Kinderhook Farm Cattle

Our cattle are fed an exclusive diet of forages - grasses and legumes - which is what the ruminant digestive system of the species was designed to thrive on. The rumen, or stomach, is a 40-50 gallon "fermentation vat" where resident bacteria convert cellulose into protein and fats. The vast majority of cattle in this country are finished in feedlots, where they are fed a grain based diet in a confined setting. This combination of dietary and environmental stress, and the need to produce a finished product as quickly and cheaply as possible, necessitates the daily use of subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics to stave off illness, and hormones and other additives to increase the growth rate.

A forage based diet results in a healthier animal, and a healthier meat. Grass fed meat is lower in both overall fat and the saturated fats which are considered unhealthy. Meat from grass fed animals has significantly higher levels of healthy Omega-3's, up to four times the amount of vitamin E and is much higher in Conjugated Linoleic Acid (a nutrient associated with lowering cancer risk) than meat from animals coming from feedlots. Best of all, the meat has a rich flavor that is quite different from the grain fed products we are all used to.

Our animals spend their time on pasture, foraging for food, finding the shady place when it is hot and the protected spot when it is windy and cold. As part of this process, all of their manure (we like to call it "nutrients") is returned to the soil which produced the forages, completing a cycle that is beneficial to the land and livestock.

It's a bit more time consuming and expensive to raise our cattle naturally rather than in a confined feedlot setting, but we think that it's worth the effort to bring you a safer, more nutritious and better tasting product. Visit our farm store and let us know what you think of the quality of our pasture-raised grass-fed beef.