Our cows and our practice

Our cows have spent their whole life on pasture in Petaluma, CA. As it is California they are outside 365 days per year. They eat only grass, but since it's CA some of the year they are on (grass) hay since the ground goes dry. We are not organically certified but we do everything very "clean" ... the cows do get vaccinations and medicine when needed but otherwise there are no chemicals. We buy hay from producers we talk to about their practices but not organically certified.

As you might know the big differential in the cows diet is whether the cows are fed pure grain at the end of their life. Corn-finished is the standard practice in US "supermarket" beef. There are certain health implications from the corn diet for the cow and the human who eats it. (All cows start on their mother's milk and grass for the first 12 months or so, it's what happened in the last 6 months of life that matters.) Our cows eat only grass from start to finish and never spend any time in a caged operation or eat pure grain at any point. We also harvest at a slightly older age than the force-fed conventional cows but they are still around 30-34 months old max so quite tender, these are not aged-out dairy cows.

This beef was harvested at a small owner-operated USDA-certified facility right here in the Petaluma area. So this cow left our ranch for one day, was harvested under USDA supervision and the beef was cut at a USDA-supervised cutter also in Sonoma County. The first time it leaves Sonoma County will be if we deliver it to you somewhere else in the Bay Area. This level of USDA oversight is the same high level that supermarket beef is subject to. (Which adds to our cost as a "little guy" as you can imagine.) Contact us with any other questions.