fed” animals and farms. Willow Creek Ranch embraces these standards whole-heartedly, every day, and encourages every ranch and farm to do the same.
Nature provides livestock’s natural diet.
This means livestock can process their natural food source better. Because they are pasture-raised, they don’t need chemically treated foodstuffs that not only saturate the animal, they make their way to your kitchen table, as well.
Grass-fed meat is almost 50% leaner and lower in fat and calories.
Fat from grain fed animals has been linked to obesity, high cholesterol, heart disease and stroke. Grain is high in energy, lower in vitamins, and has an unbalanced fatty-acid ratio, resulting in large amounts of saturated fat. The bottom line is, grain fed animals are based on a high production model of business. Grass-fed animals are a business based on a high quality, healthy lifestyle from pasture to table.
Grass-fed meats can lower high blood pressure and decrease the risks of diabetes and cancer.
Grass-fed meats contain more of the vitamins A, E, and Omega-3 acids than grain fed meats, all of which work together to help you live a higher quality, healthier lifestyle.
Source: Lopez-Bote, C. J., R.Sanz Arias, A.I. Rey, A. Castano, B. Isabel, J. Thos (1998). “Effect of free-range feeding on omega-3 fatty acids and alpha-tocopherol content and oxidative stability of eggs.” Animal Feed Science and Technology 72: 33-40.
A free range farm is more humane than a factory farm.
We’ve all seen the pictures like this one of Confined Animal Feed Operations (CAFO) with row after row of cattle and penned up livestock, whose only activity is to feed on hormone-enriched grain to promote faster, chemically induced (artificial) growth. (Think of an athlete on steroids.) These factory farms are based on quantity, not quality. Compare this to a free range farm where pigs, chickens and cattle can roam a natural pasture, and consume the very vegetation and legumes they were born to eat, naturally.
Free range farms are more ecologically balanced.
We are all concerned about our environment, no one more than farmers like ourselves who live, work, and sustain ourselves and our families from the harvest of our own land. Pasture-raised, grass-fed livestock feed on the natural gifts of the earth, and then return nutrient rich bio matter back to the earth. They are rotated through natural pastures, eliminating the possibility of runoff and erosion from tillable fields. Compare this to the hormone-enriched, chemically treated grains that are grown for factory farms. Not only does a tillable field become a primary factor in erosion, there are the chemicals that are used on the fields and grain. Those chemicals not only become a part of the grain, they also leach into the soil, and then the water table, creating little more than a chemical petri dish for human consumption.
Fine meat, like wine, takes time.
You can’t rush perfection. Wine growers know this, and so do grass-fed, free range farms and ranches like ours here at Willow Creek. The meats that we sell have a history of living, growing, and maturing, that results in better marbling, and better flavor. The “aged beef” you decide to have at a gourmet restaurant didn’t just “happen”. Grass-fed meats from Willow Creek Ranch are based on time, the natural progress of the days and seasons, and the natural order of life.
Order Your Grass-Fed Free Range Products
Links for more information
Links to other sources and resources for information regarding Grass-Fed livestock
Some additional links to websites that may be of benefit for more information about the food you consume, and the benefits of grass-fed, naturally raised, beef, poultry and pork:
U.S. Dept. Of Agriculture
University of Wisconsin Extension
The Benefits Of Grass Fed Beef
Waste, Pollution and Sustainability
Women’s Health and Grass-Fed Beef
We would be happy to talk to you about the benefits that grass-fed, free range farms and ranches like Willow Creek Ranch have to offer consumers, and people concerned about their health and the health of the land.
Give us a call, use our form mail page, or drop us a line.