Polyculture Grass-Fed and Grass-Finished
Almost all cattle eat grass at some point in their lives, but there are loopholes that allow people to advertise their beef as “grass-fed” or “grass-finished,” even though they force-feed their animals corn in a feedlot environment. At Manor Line Ranch, grass-fed and grass-finished means our animals are raised on open pastures, eating high-quality, carefully cultivated grasses and clover and the hay it produces. They have constant access to fresh water, and we rotate them to new paddocks of fresh grass to keep the animals, and the land, healthy. We finish the cattle on the same diet they’ve had their whole lives – clean, nutritious grass and clover. Please note that since we need the animals to be safe to handle, we treat them to a very small amount of organic grain (less than 1 percent of their daily nutrition) when we check them each day. This is for our safety and the safety of our animals and visitors, and the amount is so small that it doesn’t change the taste or nutritional value of our meat.
Home Raised
All of our meat comes from animals we raise ourselves, which means that unlike some meat providers, we can tell you everything that went into our meat animals since birth. Many farms buy animals at auction from all over the country, run them through their fields for a few months, and sell them as their own. We recognize that if you’re not in regular contact with the farmer who raised your meat animals, you really have no idea what the animals were eating or how they were treated before you got them. And when we expand our breeding herd, we turn to trusted local partners and neighbors who share our belief in the value of humanely raised, natural beef. So when we vouch for what you’re feeding your family, you know we mean it.
Natural
The USDA defines “natural” meat as “a product containing no artificial ingredient or added color [and that] is only minimally processed. Minimal processing means that the product was processed in a manner that does not fundamentally alter the product. The label must include a statement explaining the meaning of the term natural (such as ‘no artificial ingredients; minimally processed’)” (www.fsis.usda.gov). We go well beyond this definition in bringing you high quality, lean and healthy beef.
Free Range, Pasture Raised
While the term “free range” is more often applied to poultry, it’s important to remember the value for all livestock of having space to roam. Some farms load their fields with up to a couple animals per acre, but we stock at a rate of several acres per animal. Some farms limit animal access to open space and fresh water, but we rotate our animals through spacious pastures cultivated with a variety of grasses selected for maximum nutrition. Our approach is better for the livestock and better for the land. You can taste the difference that a healthy lifestyle makes.
Humanely Raised
Ethics is really at the core of who we are and how we do business. It’s about your attitude and perspective, as well as your best practices. We strive to be thoughtful and kind to all the animals, plants, land, air, water, and people who are part of our lives.
Single Stream
Single stream indicates that a customer can trace their food back to a specific farm and farmer who guarantees the quality and origin of their food. Borrowed from conversations about recycling, in which the term is used to indicate that everything can be done in one place, it’s a pretty new term in the agricultural community and means that people like to know exactly where their food comes from and who made it. Whether that farmer is next door or around the world, being able to trace your food helps with food security and the quality of what we feed our families. At Manor Line Ranch, it’s essential to how we’ve done business from the start.
No Artificial Hormones
Some farms give artificial hormones to livestock to speed up their growth. The combination of artificial growth hormones and forced grain diets is unhealthy for the animals and reduces the nutritional value of the meat. We don’t use any artificial hormones or chemicals on our meat animals, allowing them to grow at a natural pace on a healthy diet of fresh grass and clover, and providing you with a healthier, leaner, more nutritious product.
No Antibiotics
We use no antibiotics on our meat animals. If an animal needs medicine for their health, they are removed from our meat program. No exceptions.
No Herbicides
We use no chemical herbicides on the land grazed by livestock in our meat program. When we have problems with weeds, we either change the rotational grazing pattern to encourage the grass to out-compete the weeds, rotate other livestock (like goats, who will eat some weeds) through the pasture, or remove the weeds by hand. No chemicals. No exceptions.
No Pesticides
Some farms use artificial chemicals and medications to get rid of everything from flies to groundhogs. Our meat animals are kept healthy by their lifestyle and rotational access to healthy pastures and clean water, not by unnecessary chemicals.