Is Your Beef Organic

Although our beef is not certified organic, we do meet the standards for organic beef.

In order to be an organic certified farm, we would have to follow certain rules set up by certain watchdogs, and jump through certain loopholes set up by certain lobbyists. As a “mom and pop” operation, we have neither the desire nor resources to bow to these bureaucrats.

Therefore, we hold ourselves accountable to keep our beef product equal to, or above, the standards set by the National Organic Program found in the Code of Federal Regulations. (Code of Federal Regulations of Certified Livestock)

Herein stated:

(a)    We provide livestock with a total feed ration composed of agricultural products, including pasture and forage, that are organically produced and handled

(b)   We do not:

a.       Use animal drugs, including hormones, to promote growth

b.      Provide feed supplements or additives in amounts above those needed for adequate nutrition and health maintenance

c.       Feed plastic pellets for roughage

d.      Feed formulas containing urea or manure

e.       Feed mammalian slaughter by-products

f.       Use feed, feed additives, and feed supplements in violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act

g.      Provide feed or forage to which any antibiotic has been added

h.      Prevent, withhold, restrain, or otherwise restrict our animals from actively obtaining feed grazed from pasture during the grazing season

(c)    During the grazing season we:

a.       Do not feed our cattle more than 30% dry matter, and then only in dire situations

b.      Our beef cattle graze on lush, green pastures for more than the 120 days required by certification

So, Yes…our cattle are Organic, just not Certified.

For information on buying our beef, click >>HERE<<, or go to the Buying Beef tab at the top of this page. 

Ready For Summer

Anyone ready for summer? I certainly am. I'm not only tired of the cold weather, but I'm also ready to refill my freezer.

I always get a little testy this time of year, because all I have left in my freezer is one-pound packages of ground beef.

Our steaks are usually eaten up before winter comes along, because we use them through the BBQ season, along with a lot of our hamburger patties (which we I gladly pay extra for). Then we go through the roasts and stew meats. And now we only have ground beef. I've often joked about writing a cookbook on 1,001 ways to cook ground beef, since we use it so often.

I really should be more thankful, since there have been times (when all the kids were home) when the freezer was completely bare before the next harvest. Fortunately, it won't be long until I'm giving away all the extra liver, heart, and tongue we have left over from last year to make room for the beef for this year. 

In fact, we are taking orders now for an expected delivery in June.

If you are interested in ordering any beef, all the information you need is on the "Buying Beef" tab at the top of this page.

Or request a beef by filling out our Contact Form. 

Spring Calving Season is in Full Swing

March is the start of our spring calving season, and we have had six baby girls so far. Last year we had all bull calves, but this year looks like it's going to be a heifer haven!

The Farmer has been wanting to get some new heifers to replace some of our old cows (we have a couple that are almost 14 years old). The problem of replacing old cows with new cows is that the ones we are wanting are twice as much as the ones we are selling.

But since it looks like we are going to have a bumper crop of heifers this year, we have decided to keep several heifer calves and replace one bull. Otis (our bull) has been a great addition to the farm. He throws some mighty nice calves, and he's so gentle that the kids can walk up to him and pet him.

The other advantage of keeping calves from a bull that we have had on the farm for years is that we know the heritage of our breeding cows. Background tracibility in cattle is very important when selling processed beef.

Sounds like a plan...we'll see.

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

Wintertime has been very hard on the cattle this year. Missouri weather is very unpredictable. No matter how hard the weathermen try to figure it out, it often eludes their best predictions. The most constant thing about our weather is that if you hang around long enough you will definitely see it change.

The fall started out very nice and colorful, but quickly faded into 50 shades of brown as the grasses and leaves began to die. Although we did have some nice weather through the fall, when winter decided to hit, it hit hard! When the high for the day is a negative, that’s too cold for anybody, and this past week we had about 8 inches of snow on top of the coldness.

As you can imagine, this weather begins to take a toll on the animals, if they are not properly cared for. When the weather gets this bad, The Farmer feeds the cows a little grain with their hay. This especially helps the lactating cows, because a nursing mama’s body is working especially hard when it’s nourishing herself and her baby. Sometimes hay alone often lacks the necessary nutrition.

I took some pictures of the snow from the warmth of the house. With my new camera The Farmer bought me for Christmas, I’ll be able to stay in the house this year and take all the pictures of the farm. Well, maybe not when the weather gets nice, but as you can see there was no way I was going to stomp through this storm to take a few pics for our blog.

In case it’s not clear, those black things under the snow are our cattle waiting to be fed.

I hope it’s warmer where you are.

Have a Blessed New Year for 2014!

Autumn Beauty

Loving the autumn beauty on the farm!

Local County Fair

The Farmer and I took the two youngest to the local county fair. Sorry to say it was anything but fun. Too small, too unorganized, too expensive. :(
 

Wouldn't be a county fair without goats, pigs, and horses

Blue Ribbon Winners

Carousel

Funnel Cakes, Corn Dogs, and Cotton Candy

Ferris Wheel

Mud Run (hmm...)

 

 

 

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Must Be Summer, Because We're Putting Up Hay

One of the tell-tale signs of summer is putting up hay.

The Farmer woke up one cool, cloudy morning and decided that he was going to start cutting hay. The weatherman made a prediction of low clouds but no rain, and The Farmer believed him.


Not me...I had often been duped into believing that the weatherman could actually predict the weather here in Missouri, and had finally come to the conclusion that whatever was reported on TV was never what was going to happen.


So being the “supporting” wife, I informed The Farmer that if he insisted on cutting hay on a day when every physical sign pointed to a wet weekend that I would emphatically say, "I told you so”, when he was raking up wet hay.


Fortunately, The Farmer was right (must be farmer intuition). He pressed on, even under the pressure of low lying clouds and an unyielding spouse, and was able to get the first field cut, tethered, raked, and baled before the rain came.  

Cutting grasses while they are young and tender is best because the nutritional value is at its peak. It also makes more tender and tasty hay during the winter months (so I’ve been told).

The ideal time to cut hay is on a clear, warm, summer day, but sometimes that’s not possible, so The Farmer tethers the hay to dry it out faster. A tether machine picks up the hay and scatters it around to allow the hay to aerate. This step isn’t always necessary during really nice weather (just sayin’).

  

After the hay is cured, it is raked into windrows and then baled.

 

 

 

 

We stack our hay and then cover it with a tarp. This is the first field and the first cutting. It really looks like a good year for hay, which is encouraging, because we had to buy a lot of our hay last year because of the drought.