USA Beef

Washington Post just released an article that the US bought more than 320 million pounds of Brazilian beef last year and is on-track to double that amount this year.

This is coming at the cost of illegal massive deforestation of the Amazon and is driving beef prices down. This is running American farmers and ranchers out of the market. Brazil’s prices are lower because their processes are less regulated (breaking laws, or just not having them at all, is a great way to cut financial corners). What’s more, beef can come from anywhere in the world, but as long as it’s packaged in America, it can be sold labeled as “USA beef”.

All that meat is sneaking into the market and creating a false reality around what beef prices should be. Now, it is more important than ever to invest in local farmers and ranchers and we cannot thank you enough.

shoplocal #localmeat #nosetotail #nosetotaileating #cows #cattle #guernseysteak #guernseybeef #guernseycow #cowsofinstagram #oregon #sustainable

Rotational Grazing

From this past spring. These green pastures look extra amazing next to the summer pastures right now! Looking forward to rain.

Pasture on the left, grazed, pasture on the right, ready for cows!
This is what rotational grazing looks like. It controls the cows grazing movement to better maintain and promote grass growth

and pasture health. #rotationalgrazing #cows #dairybeef #holstein #jersey #guernseybeef #oregon #spring #grass

High Quality Everything!

In order to produce high quality milk, it takes high quality feed. One of the many things that’s a waste when dairy cows get funneled into the commodity beef market—deemed simply as ground-beef cows and mixed with meat from large-scale conventional dairy farming—is the loss of a product of so many years on top-notch feed.

This is absolutely no fault of dairy farmers, this is a fault of the market, perception, false stigma, and lack of knowledge around the incredible potential of beef from an old cow that was raised right.
Feed and animal husbandry matter immensely on how animal products turn out and the local farms these girls come from are excelling at both. To honor that, I hope to bring light onto what dairy beef can be and bring the value to these old girls (and the work that went into raising them right for so many years) that they deserve!

These cows are the lucky ladies at @tmkcreamery eating their rich, Michelin star diet. Highly recommend visiting this creamery! 😍🐄

#dairycows #holstein #brownswiss #jerseycow #guernsey #milk #cream #dairy #dairybeef #oldcows #animalhusbandry #alfalfa

Zero-ish Waste

One of my (many) goals in this operation is to be as zero-waste as possible. This society has become so accustomed to doing things as fast and cheap as possible that we’ve lost sight of the collateral damage this causes. Things done right can take a little longer, and often cost a little more than we’re use to, but it’s investing in sustainability, longevity, small, local systems, good animal husbandry, and respect for these animals that provide us with incredible protein.

In light of that, I am finding ways to use every piece of these girls, with her beautiful hide, Red is great candidate for hair-on tanning. Many tanneries use very harsh chemicals that are extremely detrimental to the environment as well as our health when these hides are in our home (but….it’s cheaper and faster to do it with the harsh chemicals 🫠). We are fortunate enough to have an Oregonian at Angelo’s Tannery who’s willing to do it a little slower and use much gentler substances to tan the hide. He will be picking up her hide and it will be ready towards the end of the year and available for purchase. 💖

slowliving #sustainability #hides #tanning #tannery #cowskinrugs #holstein #redholstein #zerowaste

Meet Lucy and Iza

Meet Lucy Lou and Iza!
These girls are Guernsey cows, similar to a Jersey but bigger and have even higher butterfat and high Beta-carotene levels. This translates to rich, buttery beef fat. 🤩 They came from 10 minutes down the road at Abiqua Acres run by @guernseydairymama and her family. They are part of the Darigold milk co-op. So if you drink Darigold, you may have had their milk, and now you can try their beef!
DM to reserve a quarter on one of these girls, they are selling fast. 🥩🐄

guernseybeef #guernseycow #dairycows #dairybeef #pasture #sustainable #animalhusbandry #customexempt #localbeef

What Does ‘Vorfreude’ Mean??

What on earth does “Vorfreude” mean? “The joy of anticipation.”

I wanted to incorporate German into the name of this venture because of the time I spent living in Austria. Austria loves its cows and they are everywhere. I’d go biking with baskets of apples in the alps to feed all the cows.

They even have a parade in all the mountain villages each year to send the cows up to the mountain sides in the spring and then another when they bring them back down. It is a huge event and they adorn the cows in flowers and it’s a day all about the cows.

When I was living there I worked at a very unique (to Americans, not to Austrians) agriculture high school that had its own herd of cows that the students learned animal husbandry, milking and cheese making. Most of my students came from families that raised dairy cows and supplied the milk for the local grocery stores.

The systems there are completely different and very enviable. Each province in Austria would supply its milk for the stores from cows in that province, and McDonalds beef in Austria comes from Austrian cows raised in the alps.

My students didn’t understand why I found all this so incredible, as they just saw it as what makes sense and the only way to do things. And can’t say they’re wrong, we’ve just gotten so far away from these systems. We may not be in Austria but in purchasing beef from these cows you’re investing in a small, local, sustainable system. 🙏🏼

austria #cows #beef #sustainability #brownswiss #alps #grassfed

Why Don’t You See Dairy Beef in the Store?

Why don’t you see dairy cow beef in the store? Part 1:

Most likely you’ve unknowingly eaten dairy cow beef before, as retired dairy girls end up in the mainstream meat market, but often just as burger.
They end up as burger not because that’s all they’re good for but because of lack of market in the United States. This issue is multi fold.

First you have yellow fat vs white fat. We are accustomed to white fat in America and the stunning deep yellow fat of dairy cow meat throws off consumers. What they don’t realize is how much they’re missing out on a deep, complex buttery flavour and texture this yellow fat brings. White fat tends to be a greasier mouth feel, whereas the yellow fat gives the buttery feel just like the delicious butter these girls have produced.

The rich color is full of vitamins and is part of what gives dairy beef it unique and complex flavors.
It also helps make some of the best slow cooker BBQ beef sandwiches you’ve ever had and rich steaks and roasts.

PC: Farmonline.com.Au in their article on @camdenvalleyfarm, and Australian-based dairy and dairy-beef farm 😍

yellowfat #eatdairycows #jerseycow #holstein #sustainability #grassfed #grassfinished

Rotational Grazing

Not all grazing is equal!
Holistic land management: When cows are moved properly they can actually help promote grass growth and some in some cases even restore the land.

Allan Savory is a pioneer of regenerative agriculture and using mob-grazing method to maintain land and help the environment flourish. It’s basis is stressing a small area of land with grazing animals for a short period of time and then moving them to another smaller pasture.

Bison naturally graze this way, cows however do not. This has earned cattle grazing a bad name, but with the proper management they don’t just preserve the land but can help it flourish.
This method has even been used to restore land that was said to never be useable again. Dust bowls can be turned back into lush land with the proper techniques and cows. How cool is that?!

Red here on the other hand does not think it was cool that her pasture was cut in half yesterday to promote this technique.
She’ll be happy though when the grass stays green and lush longer! 🙃

#regenerativeagriculture #allanasavory #mobgrazing #grassfed #holstein #cows #cattle #pasture #sustainability

Big Red

Meet your meat: Big Red. She’s a 6 year old Red Holstein from @risingsundairy in Turner, OR. Their cows are raised with organic practices, aside from administering necessary medicine to injured or sick cows when needed (organic certifications can be a double-edged sword. They can cause tricky restrictions for giving animals the best medical care while still maintaining an organic certification. Medications have withdrawal periods so it can be calculated that it doesn’t end up in a product, so rest assured, consumption is safe).
She had a good life living on pasture producing A2/A2 milk and is now ready to go onto her next higher and final purpose of being meat. ❤️🐄

#redholstein #holstein #dairybeef #grassfed #sustainability #pasturebased #meetyourmeat #agriculture #womeninag

Mardi and Funny

Meet Mardi and Funny. They are both purebred Jersey cows—known for their distinct, friendly and curious personalities as well as low-impact on the land due to their smaller size.

These girls came from an idyllic farm in Monmouth that’s part of @organicvalley co-op. Their farmer, John loves his cows more than you could imagine! If you’ve ever bought @nancysyogurt grassfed milk yogurt line then you’ve probably had these girls’ milk! Their milk production was declining so it was time to move onto the next stage of their life.

They get some time running around in sunshine and grass and not having to do any work but eat and sleep. This summer they will be processed on site and move onto their next purpose of feeding many families with meat instead of milk.

Grateful for what these ladies gave in milk and later in meat, and honored to provide them with some R & R inbetween as thank you for their working lives. 🐄 💖

#jerseycows #agriculture #sustainability #sunshine #cows #beef #dairybeef #grassfed #grassfinished