Scientific evidence show grass-fed beef is healthy for you.

With the increase in cancers, chronic diseases, and inflammatory issues in the United States, many generalize “red meat” as unhealthy. As sustainable farmers, we are tired of “grass-fed” beef, and “feed-lot” beef discussed as being in the same category, so we want to clarify this for consumers. Grass-fed beef is healthy for you and should be an essential part of your diet.
As sustainable and regenerative farmers, we focus on growing food that is both good for the planet and the consumer. Check out our video on how Eremos Farm is making food better for you, the earth, and the animals.

Beef is tagged unhealthy- but that's feedlot beef. Grass-fed beef has many healthy characteristics that give people the healthy protein they need, plus so much more.

In addition, consumers can verify that their beef is ethically raised on our farm. Just check out this video of our recent pasture rotation, where cows joyfully move from one paddock to another. Our animals are given the best every day of their lives. They are given high-quality minerals, and tall, mature grass is offered daily. They can enjoy a salad bar of greens at their disposal. Their stress level is minimized by gentle handling and dependable schedules in a peaceful environment.

As a consumer, I need more data to back up the facts. Here are some notes from the article by Dr. Allen Williams and his staff @UnderstandingAg on the healthy benefits of grass-fed beef. The study information came from research by Dr. Stephan Van Vlient, Department of Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Sciences, Utah State University, and the Bionutrient Food Association.

Here are SOME of the study findings:

• Grass-fed beef is up to 7 times higher in Omega three fatty acids. Omega three fatty acids are anti-inflammatory that help decrease inflammation in your body. Most feedlot beef is higher in Omega 6 fatty acids which are inflammatory to our body, much like vegetable and hydrogenated oils.

• Grass-fed animals had lower levels of homocysteine, triglycerides, and advanced glycation end products- All of which are associated with improved cardiovascular health for the animal and humans.

• If the animals take in phytonutrients by a variety in their diet, those benefits will be a part of their meat and passed onto the consumer.

• Grass-finishing animals concentrate significantly higher amounts of phytochemicals, including polyphenols, tocopherols, and carotenoids (Beef Nutrient Density Project Report, Dec 2021).

  • Phytochemicals are naturally occurring bioactive compounds derived from plants with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects in animals and humans. Phytochemicals have a role in the prevention and management of many chronic diseases.

• Ruminants have access to nutrients that we do not have access to by plants that they eat. We cannot eat those nutrients because we cannot digest them. We can benefit by eating an animal that has been given access to a variety of nutrients in healthy grasses and forage.

Grain Finishing Negative effects

• Grain finishing negatively affects glucose metabolism, and grass finishing improves mitochondrial/energy metabolism.

• The muscle of grain-fed animals exhibits early signs of metabolic health issues.

• The ratio of inflammatory Omega 6 Fatty acids verses Omega 3 fatty acids ranges between 35:1 to 55:1 in grain-finished beef when grass-finished beef ratios are 3:1.

• Conventional grain finished beef has higher calories, lower protein, higher saturated fats, and lower essential vitamins and minerals than grass-finished beef.

If you want to check out the full Understanding Ag article on the Nutritional comparisons between Grass-fed beef versus traditional grain-fed beef, you can read it here! See the interview with Dr. Stephan Van Vliet about the nutritional aspects of healthy beef.

The bottom line is that grass-fed beef is shown to be healthy. We can sell you healthy, 100% grass-fed beef. You will be able to sleep at night knowing that you are not only doing your part to eat clean meat but also helping restore the environment.

Start the process here if you want to get on the waitlist for a half or whole cow. Get on track to eating your healthiest yet!

For better pastures, think "Portability"

When I first started learning about sustainable farming and intensive grazing, I was in a state of confusion. Instead of discussing grass types, fertilizer, and irrigation, I knew instead about organic matter percentage in the soil, key lines, available daily forage calculation, soil fungi, cow days, and many other new terms which meant nothing to me.

There is an art and a science to managing pastures. As someone with over 30 years of riding and training horses, I had never heard anyone talk about correct pasture management, much less about soil management. What generally is discussed is the best permanent fencing type, where the barn needs to be, stall layout, shavings dealer, electrical outlet layout, etc., etc.

I realized I had a lot of barriers to overcome to understand how to manage pastures to feed horses optimally. The first barrier equestrians must overcome the idea of “portability.” So often, equestrian facilities are full of permanent 4-board fencing paddocks and large bank barns (I call them bank barns because the bank typically owns them).

Horses are turned out on the same paddocks day in and day out. The paddocks are never rested and generally turn into the bare ground with maybe 1-2 inches of green scattered randomly. Most horses are grouped with only 2-3 other horses. Some places require that every horse be turned out by itself. The barns are full of hay to supplement the paddocks because the grass cannot grow high enough to feed even a turtle.

The skyrocketing price of hay and the idea of building a $200,000 barn left me stuck. Is this the only way to own horses? I haven’t even made any money, and I’m already hundreds of thousands of dollars in cost down this road. Why does this not make any business sense?

Around this time as I was planning my equestrian facility layout, I was learning how to run a grass-fed beef operation. My friend Mark Vejnar gave me the book “Salad Bar Beef” in March of 202,1 and I was hooked. After getting Covid later that month, I read over 10 of Joel Salatin’s books on sustainable farming and permaculture. Joel Salatin helped me understand that herbivores need only a few things to be healthy and well-managed pastures, mineral, and water. It dawned on me that 1. a horse is a herbivore and 2. I have over 100 acres of grass. This is the answer!

Joel Salatin helps farmers understand that herbivores will do the mowing for you and your farm, but there is a specific way to approach rotational grazing with herbivores.

When I first started intensive grazing, the idea I had to accept was that you have to move animals daily to fresh grass. This is the basis for intensive grazing management and has many benefits to the horse (herbivore) and the grass. Many people push back and state, “but how can you keep a horse in?” Let’s be honest; they could if a horse wanted to get out of a four-board, six-string, or fence. They would jump, run into it, or shimmy their way through it. We use single-strand Polywire or Polytape because we are setting up a psychological fence. It is always electrified; it only takes once before the horse realizes they need to stay away. In our experience, herbivores, especially horses, don’t get out because they have enough to eat. Horses escape because they have either run out of food in their paddock and are frantic to get something to eat, or their buddies have been taken from them and panicked.

Another reason they don’t get out is that we keep our horses together. We practice keeping all horses together mainly for convenience, but if they have enough to eat per animal, they are too busy eating grass to nitpick at each other. The behavior issues that horses experience are because they must fight for the supplemented food thrown at them.

- “But they will founder on all that grass!” The art of rotational grazing applies to understanding how much available dry matter. If you only put horses on the amount of food they can eat in one day, they can’t overeat. That is a big hurdle you must overcome. You aren’t putting them on a 2-acre field full of clover. 2 horses and perfect grass may only require a 10x20 meter space for that day. That small space will take roughly 8 minutes to set up, and your horses will have enough food for the day.

Keeping the grazing paddock small reduces the amount of " dessert“ available to the horse. Most of the sugars are in new, short grass. We graze horses once grasses have reached full maturity and have the optimal balance of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Our pastures have a polyculture of grasses and legumes, meaning that the horses will pick out what their bodies need. We find that our horses do not gorge themselves because they always have a fresh palate of attractive options to choose from.

Portability reduces the risks of gastric ulcers: Right now, Veterinary Medicine online states that between 91%-100% of racehorses experience gastric ulcer occurrences. Performance horses experience a 90% rate of gastric ulcers. Another article in Veterinary medicine states that 60% of performance horses share gastric ulcer issues. Horses need to be grazing for 17 hours a day. The basis of treating gastric ulcers needs to start with pasture management so the horse can have consistent forage when THEY need it. We spend so much time focusing on our barn layouts and fencing materials instead of focusing on helping the horse stay in their natural environment. We have crippled the digestive system of equines, and the gastric ulcer medical industry has skyrocketed into a multi-billion dollar industry.

Now, you may be thinking- How much time am I going to spend moving these horses each day? Probably between 20 minutes. Check out my video here on how I show you how to lay out a new pasture with Polywire and step-in posts. If you think that’s excessive, then think about how much time you spend cleaning stalls each day and how much money you spend on shavings, electricity, hay, and other artificial upkeep. Are you asking what’s best for the horse? You will find that what is best for the horse will not only save you money in the long run.

We are in the business of helping others manage their farms better so if you need more help with your farm/pastures, email us!

If this article was helpful for you, consider buying me a coffee so that I can continue to write more engaging content to help you with your farm management.

Portable feeding trailer with high quality Nutrena and Purina feeds that can move wherever they are. It isn’t pretty but it is very effective and makes feed time a breeze.