What the term means

Pasture-raised means the cattle live outdoors. Grass and forage are their main diet.

Grain-finished means that in the final months they also get grain, which adds marbling and evens out flavor and tenderness.

The difference from feedlot beef is where the grain happens. Feedlot cattle eat it in confinement. Ours eat about 1% of their body weight in grain once a day. They finish it in roughly ten minutes and go back to grazing.

How we raise ours

Calves are born on the ranch and stay with their mothers.
We wean them in early winter. They spend that first winter in a barn with access to the outdoors.
After that they are on pasture year-round, moved to fresh grass two or three times a week.
For about the last five months they also get the daily grain ration, still on pasture.
Harvest is by mobile slaughter at the ranch in October/November, at about 18 to 19 months of age. Matt's Custom Meats then ages the beef 14 to 21 days.

More detail on the seasons is on how we raise our beef.

Common questions

Is pasture-raised grain-finished beef the same as feedlot beef?

No. Our cattle stay on pasture the whole time and get a light daily grain ration there. Feedlot cattle spend their final months in high-density pens on a grain-heavy ration.

Why grain-finish at all?

Grain adds marbling. Marbling makes steaks tender and forgiving to cook. Grain also gives the milder flavor most people expect from beef. Why we do it.

Why not call it grass-fed?

Because the cattle get grain. "Grass-fed" usually means grass only, so we say pasture-raised and grain-finished. How the two compare.

Pasture-Raised Grain-Finished Beef: What It Means

What the term means

How we raise ours

Common questions

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