---

“I love the articles and the ads! I pick it up at Push Fitness.”
-Terre Poland

---

Growing Beef Naturally

Written by Bruce Gallio, MHP

[Editor's Note: After March's "Why Meat Gets the Heat" article on clean, humane animal husbandry vs. traditional "feedlot" practices, Healthy Beginnings received inquiries wanting more information about natural beef and where to find it. To answer these questions, the following article, written by a local natural beef rancher, addresses important nutritional and quality-of-life differences between these practices.]

The conventional methods used by large beef producers for putting meat on the table involve an intense plan to put a lot of weight on an animal in a short time period. Unfortunately this is not easily done with natural methods. Conventional methods change the biology of the ruminant cow and add growth hormones. Although this method provides a tender, juicy flavorful steak, it changes the nutritional components of the meat that we ingest, and significantly affects our human biology. Issues such as the treatment of the animals during the process, environmental impact of non-local farming, and the depersonalization of our food source add to the negative effects on our earth.

Mass market and feedlot beef finishing involves:

• Taking a cow whose normal diet is high roughage (grass) and feeding it a high-starch, low-roughage diet (corn). This changes the function of its stomachs creating an acidic environment in a normally ph neutral environment.
• Growth hormones are also added which increases the size of the animal; unfortunately these exogenous hormones are passed on to the consumer in the form of a very large steak containing trace hormones.
• The feed lot is a cramped environment where the animals all stand ankle-deep in feces, creating the perfect venue for opportunistic infections like E. coli. Antibiotics must be given prophylactically to control these infections, which creates a significant problem with drug resistance. It can ultimately lead to ground beef recalls because of E. coli that can now live in the human GI tract.
• As a process, these steps reduce, if not eliminate, a good portion of the omega 3 fatty acids, vitamin E and other valuable nutrients that otherwise would be found in red meat.
• Moreover, some percentage of massmarket beef that ends up in your hamburger comes from older cows, or cows that can no longer produce a calf because of some undiagnosed pathology. This animal will be ground up in a huge grinder along with thousands of other animals of varying quality. And remember - this could still be certified Angus Beef.

There are, however, alternative methods that will allow the consumer to enjoy high quality meat that is tender, safe, hormone and antibiotic free, and has been locally raised with low stress methods and minimal environmental impact.

Grass fed beef is a good option:

• There are no feedlots or growth hormones; the animals are grazed on open pasture, and many of the nutrients, such as omega 3 fatty acids and vitamin E are preserved.
• With some research the consumer can buy from a local producer, and a humane natural environment can be found, thus reducing the environmental impact.
• However, the potential downside to purely grass fed beef is that without any graining (finishing) the meat can taste strong and more gamey. For some consumers, this is what they are looking for.

Another option is to modify the conventional finishing process:

• By eliminating the feed lot and never taking the animals off of grass pasture, but augmenting their natural feed with high quality grains for only 45 days we are able to preserve the natural biology of the cow.
• With these modifications, we can reduce the acidosis and E. coli and therefore virtually eliminate antibiotic use.
• This also preserves greater than 50% of the natural Omega 3 fatty acids.
• This process also adds a moderate amount of fat content to the meat thus creating a flavor that has more natural beef flavor, deeper and more complex than store bought but yet not strong or gamey.

We are fortunate enough in the Reno area to have both of these options readily available. A place where you can get either grass fed or short course grain finished Natural Angus Beef, not only great tasting, but antibiotic and hormone free to serve on your family's dinner table.

For more info, contact Bartlett Creek Ranch at (775)852-2170 or BCRangus@clearwire.com